Issues with Ledger transfers

So, I'm kinda freaking out right now. I got into crypto back in 2017, but I’m just a small investor. Did my thing but went quiet since late 2022. Now, I’m getting my laptop fixed and decided to log in to check my Ledger balance and clear the desktop app. But guess what? My account shows I've lost about half of what I expected, and there's a random transaction of 0.22 BTC that I can't explain. I checked Binance, where I also have some BTC, and it's not there either. Looking back at my Ledger and its transaction history, I’m starting to think I might have moved some BTC to USDC to keep it safe during the bear market and just forgot about it. Or maybe it’s been taken? I really hope it's the first option, but is there any way to confirm that? Either way, I’m down 0.22 BTC from what I thought I had.

Your story is hard to understand. Please omit anything that's irrelevant to the problem. Follow the transactions online, see if you can find if you sent it to an address of an exchange. It sounds like you just forgot you made a transaction. It's always good to label transactions, so you still know what it's for years later.

Tried googling the address cant see any mention of exchanges I am able to find it on the block chain

Can you post it here? It's bad for privacy but that's up to you. WalletExplorer might know which address the wallet belongs to. If the funds were moved again, that is.

You don't need to Google the address. Just enter it in mempool.space for bitcoin or etherscan.io for ethereum addresses... But looks like you just made a transaction and forgot about it. A hacker would have moved all your coins , not half.

I still find it hard to analyse this,I'm confused is it exchange wallet or a non custodial wallet?? So what you were saying is that you used Binace for holding before you swapped it to USDC while Bitcoin was dipping but now you logged into your Binace account and cannot seem to get the previous balance you thought you had?? If I'm right... then there're several  possibilities  either you have forgotten the email address you used and you signed into another account if you had multiple because  if you really swapped it to USDC(either everything or out of it) ,it should still be there or you spent the USDC and might have forgotten, or you are checking a spot balance while you have the full balance on  Funding / the other way round(I.e checking funding balance while you have the full balance on Spot) but by default you should see your total balance at the home page.

So by saying that your Laptop is in a repair shop; You meant that you've used another PC, installed Ledger Live to check your balance, then deleted the app? Is there any chance that you've created another Ledger Bitcoin account in your original app in your Laptop and that missing 0.22BTC is in that second account? If so, you should just re-create that account in the "desktop app" where you checked your balance. In that case, you should see a transaction with a similar amount. Identify the addresses shown in the output, the one with 0.22BTC should be a deposit address where you've done the BTC-to-USDC exchange. Then, it's your job to identify where that address belongs since it yours and addresses don't have tags for anyone to check. --edit-typo--

It could be relevant, if the user has wallet recovery details on his laptop that shouldn't be there, like mnemonic recovery words saved digitally in a text or Word/Excel file or worse, screenshots. Things, experienced users won't do, but ... inexperienced users are a totally different subject. A wallet protection password could be weak or also stored in file on the device which is now in the hands of a repair technician. You don't know what valuable data could be leaked to dishonest technicians. If you give a device out of your hands, you should at least be aware of potential risks for any valuable data on your device. In this particular case, it's probably not such a problem (the wallet hasn't been emptied completely which a thief almost certainly would've done). When you use a hardware wallet as signing device, your private keys aren't in the software wallet that talks to your hardware wallet. There should be only a watch-only wallet on the laptop. I agree that the story is a bit confusing to understand or comprehend what happened when. It's unfortunately quite common for those who ask for help that they don't think their case through about how to present details in such a way that helpers understand it. I know it's difficult because askers and helpers aren't on the same level and page. Yet someone who's asking for help could take a moment to think about if he gives enough details in the correct sequence that helpers may have a chance to understand his case and give appropriate help. Otherwise there are delays due to the ask and respond game...

Good point, I didn't think of that level of carelessness. But I'd expect a thief to steal everything, and even if he didn't to avoid attention, he'll still have the seed phrase and can take the rest at any moment. For this reason, I just take the loss when a disk dies and never claim warranty. Better safe than sorry. Laptops are trickier, they probably won't allow you to take out the disk to claim warranty.

They can't do anything with your ledger desktop app if they don't have access to your ledger device, except in case if you made a mistake and left seed words on your disk in digital form. [/quote] This is possible if you don't log out from websites and if you don't clean your browser history when you close it. Sorry to say but this is not bitcoin technical support, you need to talk with the guys who ''fixed'' your laptop.