Selected client matters, 2025–2026

On the record, in their own words.

Every note below is published with the client's written consent. Names are redacted only where the client asked us to. Amounts are exact.

PT-2026-0418·Case study

£4.2M in ETH recovered in 47 days after an approval-drainer signed by mistake at a private demo.

I signed the transaction on a Tuesday and by Wednesday morning I had physically been sick twice. I called three firms before Pinnacle Trace. Two told me the trail was cold within an hour. The partner at Pinnacle listened for forty minutes, asked me to send the hashes, and rang back the next day with a nine-page trace showing exactly where every coin had moved. Six weeks later the full amount was back in a custody account with my name on it. What I'll remember is not the recovery, it's that they treated a very stupid mistake with complete dignity.

Edmund Whitmore

Principal, Whitmore Family Office · London, United Kingdom

PT-2025-1104118 days

$18.7M in USDT frozen and released after a fraudulent yield-fund liquidation.

Two prior firms had written the position off. Pinnacle traced the counterparty through three mixer hops and identified the off-ramp in Dubai within eleven days. The freeze notice went out on day fourteen. What impressed our board was not the outcome, it was the reporting: one page a week, no jargon, no theatre. When the funds were released, the audit trail was already prepared for our accountants.

Cassandra Nyland

General Counsel, Ridgeworth Family Office · Zürich, Switzerland

Loss

$18,700,000

Recovered

$15,940,000

Ratio

85%

Investment fraud · USDT (Tron)

PT-2025-081731 days

$920K in Bitcoin unfrozen from an exchange compliance hold after four months of stalemate.

My exchange had held my BTC in a compliance freeze for four months. The support tickets went unanswered. Pinnacle Trace did not treat it as a technology problem; they treated it as a legal one. Within three weeks a partner at the exchange had a written brief on their desk. The funds released the following Tuesday. I've never seen a professional service so quietly effective.

Martin Sørensen

Private Client · Copenhagen, Denmark

Loss

$920,000

Recovered

$920,000

Ratio

100%

Exchange freeze · Bitcoin

PT-2025-060244 days

$3.1M returned to a corporate treasury following a SIM-swap on the founder's device.

Our founder's phone was cloned on a flight to Singapore. By the time he landed, roughly $3.1M of treasury USDT had moved through five wallets. Pinnacle had the freeze request with the receiving desk before he'd cleared customs. We recovered every dollar. Their custody arrangement, dual signatures, two jurisdictions, was the only reason our board authorised the receipt at all.

Ilaria Volpe

Chief Financial Officer, Volpe Ventures Ltd. · Milan, Italy

Loss

$3,100,000

Recovered

$3,100,000

Ratio

100%

SIM swap · USDT (Ethereum)

PT-2025-034171 days

$612K recovered for a private client after a nine-month romance-investment scam.

I am seventy-one years old. I sent this money over nine months believing I was helping someone. When my daughter finally saw the messages, I could not breathe. The partner at Pinnacle who took my call did not once make me feel foolish. He said: 'This is a crime that was done to you, and now we will do our job.' Ten weeks later, most of the money was back. I am still grateful.

Anonymised at client's request

Private Client · Frankfurt, Germany

Loss

€612,000

Recovered

€488,000

Ratio

80%

Romance / investment · USDT (Tron)

PT-2025-011951 days

$6.8M in ETH recovered for a DAO treasury after a malicious multisig proposal.

A malicious proposal cleared our multisig at 3am UTC on a Saturday. By Monday morning the funds had moved through Tornado Cash. Pinnacle Trace treated it like a live hostage situation, a partner on the phone in twenty minutes, an on-chain analyst deployed by lunchtime, and a freeze at the receiving venue by Thursday. The DAO membership voted unanimously to publish this note.

Roan Aoki

Council Member · Singapore

Loss

$6,800,000

Recovered

$6,800,000

Ratio

100%

Approval drainer · Ethereum

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