Fees
Initial assessment
No charge
Every enquiry
An analyst reviews your submission and advises whether there is a sufficiently live trail to justify pursuing the matter.
- Written assessment of viability
- Confirmation of the reporting bodies applicable to you
- Our view on whether any firm, including ours, can assist
- Guidance on evidence to preserve immediately
Fixed-scope assessment
Most commonFrom $1,200
Per matter
A defined piece of work answering a specific question at a fixed price. Most due diligence and single-platform matters fall here.
- Counterparty or platform due diligence report
- First-pass trace of a single flow of funds
- Infrastructure and domain history assessment
- Clear recommendation, delivered in writing
- One follow-up call to walk through findings
Investigation
$180 to $320 / hour
Against a written scope
Multi-hop tracing, cross-chain analysis, attribution and evidence packages. Estimated in hours and capped before work begins.
- Full transaction-graph reconstruction
- Cross-chain and bridge analysis
- Cluster attribution and terminal service identification
- Law enforcement referral pack
- Support for civil counsel, including witness statements
- Client portal access throughout
Figures are indicative and exclude tax. The binding figure is the one in your engagement letter, issued after assessment and before any work begins. Rates vary with the seniority required and the urgency requested.
Charges we will never make
If any firm requests one of these, we would encourage you to treat the request as fraudulent. This applies to us as much as to any firm that approaches you.
We will never invoice
- A fee to release, unlock or clear your own funds
- A tax, duty or clearance payment on recovered assets
- A gas or network fee collected by us rather than paid on-chain
- A bond, deposit or insurance against a transfer
- A contingency percentage on funds we did not recover
- Payment in cryptocurrency to an address given over chat
Asked for any of these? Contact us before paying. We will give you an opinion at no charge.
Fee questions
Why is there a range rather than a fixed price?
Because scope varies materially. Four hops to a named exchange is a different piece of work from forty hops across three bridges and a swap protocol. The range is what we can state before reading your matter. The figure we put in writing after assessment is capped.
Do you take a percentage of what is recovered?
Not as a substitute for fees, and never on funds we have not recovered. Where a matter proceeds to civil action and a recovery is achieved, a success element may form part of a written engagement alongside the hourly rate. We will not charge a percentage of a notional balance displayed on a fraudulent platform, as that balance does not represent funds.
What if the investigation finds nothing?
You are charged for the hours worked and you receive the report regardless, documenting what was examined and where the trail ended. That document retains value for insurance claims, tax loss positions and police reports. Where we can see early that no outcome is available, we tell you at that point and stop.
Is there a minimum loss you will work on?
Not formally, though below roughly $10,000 the cost of investigation and any subsequent legal action begins to exceed the sum at issue. The initial assessment remains free, and where that is the position we will say so and direct you to reporting routes that cost nothing.
How do you accept payment?
Bank transfer or card, invoiced from a registered company against a signed engagement letter. We do not accept payment in cryptocurrency for investigative work: it removes your ability to reverse a payment, and it is a common feature of fraudulent requests.
Tell us what happened and we will assess whether it can be pursued.
The initial assessment is provided at no cost and carries no obligation. You receive a written view on whether the matter can be advanced, including when our conclusion is that it cannot.
No obligation. No fee for the initial assessment. No guarantee of recovery.