How to Investigate Lost USDT on TRON — Recovering Lost USDT (TRC20)

Tron is a significant player in the blockchain space with a robust infrastructure and a growing ecosystem of dApps and DeFi projects. Its strategic partnerships have enhanced its ability and adoption.

With an average block time of three seconds and its ability to process an average of 70 transactions per second (TPS), this blockchain processes an average of 2 million transactions daily and has handled over 7 billion transactions.

Moreover, its low fees and fast transaction processing time make it a chain of choice for many. Popular tokens like Tether (USDT), a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, and USDJ, a stablecoin used within the Trons DeFi platform. WIN, the native token of the WINK platform, a decentralized gaming app on the Tron blockchain took the top spot on TRON in the number of transactions and activity level.

USDT on Tron

However, apart from being one of the most popular tokens on Tron, USDT is also very popular and widely used in the cryptocurrency market. USDT plays a crucial role in the crypto ecosystem by providing stability, liquidity, and a bridge between fiat and digital currencies.

Over the years, USDT has been issued on several other chains like EOS, Algorand, Ethereum (ERC20), TRON (TRC20), etc. Moreover, the stablecoin is ranked in the top 5 tokens by market cap at the time of writing. Unlike other crypto tokens, the supply of USDT is dynamic and adjusted based on the market demand. There are billions of stablecoins currently in circulation.

The speed and fees of USDT depend on the blockchain where the transaction took place. For example, the Tron chain has low fees and fast processing speed, so USDTs on this blockchain are always processed faster than those on the Ethereum chain and with lower transaction fees.

Despite all these, USDT is prone to being lost like any other crypto token.

Losing your token can occur due to several common reasons. Like:

• Transaction errors include sending your USDT token to the wrong address or a different blockchain network. An example is sending USDT to an incompatible wallet or exchange address, like sending USDT from the Tron chain to USDT on the Ethereum chain.

• Exchange-related issues like withdrawal or maintenance problems can lead to permanent or temporary loss of your token.

• External effects (like rug pulls, hacks, phishing attacks, fraudulent schemes, and so on) also pose a big risk. While some of these losses are revocable, some are not.

In this article, we'll go through how you can investigate lost tokens. But before that, let’s check the tools and methods you can use.

Tools and Methods for Investigation

Losing your USDT can be draining and stressful. Here are tools and methods you can use to investigate and retrieve your tokens.

1. One such is the blockchain explorer, like the Bitquery Explorer..With Bitquery Explorer, you can analyze the transaction, trace the wallet owner, and confirm details like timestamp, transaction status, and sender and receiver address.? You can also conduct a thorough analysis of the transaction to identify the cause and whether the transaction is successful or not.

1. Another method is contacting the exchange if you mistakenly transfer to an exchange address or wallet. You can contact the exchange's support team to assist you in locating and eventually retrieving your token, especially if it's a result of a technical or maintenance error.
2. You can also seek assistance from blockchain experts through the web3 community. Experienced and knowledgeable members can guide you during your investigation.
3. You can contact professional crypto investigators who have a previous record of getting legal help and aiding the recovery of stolen assets.?
4. Finally, you can use advanced analytical tools like Bitquery to aid in the investigation and retrieval of the token. These dedicated tools offer deep insight and information in the transaction analytics of the USDT token. They provide detailed transaction analytics that allows users to track token movement across several blockchains. With Coinpath API, for example, you can identify patterns/anomalies that can help explain the cause of your loss.

These tools and methods can help analyze, investigate, and address the real cause of your loss. And even document your findings, which can eventually help increase your odds of token recovery.

How to investigate lost USDT(TRC20) Token using Bitquery Investigation Services

Losing your token can be depressing, and the first step to recovering the lost token is finding the source and addressing it. Without ado, let's walk you through the steps to investigate lost USDT (TRC20) using Bitquery crypto investigation services.

1. Gather the Necessary Information

Your first step to recovering your lost token is to gather the necessary information from your wallet. To better assess your loss and chances of recovery, you should submit your wallet address and information on how it got lost to the Bitquiery investigation team.

2. Reach out to Bitquery Investigation Services for an In-depth Analysis

While you can investigate your lost asset by yourself, you need a sophisticated team of experts with access to sophisticated tools to get to the root of the loss and help with the right solution. The Bitquery team can help you with in-depth analysis to assess the situation and identify potential solutions for token recovery.

Before we can do anything about the stolen funds, you’re required to provide the necessary details for the investigation and analysis by providing relevant details through our contact form. Here you provide personal information, details of the hack, the amount lost, and your contact information.

