To receive XMR from an XMR bridge, give it a Monero address you control and let your wallet scan for the payment. For the provider comparison and full selection process, see how to choose an XMR bridge; this guide covers the receiving wallet.
- XMR must go to a Monero address, not an Ethereum address.
- A fresh subaddress helps you identify this payment later.
- A wallet can show a payment before its balance is ready to spend.
Use a Monero address as the destination
Choose a wallet that supports Monero, such as Feather Wallet or Monero GUI Wallet, and use one of its receiving addresses. MetaMask addresses are for Ethereum-compatible assets; they cannot receive XMR.
Think of the address as the delivery destination and the wallet as the place that recognizes the parcel. A cross-chain service routes the swap and sends XMR to the Monero address you provide. If you give it an address from another network, that wallet may not be able to access the XMR.
Create a fresh receiving address
In your Monero wallet, open its receive view and create or select a subaddress. A subaddress is an extra Monero address tied to your wallet; you can use it to identify this payment without making a new wallet.
Copy the address from the wallet and paste it into the destination field for XMR. Check that the first and last characters match the wallet’s copy, and confirm the destination asset is XMR on the Monero network. Do not type the address by hand.
Monero’s official guide to accepting payments explains that you can create many subaddresses. For example, you might label one “October swap” so you can recognize it in your wallet history. Keep the wallet and its recovery seed under your control; the address is safe to share for receiving, but the seed can give someone control of the funds.
Wait for the wallet to find and unlock the payment
After the service broadcasts the Monero transaction, your wallet must scan the Monero blockchain—the shared record of transactions—to detect it. The payment may appear as pending before it is spendable.
Monero’s official guide says newly received funds need 10 confirmations before they can be spent. Blocks arrive about every two minutes on average, so that part often takes around 20 minutes after the transaction is included in a block. This is an estimate: block timing and the earlier cross-chain swap can add time.
Check the wallet’s total balance and its unlocked balance, which is the amount currently available to spend. Feather Wallet’s documentation also says the wallet needs to be synchronized with the chain to find incoming transactions. If the payment does not appear, first let synchronization finish and verify that the address you gave the service is the same one shown in your wallet.
Use the wallet balance to decide what to do next
If the payment appears but the unlocked balance is still zero, wait for the remaining confirmations. If it does not appear after the wallet is synchronized, check the transaction status with the service and confirm that the destination address was copied correctly.
For a specific example, suppose the swap says it sent 0.2 XMR. Seeing that amount as pending means the wallet has detected a payment; it does not yet mean you can send all 0.2 XMR onward. Wait until the wallet marks the funds unlocked, then use its available balance when planning another transaction.
Decision rule: use a Monero wallet address you control, and proceed only when the wallet shows the received XMR as unlocked.
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