Home Wallet Recovery

Locked out of your own crypto.

Forgotten passphrases, half-remembered seed phrases, dead hardware wallets, and wallet files from software that no longer exists. If the coins are still on-chain and the wallet is genuinely yours, there is often a way back in.

Watch
CryptoCon · Demonstration

Forgot your passphrase? Here's what actually happens.

A walkthrough of how a forgotten-passphrase recovery is really run - building a candidate list from what you genuinely remember, then testing those combinations against the wallet at scale on GPU hardware.

It's the honest version: not magic, not hacking, just structured search over the possibilities you can still recall.

Watch on YouTube
01 / Scope

What can usually be recovered

Recovery works when the wallet still exists on-chain and the missing piece is something you partly remember or partly hold. These are the cases that come up most.

Seed phrase recovery

Missing, transposed, misspelled or water-damaged recovery words, reconstructed mathematically. A recovery phrase carries a built-in checksum, which does most of the work.

Wallet password recovery

Forgotten passwords on encrypted wallet files, rebuilt from your own habits rather than blind guessing.

Passphrase recovery

The extra word or phrase layered on top of your seed - reconstructed from partial memory. The case shown in the video above.

Hardware wallet recovery

Ledger, Trezor, Coldcard and KeepKey - forgotten PINs, firmware failures and physically damaged devices.

wallet.dat and legacy formats

Bitcoin Core, Armory, MultiBit and Electrum files from the era before recovery phrases existed.

Derivation path recovery

Correct phrase, empty wallet. Usually the software is looking in the wrong place - and that is fixable.

Wrong network recovery

Right key, wrong chain - usually still retrievable.

Multisig recovery

2-of-3, 3-of-5 and custom thresholds - including where a co-signer is unreachable or has died.

Smart contract wallet recovery

Gnosis Safe and similar, recovered at the signer level.

Exchange account recovery

Locked accounts and lost two-factor access.

Crypto estate recovery

Accessing what was left behind, with no instructions - for executors and families administering an estate.

What isn't recoverable: a seed phrase with no surviving fragment and no recollection, coins sent to an address you never controlled, or funds taken by a scammer. Those aren't recovery problems - the first is unrecoverable by design, and the last is a tracing and investigation matter. If that's your situation, say so and I'll tell you straight rather than take the work.

02 / Who

Who you'd actually be working with

Nicolas Turnbull

Nic Turnbull is a blockchain forensics specialist, cryptocurrency expert witness, and wallet recovery specialist working across Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Recovery is the technical end of the same practice that produces court-ready expert reports - the analysis is the same either way.

He has given expert evidence in proceedings before the High Court, District Court, and Family Court of Australia and New Zealand, with over five years of direct industry engagement and more than 300 client engagements. Co-Founder of Crypto Consulting NZ, Crypto Consulting AU, Crypto Consulting USA and Cryptocurrency NZ, an Executive Council Member of Blockchain Forum NZ, and co-host of the NZ On-Chain Podcast.

That background matters for a recovery specifically: you are handing key material to someone whose professional standing depends on handling it properly, and who is used to having his methodology examined under cross-examination.

Recovered
$2.1M+ NZD
Client engagements
300+
Industry experience
5+ years
Recognition
Blockchain NZ Awards, Startup of the Year 2025
See the case work LinkedIn
03 / Where

Recovery across three countries

Recovery work is delivered through the practice in your region. Get in touch here and I'll point you to the right one, or go direct.

New Zealand

Crypto Consulting NZ

Wallet recovery, scam analysis, and one-on-one onboarding for clients across Aotearoa.

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Australia

Crypto Consulting AU

Wallet recovery, wallet setup, and court and legal case support for Australians.

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United States

Crypto Consulting USA

Wallet recovery and blockchain forensics for American clients and law firms.

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Get in touch

Tell me what you're dealing with

Whether it's a lost wallet, a legal matter, or getting set up safely - describe the situation and I'll come back to you within 24 hours.

  • Response within 24 hours
  • Confidential, no obligation
  • If I can't help, I'll say so up front

Never send a recovery phrase or private key through this form, or through any website. Describe the situation in general terms and we'll handle sensitive detail securely.