To increase your chances of hearing back on your inquiry, here are the necessary documents you need to submit:

3. Provide the Proof of Wallet Ownership

You should provide proof of wallet ownership, like a screenshot of your address or other convincing details.

With the Bitquery Explorer, you can gain access to your wallet details. Just visit the Bitquery Explorer page, input your wallet address in the address bar, and the explorer will return all the necessary information about your wallet.

You should also provide other information that proves you own the wallet.

Note: Never submit your seed phrase to anyone

2. Proof You’ve Contacted the Government Authority

Another requirement from the Bitquery investigation service is to show proof that you’ve contacted the appropriate authority on this issue. It won’t only make it easier to follow the legal route, but it’ll also help in collecting the necessary information on the scammers for further investigation by law enforcement agencies.

If you live in the United States, for example, you should have contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). So, you should attach the proof of your communication.? Ideally, a PDF document of your IC3 complaint referral form (this is an official document you’re required to fill out when contacting the FBI).

Once all the required information has been submitted, our team of experts will help assess your situation, discover the problem source, and recommend the best route for an effective solution, i.e, if the funds can be traced to an exchange or any counterparty, you’d need to pay for reporting the incidence to the right channel. Else, we’ll direct you to the necessary legal representative.

3. Gather the Transaction Details for Evidence

Once you gather the necessary information and recommendations, you can trace the fund movement yourself. This can be easily done using the Bitquery Tron Coinpath API.

The Tron Coinpath API provides comprehensive information about the flow of addresses on the Tron blockchain. This tool helps deanonymize addresses, makes it easy to monitor transactions, and analyzes risks.

You can access the Coinpath API in two ways:

1. Use Explorer to search for the address. Once the wallet overview has been returned, check the money flow tab, and you’ll see the visualizations that make it easier to trace your token movement. The visualization traces the movement of your USDT to whichever wallet holds it and however, it gets there.
2. Using the coinpath API, through the GraphQL IDE, you can also tell about the money flow through clear visualization.

Here is an example on how to go about the analysis and evidence gathering using the Tron Coinpath API.

Let’s assume TX7MutwLR185Aw4p7CJKvQyTUZ6Baqu9fY is your wallet address and you want to analyze the flow of funds from and into the wallet. All you need to do is to visit Bitquery explorer and enter the address on the search box.

Click the ‘Money flow’ and you’ll be redirected to the page that visualizes the movement of funds from and to your wallet. After clicking the ‘Money flow’ tab, here are the visualizations we got. Note: you can choose between two types of visuals — The Graph and the Sankey.

The above visualization is ‘The graph’ type. It gives us insight into how funds are moved from one wallet to the other. Looking at the visualization above, the green drawing represents different wallets and the orange colored lines represent the movement of funds from/to a particular wallet.

From the visualization above, we can see that funds were only sent from other wallets to the center wallet, which is our wallet. Looking further showed us that there is another wallet that also received a token from others. Assuming we saw an outbound transaction (i.e. arrows facing outward) that we didn’t initiate, we can look further at the wallet to gain more insight into the flow.

The visualization above is what you get when you select the Sankey visualization type. This is useful when you need to check the flow of the funds without having much concern about the wallet. The visualization above gives insight into the inbound and outbound movement of the USDT tokens.

Check out this article to learn more about how the Bitquery Coinpath API works.

4. Document Your Evidence

To recover your token, prove your point to the custodian services (exchanges, government agencies, or the Tether Foundation). So, proper documentation is crucial for token recovery.

Be sure to take screenshots of the relevant data, such as wallet balances, history of transactions, communication with exchanges or authorities, and so on.

Document the timestamp and transaction hashes for easy retracing if needed. Also, make sure you keep records of the emails and reports that are related to the incident and the messages.

5. Utilize Available Resources and Support Channel

Once you have the evidence and the necessary information, you can contact the appropriate support channels.

You can either contact the wallet provider, exchanges involved or the Tether support with the documentation and evidence gathered, whichever is the best option in your case. This could help freeze the scammer or hacker’s wallet until the token can be recovered. Moreover, you can also go through the legal route.

In conclusion, recovering lost tokens requires a systematic approach using Bitquery investigation services and the necessary APIs to gather information with effective communication with relevant processes.

By gathering the necessary information, assessing the situation, tracing transactions, and using the available resources, you can increase your chance of recovering the lost token. Seek professional assistance and keep detailed records for retrieving your lost TRC20 USDT tokens.

Also Read: What to do after your Crypto gets Stolen?

Written by Emmanuel