Short answer
Exchange account freezes are stressful but usually resolvable — the action you take in the first 24 hours determines whether you wait 2 weeks or 6 months. The first move is always: do not panic and do not create alternate accounts. Both make it worse. Contact support through official channels (in-app, official support email), comply with documentation requests, and wait. Most freezes resolve in 2-4 weeks if cooperation is full and documentation is clean.
Three categories of freeze
Compliance hold for unusual activity. Sudden large deposit, transactions to/from a flagged address, AML scoring trigger. Exchange asks for source-of-funds documentation. Most common. Resolution: provide bank statements, employment proof, prior-trade documentation. Time: 2-4 weeks for clean cases.
Sanction screening hit. Your deposit transaction came from an address Chainalysis or TRM Labs flagged as connected to a sanctioned entity (Tornado Cash, Garantex, North Korean clusters). Exchange must hold funds while investigating. Resolution: explain the legitimate source of the deposit, sometimes requires the original sender's documentation. Time: 4-12 weeks; some cases unresolvable.
Suspicious activity report (SAR) filed. The exchange filed a SAR with FinCEN and is exiting the relationship. Resolution: account closure with funds returnable to the originating bank account (or another self-custody address). Time: 2-8 weeks. SAR rules prohibit the exchange from telling you they filed one.
What you should do
Immediately: stop trying to log in repeatedly (triggers fraud alerts). Stop trying to open a second account on the same exchange (terms-of-service violation, makes recovery harder). Do not threaten lawsuit in initial support messages (signal of bad-faith, slows resolution).
Contact support via the official in-app channel or official email (not Twitter, not third-party "recovery" services — all scams). Provide a clear, complete account of the funds: where they originated, why you transferred them, what your intent was. The first response will be a documentation request — provide everything they ask for in one batch, not in dribs.
What you should not do
Never contact "recovery" services advertised on Twitter, Reddit, or Google ads. These are always scams that take an upfront fee and disappear, or worse, ask for your private keys and drain your other wallets.
Never offer to pay support for faster resolution. Offering money to a regulated exchange's employee is bribery — it ends the case immediately and adversely.
The escalation path
If support is unresponsive after 30 days, US-regulated exchanges are accountable to: state Attorney General (for state-licensed exchanges), CFPB consumer complaint, FinRegEx if licensed under that body. A documented complaint chain usually unlocks frozen accounts faster than re-emailing support.