The real channels. A community site can't recover your funds — these agencies and firms sometimes can.
Real, named complaint and reporting channels for disputes with custodial cryptocurrency exchanges. This is public information, not legal advice. The right path depends on the specifics of your case; a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction can say which of these is most likely to help.
Kraken — who they are, and where to take a complaint
“Kraken” is a brand operated by the Payward group. The entity and registration details below are public; quote the relevant registration number when you complain.
- Payward Ltd — trades as Kraken for cryptoasset services. On the FCA Cryptoasset Register, FRN 928768 (AML supervision).
- Payward Services Ltd — authorised Electronic Money Institution, FRN 1010381. Relevant if a GBP / e-money wallet element was involved — that part is Ombudsman-eligible.
- Kraken Support — raise a formal complaint first and obtain a final response. kraken.com/legal. A final response (or 8 weeks' silence) is the gateway to escalation.
Spot crypto trading and custody are not currently regulated activities under the UK Financial Services and Markets Act. Being on the FCA cryptoasset register does not automatically give Kraken customers access to the Financial Ombudsman or FSCS for a crypto loss itself — a wider regime is only expected later. The e-money entity (FRN 1010381) is the exception worth testing with a solicitor. Treat the FCA as supervisory intelligence, and report theft to Action Fraud.
Where to file in the UK
- The firm first — submit a formal complaint to the exchange and get its final response (or wait 8 weeks).
- Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) — supervises registered crypto firms for AML; report concerns and check the register. fca.org.uk; register at register.fca.org.uk.
- Action Fraud — report suspected theft/fraud and get a crime reference (you need this for tracing and exchange freezes). actionfraud.police.uk · 0300 123 2040.
- Financial Ombudsman Service — for e-money/payment complaints, after the firm's final response. financial-ombudsman.org.uk. (Likely out of scope for the crypto loss itself — confirm with a solicitor.)
- FSCS — checks compensation eligibility. fscs.org.uk. (Crypto custody is generally not covered.)
Where to file elsewhere
- US — CFPB consumerfinance.gov; SEC sec.gov/tcr; CFTC cftc.gov; FBI IC3 ic3.gov; FTC reportfraud.ftc.gov; plus your State Attorney General.
- EU — your national competent authority under MiCA; the list is maintained by ESMA esma.europa.eu. Largest NCAs: BaFin (DE), AMF (FR), CNMV (ES), CONSOB (IT).
- Canada — Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca; provincial securities regulators via the CSA securities-administrators.ca.
Follow the funds yourself (free)
- XRP Ledger — xrpscan.com, bithomp.com. Paste a destination address to see balances and onward hops.
- Stellar (XLM) — stellar.expert, stellarchain.io.
- Ethereum — etherscan.io.
- Specialist firms — Chainalysis, Elliptic, and CipherTrace-type analytics produce tracing reports that support freezing/disclosure court orders. Engage via a solicitor.
Preserve this before anything else
- Full transaction/activity history, exported in the exchange's native format (CSV, PDF).
- Screenshots of the disputed state — visible date/time and URL.
- All support correspondence: email threads, ticket numbers, chat transcripts.
- The terms of service in force at the time (use archive.org if they've since changed).
- Device, login and IP logs from the exchange's account-activity report.
- Blockchain transaction hashes and destination addresses; export the explorer page as PDF.
- Your own dated notes: what you saw, when, and what you did next.