Recover Funds

Reclaim and reissue stablecoin from a blocked account on Base, for lost keys or a legal hold.

Occasionally you need to move a balance out of a blocked account — a holder who lost their keys, or a balance you must reissue. Reclaim it with burnBlocked, then mint the same amount to the correct address. It’s gated by its own BURN_BLOCKED_ROLE and only works on an account that is already blocked.

Demo

Complete Launch a B20 token first. These samples target base-std@v1.0.0, viem@2.55.11, and Base Foundry v1.1.1.

Burn and reissue the blocked balance

TypeScript

import { parseUnits, type Address } from "viem";
import { publicClient } from "../../shared/clients.js";
import { b20Abi } from "../abi.js";
import { sendContract } from "../write.js";

export async function recoverBlockedFunds(token: Address, blocked: Address, replacement: Address) {
  const amount = parseUnits("50", 6);
  await sendContract({ address: token, abi: b20Abi, functionName: "burnBlocked", args: [blocked, amount] });
  await sendContract({ address: token, abi: b20Abi, functionName: "mint", args: [replacement, amount] });
  const balance = await publicClient.readContract({ address: token, abi: b20Abi, functionName: "balanceOf", args: [replacement] });
  if (balance < amount) throw new Error("Replacement balance was not issued");
}

See the complete verified B20 examples for imports, client construction, and runnable projects.

The blocked balance falls and the replacement address receives the same amount, leaving circulating supply unchanged.

burnBlocked requires BURN_BLOCKED_ROLE and only succeeds while the source is denied by TRANSFER_SENDER_POLICY.

See also

• Block an account · Reconcile with memos
• Burn in the B20 standard