If a sophisticated criminal came up to you in the street or visited your home and threatened you to send them your crypto, what would you do?
Events such as these are taking place all around the world right now:
(the CoverCrypto team know 3 people personally who have experienced horrific in-person, home-raiding cryptoasset thefts)
Before you answer this question, lets look at the 3 defence options available before CoverCrypto came along:
1) Hardware wallets
Hardware wallets provide defence before the event (online events only). They prevent your cryptoassets from being drained if you click on a bad link on the same laptop that your crypto is stored on.
🤓 FYI
Hardware wallets keep cryptocurrency in offline or “cold” storage, meaning they’re not connected to the internet. They’re physical devices, typically resembling a USB stick, which function as stripped-down, single-purpose computers. Hardware wallets start around $30 and can cost as much as $100. Reference
But free tools such as Pocket Universe and Wallet Guard for example, offer the same sort of protection (in fact these free tools not only function as a 2FA solution, but also simulate transactions to see if it matches well-known theft signatures, so they can in some instances offer better protection than hardware wallets). Hardware wallets offer limited protection against in-person or social engineering attacks.
📕 Did you know?
Even some of the leading hardware wallet providers have been hacked! Furthermore, we are aware of crypto thefts which were as a result of criminals actually finding a hardware wallet in a safe of the house being burgled - without finding such hardware wallet, they would not have know the homeowner owned crypto and would therefore never have stolen it! So hardware wallets can counterintuitively, increase the chances of a theft in some scenarios such as in-person thefts. So keep your hardware device hidden very well if you do use one!
2) Law enforcement
Some people believe that law enforcement provide defence after the event. But the unfortunate fact is that cryptoasset criminals are many steps ahead of law enforcement agencies (few global law enforcement agencies even have a dedicated crypto team). Due to resourcing issues and the sheer volume of cryptoassets thefts that happen every single day, law enforcement tend to prioritise hacks exceeding $1m. You simply cannot exclusively rely on law enforcement to protect your crypto.
💡 Tip
CoverCrypto co-founder Connor found out this the hard way when he suffered his theft, you can read more about his theft event in an upcoming article!
3) Crypto Recovery services
Crypto recovery companies are the only true after the event defence for your cryptoassets. Crypto recovery is a growing sector, with new companies popping up globally hoping to help fuel the next wave of crypto recoveries, given that in 2023 alone, $674 million of stolen crypto was recovered and reinstated (representing 25% of the total stolen amount!). However, this being said, there are a number of dangers to look out for:
Recovery room scams (often the same people who were responsible for the theft in the first place)
‘Professional services’ charging extortionate up-front fees, baselessly promising recovery
Companies enforcing damages-based agreements and huge finder’s fees
Inexperienced lawyers who can make matters worse
Additionally, these services can be incredibly expensive (you're looking at hundreds of thousands), limiting access to the few who can afford these fees. Out of the 1,874+ hacked crypto users we have data on, 0% followed through with a crypto-recovery solution, stating that the cost was the blocker.
The solution
CoverCrypto is the only genuine option in defending your cryptoassets: CoverCrypto is your annual membership that covers the cost of returning stolen cryptoassets, and is insured by Lloyd’s of London syndicates to guarantee that you always receive your membership benefits.
The benefits of CoverCrypto are as follows:
Affordable
Affordable
With memberships starting from £300/year, these typically inaccessible crypto recovery services are now affordable.
Vetted providers
Vetted providers
We've hand-picked the best cryptoassets discovery and recovery experts in the world, so you are never at risk of being scammed or being charged extortionate hidden fees.
Broadest cover
Broadest cover
We protect against the widest range of cryptoassets theft events on the market: in-person thefts, address poisoning & exchange insider-trading to name only a few. Click here for our full list of covered events.
Supporting self-custody
Supporting self-custody
We are custody agnostic and fully support self-custody solutions. Not your keys, not your coins.
Speed
Speed
CoverCrypto is the 'client on your behalf' for the investigators and lawyers that we use to return your stolen crypto; we are already set up as a client with these professional service providers, and can begin the process immediately upon receiving the details of your theft transaction(s). Costs aside, if you were to engage with a blockchain forensics company and a crypto-specialist lawyer directly, this would take a lot of time (time which you don't have - time is a critical factor when determining the likelihood of a successful recovery). Let's have a look at how long all of this would take without CoverCrypto:
Investigators: You need to find a legitimate investigations company, send the theft details over to them (to/from address, transaction ID/hash, blockchain), get a quote for the work, pay them, the firm then completes the report (can take a week or two, and even longer if they have a backlog of reports to complete before yours).
Lawyers: You then need to take this report to a law firm, verify your identity with the law firm, provide source of funds proof, get assigned an available lawyer, explain the case to a lawyer, and hope this specialist law firm isn't too busy to take your case on (there are not many crypto-specialist law firms). Also, some law firms only work with reports from specific investigators, so you may in some cases need to redo the report, wasting more time! Throw in a few weekends and the odd bank holiday, and its been a month before your lawyer is writing to the exchange where your stolen crypto was sent asking for details and the funds to be frozen/returned.
Proving ownership: when you connect a crypto account (wallet address/exchange/bank) to your CoverCrypto account, this proves you own that account. Therefore you don't need to prove to lawyers that you own that account later down the line (without this step, users state having to use screenshots and even look to have their centralised exchange state that the funds belonged to them at the time of the theft - all of which are very messy and time consuming). Time genuinely is of the essence when it comes to cryptoasset recovery, and at CoverCrypto, we're rapid.
So, do I need CoverCrypto?
A lot of crypto-enthusiasts have a portfolio which is their most valuable asset (yes, often beating their home), with the majority having their portfolio ranking as their second most valuable asset. Yet the only thing that stands between their most valuable asset being completely drained is at best, a $50 hardware wallet piece of plastic, and some hope that a law agency is there for them if the worst does happen. CoverCrypto is the answer for those seeking genuine cryptoasset protection and peace of mind. For a portfolio worth protecting.
