A pending Chainflip swap guide for first-time users

A pending Chainflip swap can take about 30 minutes to clear three Bitcoin confirmations. The wait depends on which chain receives your deposit and what stage the swap has reached.

• A pending label can mean your deposit is still being confirmed, your swap is processing, or your output is waiting to be sent.
• Check the deposit and destination transactions separately; each belongs to a different blockchain.
• If funds are returning, use the refund address and allow for a separate return transaction.

What does “pending” mean at each stage?

“Pending” means the protocol has not finished the full trip from deposit to payout. A cross-chain swap moves through three broad stages: the source chain records your deposit, the swap is processed, and the destination chain records your output.

A confirmation is a block added after a transaction, giving the network more evidence that it is settled. Bitcoin deposits, for example, need three confirmations before Chainflip records them; at roughly ten minutes per block, that can take around 30 minutes. Block times vary, so the estimate is not a deadline.

Once the deposit is recorded, the swap can still be processing. After it is processed, the output may wait for a signed transaction and broadcast on the destination chain. A delay here does not mean the original deposit needs to be sent again.

How can I tell where the wait is?

Compare the transaction on the source chain with the transaction on the destination chain. A blockchain explorer is a public record that lets you look up a transaction by its hash, or unique ID.

If the deposit has few confirmations, the source chain is still catching up. If it has enough confirmations but no recorded swap, allow time for the protocol to witness and process it. If the swap has processed but no destination transaction appears, the payout is still being prepared or broadcast.

For example, imagine you sent BTC and are expecting ETH. First check whether the BTC transaction has three confirmations. If it does, check whether the swap was recorded; only then look for the separate ETH payout. This prevents mistaking a slow Bitcoin block for a failed ETH transfer.

What should I do if it failed or funds are returning?

Read the stage and destination of any failure before taking action. A failed swap can return the unswapped funds to the refund address—the wallet address chosen for a return—while a failed payout means the swap happened but the output could not reach its destination.

Price protection can also stop a swap. It sets a minimum acceptable result or a limit on how far the price may move. If the market does not meet that condition within the allowed retry period, the protocol refunds the deposit. A refund is a new transaction, so check the refund address and its chain for that transaction.

Some destination transfers can fail because of the receiving address. For example, a smart contract—a wallet address that runs code—may reject a transfer or require more gas than the network will spend. On supported EVM chains such as Ethereum and Arbitrum, a fallback process can make a signed payout available for manual recovery; the documented recovery window is one epoch, currently three days. If the failure names this process, act promptly and follow current protocol guidance.

One special case is a late deposit: Deposit Channels, the temporary addresses used for deposits, close after 24 hours. A deposit sent after that window may not be recognized as expected. Check the channel’s age and transaction record before sending anything further, and never assume a second deposit will recover the first.

When should I wait, and when should I act?

Wait while the source chain is confirming the deposit or the protocol is processing and broadcasting the payout. Act when the transaction is confirmed but absent from the recorded swap, when funds are returning, or when a failed payout has a time-limited recovery process.

Keep the source and destination transaction IDs, the deposit amount, and the refund address together. These details help distinguish a slow confirmation from a missed deposit or failed payout. Chainflip swaps are designed to proceed after a recognized deposit, so avoid sending the same funds again while the original transaction remains unresolved.

If you need the complete explanation of how Chainflip handles each swap stage, that article follows the flow from deposit through payout. For your next step, wait if the chain is still confirming; investigate the recorded stage if it is confirmed, and act quickly on any time-limited recovery.