Chainflip is a decentralized protocol that swaps BTC, ETH, and SOL across blockchains without wrapped copies. For a new BTC-to-ETH transfer, Chainflip exchanges coins on their own chains and sends ETH to your chosen address. If yours is pending, trace the deposit, swap, and payout before sending again.
How Chainflip Swaps Move Between Chains
A swap moves value through deposits, trading, and a payout on the destination chain. “Decentralized” means a network of validators, rather than one company, records deposits and authorizes transfers. You receive the destination chain’s asset, rather than a wrapped token that represents an asset held elsewhere.
For a typical wallet swap, a Deposit Channel is opened for your request. It is a deposit address tied to your chosen asset and destination address. The channel stays open for 24 hours, so use a fresh one for each swap and send promptly.
Suppose you send BTC and want ETH on Ethereum. Once the Bitcoin deposit has enough confirmations, validators record it on Chainflip’s State Chain, the network’s ledger for swaps. Bitcoin deposits typically need three blocks, roughly 30 minutes, though block times vary.
The trade then passes through BTC and ETH liquidity pools, supplies of coins offered by traders. USDC, a dollar-linked token, acts as the middle trading pair. You do not need to receive USDC: the payout sends ETH to the Ethereum address you chose. An ETH address on Arbitrum would mean a different destination chain, so that choice matters.
What a Swap Costs and What Sets the Payout
The amount received depends on the trade price, pool fees, network fees, and transfer costs. A typical BTC-to-ETH route has two pools, each charging about 0.10%–0.15%, plus a network fee of about 0.10%. The sending and receiving chains also charge transaction costs, which change with network demand.
As an illustration, two pool fees and the network fee total about $3–$4 on a $1,000 trade. That excludes chain costs, any broker fee, and the difference between the quoted market price and the available pool price. Check the full expected payout before depositing; a cheap-looking percentage alone does not tell you how much ETH will arrive.
Price protection can set the lowest rate you will accept. If the available rate stays below it through the allowed retry period, the unswapped amount goes to your source-chain refund address, less applicable refund and transfer costs. A strict limit can prevent a poor trade, but it can also leave a swap waiting and then trigger a refund.
What to Do When a Swap Is Pending or Fails
Locate the stage where the swap stopped before taking another action. “Witnessed” means validators have recorded the deposit. “Pending egress” means the trade has executed and its outgoing payout is still being prepared or sent.
- Find the deposit transaction hash in your sending wallet and check its confirmations on the source chain.
- Compare the deposit’s asset, network, address, and time with your original swap request.
- Look up the swap record in the Chainflip block explorer using the deposit transaction or channel request.
- Check the destination-chain transaction if the record shows that the trade executed.
- Check your original source-chain refund address if the record shows a refund.
If the deposit is confirmed but no swap appears, keep the transaction hash and channel details for investigation. Do not send another payment to the same address: an expired Deposit Channel may no longer recognize it. Sending straight to a vault address without a registered swap can also lose funds.
If the payout is merely pending, give the destination chain time to confirm it. If a refund is due, wait for that source-chain transaction before starting over. For your next attempt, use a fresh swap request and check the chain, address, amount, and accepted price before sending.
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