Funds not showing up on chain

Hey guys, So, a friend of mine has been using a cold wallet for a while and decided to move some funds to sell a few BTC tokens. He made the deposit, but the amount hasn’t shown up on-chain, even though the funds were taken from his wallet. He sent the transaction hash to the support team on-chain, and this has been dragging on since early January. He first reported it just three hours after the transaction since he noticed the funds were missing. The support team has been unable to track the funds and claim that he never deposited them. But before this big deposit, he had done several smaller transactions on-chain just to test. I’ve told him at this point it seems pretty hopeless to recover the funds since the chain support isn’t helping him much, just giving him the runaround. The address he used for the deposit was verified with the QR code from the chain, so I really don’t see how there could have been a mistake on his end.

I'm a bit lost with the excessive use of the word "on chain". But tell us this, which service is he trying to deposit the funds to? If it's an exchange, then it should give him a unique address to deposit funds to. Simply checking that address on a explorer should show whether the Bitcoin was actually sent or not. If it's not an exchange and he was given a newly generated address, then you should start checking the legitimacy of the company... If it's a big reputable service like Bitrefill for example, it's probably safe to assume that the funds were indeed sent to the wrong address.

First what platform is your friend using to deposit, and what wallet he is using to transfer the funds? Second, if the balance on his wallet were deducted that means that the transaction was already push through unless it wasn't confirmed yet and there is still note "Sending Status: Unconfirmed" or similar. There are some scenario about this, first, the platform your friend is using is trying to scam him/her. Or s/he send it to different/wrong receiving address with a malware.

Yes im sorry, my english is not the best. He has deposited on Bybit and I have checked and checked but cant locate the amount he has sent to the address however we have made the same deposit to the same address and the funds have been deposited after about 45 minutes to an hour. its been marked and sent or success

BTC tokens? Perhaps you are referring those pegged tokens of BTC which is not the actual Bitcoin. On chain?? Doesn't do anything, nobody can remove the recorded transaction from the blockchain so it's possible that the person send funds to wrong address due to copy paste error or clipboard hijacker. Another possibility, he deposited token BTC to BSC address or vice versa since you mentioned token.

We have made a smaller deposit using the same cold wallet to the address and the tokens have arrived after about 45 to 1 hour wait. and it was not a copy paste mistake as its scanning a QR code to confirm address any ideas? the exchange is turning him away and telling him the amount was not deposited to his account

You still havent explained everything clearly.  You said you checked the transaction, but how?  Did you check the TXID with a blockchain explorer?  That should explain what happened. If the transaction is confirmed on the blockchain and the destination address is correct, then the issue is on the exchange's side.

I have checked the TXID and its correct and same address so then it would be the exchange itself?but why would a large exchange like bybit do that?

It would be easier if you provided either a Transaction Hash or a BTC wallet address from which the coins were sent.Using this data, you can easily check where your coins were sent, and then compare it with the address provided by the Bybit exchange for the deposit. I have great doubts that the deposit address was correct, despite the fact that you indicate the opposite.

Did you check every character in the said address, op? I remember there were cases where some malware were able to find a similar address to victim's correct address-. For instance, same or similar first and/or last few characters. It might be a good idea to check your exchange address using a different device as well just to be extra sure. Otherwise, if it's confirmed it's actually the correct address, try a different support agent perhaps?

I dont think they would. At least not intentionally.  Bybit is a reputable enough exchange to be trusted.  So maybe they are having some technical difficulties or something else is at play. Did you show that txid to customer support? That should be enough proof for them that you deposited coins to their address.  What was their response to that?  It would be nice if you could forward the message here as well so we can see.  Just make sure to censor any private information you dont want to be made public.

Can you check the TXID on explorer if its confirmed or not? And why not tell exactly which BTC token your friend talking about? Maybe your friend sent BTC token to a deposit BTC address in Bybit if I'm right, then it won't show up in your friend's Bybit account because you sent a BRC20 token into the BTC address. That's not Bybit's fault if you sent a coin or token to the wrong address. If that's the case, only Bybit can help you with your case. I may be wrong but this is what I think the issue is. To be clear, why not share the TXID here? Let's see what token you and your friend talk about.

it's better if you can show us the txid. but are you sure you're sending BTC and not some ERC20 token because BTC is a coin and a token is ERC20 smart contract protocol, and if it happens that you're sending a WBTC or pegged BTC wrapped in a ERC20 smart contract to an exchange that doesn't support your fund might be lost. still, we are just speculating here, txid is the only way we can know for sure what's happening and what's the problem.

That caught my attention. I haven't heard of Bitrefill before now. Do you mind explaining the certitude in your note that if it was sent there it would probably be safe to conclude it went to a wrong address. Is the enterprise reputable for scamming or what? Honestly, I genuinely want to know.

That's not what I meant to say. Bitrefill is legit, one of the best services I have ever used. I just meant to say that if he was using Bitrefill, or any other company (where there is no chance that they would scam you) then it's probably safe to assume in this case, that he sent the funds to the wrong address. But if he's not certain of the legitimacy of the service he's dealing with, he might have been scammed.

Thanks for your swift response. Your explanation is very clear now. I checked them up.