Nostos — asset trace and recovery support
Nostos is the homecoming — the return journey after the loss. The work is tracing where value went and building the record that lets somebody with legal standing go and get it.
Engagement-priced, per matter.
The problem this exists for
Money that has moved through several chains, a bridge, a mixer and two exchanges is not gone. It is unaccounted for, which is a different thing, and the distinction usually comes down to whether anybody built the chain of custody while the trail was warm.
Recovery counsel cannot act on a suspicion. They need a documented path from the loss to a present-day location, in a form that survives a hostile reading, pointing at a jurisdiction where a court can reach.
That document is the deliverable.
What the trace is built from
Our own nodes. Twelve-plus blockchain full nodes we operate. When the question is when a transaction propagated and to where, the answer is we observed it at this height at this time rather than a vendor's API told us — which matters when the other side's expert asks where the data came from and what the provider's retention policy is.
Cross-chain and off-ramp analysis. Bridges, swaps and consolidation patterns, followed to the point where value enters a regulated venue and becomes reachable.
Entity resolution. Corporate registries across jurisdictions, shell structures, and the officer and beneficial-ownership links between them.
Sanctions and export-control screening, because a trace that runs into a designated party changes what you are allowed to do next, and finding that out late is expensive.
Published error rates. Every detector we use has a measured failure rate and we hand you the number. An expert who cannot state their own error rate has a bad day under cross-examination — and the absence of published vendor error rates was itself the attack in the Tornado Cash prosecution.
What you get
A trace report with each step tied to the on-chain or registry record that supports it: the path, the current best-known location of value, the jurisdictions in play, the confidence at each hop, and — stated plainly — where the trail goes cold and why.
The cold spots are part of the deliverable. A trace that presents only its strong links is one adverse expert away from collapsing, and counsel would rather know the weakness from you than from opposing counsel.
What we are not
We are not a recovery firm and we do not take a percentage. We do not recover funds, we do not contact counterparties on your behalf, and we have no contingent interest in the outcome — which is precisely what lets the report say the trail went cold when it did.
We are not investigators for hire. Research and analysis. Texas Occupations Code §1702.101 makes offering unlicensed investigative services a violation.
We are not your lawyers, and asset recovery is a legal process. We produce the evidentiary work that your counsel acts on.
We will tell you when it is not worth it. If the value is below the cost of pursuing it, or the trail terminates somewhere no court can reach, that is the finding, and you will get it in the first conversation rather than after a retainer.