Your account was working normally. Then withdrawals stopped. Support says your account is under review, but gives you no timeline. Someone tells you to contact the police; someone else says to wait a couple of days. How do you know which advice applies?
First, find out whether the exchange is reviewing the account itself or has received a request from law enforcement. The answer helps you work out who to contact, what evidence to provide and what needs to happen before the restriction can be lifted.
Find out exactly what has been restricted
Can you still log in and see your balance? Are all withdrawals blocked, or is just one P2P order in dispute? Save the full notification, the time it appeared and your support ticket number. Keep the original wording. A notice that your account is under review does not, on its own, mean the police have frozen your assets.
A withdrawal lock after a password change is different from a confirmed law-enforcement hold. Binance describes temporary suspensions of 24 to 48 hours after certain security changes. Those waiting periods do not apply to every type of restriction. Another user's account reopening after two days tells you little about when yours will be released.
If your exchange account works normally but the Chinese bank account that received your sale proceeds is frozen, start with what to do first after a crypto-related bank account freeze. You are dealing with a restriction at a different institution.
Give the exchange the evidence it is asking for
If the exchange asks you to verify your identity or explain where your funds came from, open the request through its official app or website and read what it needs. OKX distinguishes between risk reviews, compliance checks and repeat identity checks. It may ask for proof of your source of funds or residential address. Filing an appeal will not let you skip required checks, and another copy of your ID may not answer the question.
Suppose you transfer 20,000 USDT from your own wallet to the exchange. When support asks where it came from, you send a screenshot of your wallet balance. You may feel the answer is obvious: it was in your wallet. But the screenshot does not explain how you acquired it. Did you buy it, receive it as a loan repayment or collect it for someone else?
If you bought the USDT, put the order, payment and transfer records together so the route into your account can be followed. If it was a loan repayment, explain when you lent the money and how it was repaid. For an internal exchange transfer, keep the platform's transfer record; there may be no on-chain transaction hash. If a record is missing, explain the gap and ask what other evidence would help. Your documents need to reflect what actually happened. Do not invent a history to fit a template that promises approval.
A source-of-funds check may also ask where you got the money to buy the crypto. That could mean providing evidence of salary or business income. Saying the crypto came from another wallet will not answer that question. A source-of-wealth check asks how you built up your overall assets. Read the request carefully so you can provide relevant records.
If law enforcement requested the freeze
OKX's guidance has a separate section on judicial restrictions, including freezes requested by law-enforcement agencies. It says it may share the agency's contact details if it has permission to do so. Customer support cannot decide on the agency's behalf to withdraw that request.
Ask support whether it can confirm that law enforcement is involved and share the agency's name, a contact route or a reference number. There may be limits on what it can disclose, so a lack of detail does not necessarily mean it is being evasive. Verify any contact details independently through official channels before sending account information to someone who says they are an investigator.
Binance also has a dedicated channel for law-enforcement requests. As the account holder, contact support and provide your own records. Any formal request for investigative assistance must come from the relevant authority through the appropriate channel. If an overseas agency is involved, check which legal procedures apply. Do not assume the rules for frozen Chinese bank accounts also govern an exchange account.
Try to establish which assets or transactions are in question, what you need to explain and where to send the evidence. If you are asked to attend an interview, or investigators are considering whether you were involved in an offence, you also need to assess your own legal position. Do not assume that repaying money will resolve every issue. For repayment requests involving a mainland Chinese bank account, see what to consider when police ask you to return USDT sale proceeds.
When support keeps asking you to wait
Use your existing ticket number and ask specific questions: have the documents been received, is anything missing, and is the case waiting for an internal review or a reply from an authority? Meet any deadline for submitting information. If no completion date is given, do not assume that the 24- or 48-hour period for a different restriction applies. If you have open positions, separately check which functions you can still use. A withdrawal restriction does not protect those positions from market movements.
Keep a record of events in date order: when the restriction started, what happened beforehand, what the exchange told you, what you submitted and how it responded. If you ask a lawyer for help, provide that record alongside the relevant transactions. It will help them assess whether you need more evidence, contact with the requesting authority or a challenge to a particular decision.
Be wary of anyone who claims to have an inside contact and asks you to send a deposit to a personal wallet, hand over verification codes or reveal a recovery phrase. If you have also noticed unfamiliar logins or transfers, there may be an account-security problem; see our guide to preserving evidence after USDT theft. Wanting immediate access to your money is understandable. Before paying anyone to help, find out who imposed the restriction, why it is there and what they need from you.
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