How to swap Bitcoin to Ethereum without an account: timings, addresses, gas, and the return trip

What you are doing

Bitcoin and Ethereum are separate networks with nothing in common at the protocol level. There is no way to "send BTC to an Ethereum address"; an exchange has to take Bitcoin on one side and pay out native Ether on the other. An instant swap does exactly that, without an account: you send BTC to a one-time deposit address, and after 2 Bitcoin confirmations ETH is sent to the address you gave. The BTC → ETH pair page has the form pre-selected and shows the live limits and cost.

Note the word native: you receive real ETH on Ethereum mainnet, not wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) or a token on another chain. If you actually wanted WBTC to use in a DeFi protocol, that is a different operation.

What you need

• A wallet with Bitcoin (on-chain — a Lightning wallet cannot pay the deposit address).
• An Ethereum address in a wallet you control. Any standard wallet works: a browser wallet, a mobile wallet, a hardware wallet. The address starts with 0x and is 42 characters.
• An amount within the pair's minimum and maximum, shown at the top of the pair page.

You do not need any ETH beforehand. Receiving ETH costs nothing on your side — the payout fee is paid by the swap and is already in the estimate. Gas only matters later, when you spend.

Step by step

1. Open BTC → ETH. Check the limits.
2. Enter the BTC amount. The ETH estimate updates about once a minute and already includes the spread and the payout fee.
3. Paste your Ethereum address. Optionally, add a Bitcoin refund address.
4. Click Swap now and save the status page link.
5. Send exactly the shown BTC amount to the deposit address, with a fee that confirms within one or two blocks.
6. Wait for 2 Bitcoin confirmations (about 20 minutes at a normal fee). The rate is fixed at that moment.
7. ETH is sent; the status page shows the transaction hash. Your wallet displays it within a few blocks (Ethereum blocks are 12 seconds).

Timing, honestly

The Bitcoin fee you choose is the only variable you control. A low fee does not save money in any meaningful way on this swap — it delays the rate lock and can turn a 20-minute swap into a multi-hour one.

Which Ethereum address to use

• Your own wallet's address — the normal case.
• A hardware wallet — fine; ETH payouts are ordinary transfers.
• A smart-contract wallet (some "account abstraction" wallets, multisigs like Safe) — usually fine for receiving ETH, but confirm the wallet can receive plain transfers; a few contracts reject them.
• An exchange deposit address — works for ETH in most cases, but you give up the privacy of receiving to your own wallet, and if the exchange later asks about the source of funds you will be pointing at a swap. Receive to your wallet, then deposit if you need to.
• The same 0x address on another chain — the critical mistake. Your 0x address exists identically on Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Base and Arbitrum. The payout is sent on Ethereum mainnet; if your wallet is looking at a different network, it will show nothing until you switch. You have not lost anything — switch the network in the wallet.

What it costs

1. Your Bitcoin sending fee — set in your wallet.
2. The spread — inside the rate.
3. The ETH payout fee — an Ethereum network fee, deducted from the output and already in the estimate.

The pair page compares the all-in quote for a sample amount with the CoinGecko BTC/ETH mid-rate, so the total is visible as one percentage before you commit. The percentage shrinks with size, because the payout fee is fixed.

Privacy notes

Both chains are transparent. The Bitcoin deposit is a public record from your sending address; the Ethereum payout is a public record to your receiving address. What the swap adds is a break between the two — there is no on-chain link from the BTC address to the ETH address. Whether that break is meaningful depends on the addresses: a fresh Bitcoin address in your own wallet and a fresh Ethereum address keep the two sides unlinked to an outside observer; an exchange withdrawal on one side and a labelled ENS name on the other do not.

Common mistakes

• Paying a low Bitcoin fee — the most common reason a BTC → ETH swap "takes forever".
• Sending from a Lightning wallet — the deposit address is on-chain; Lightning payments cannot reach it.
• Wallet on the wrong network — the payout is there; the wallet is looking at BNB Chain or Polygon.
• Amount under the minimum — returned minus the network fee if you gave a refund address.
• Copying the deposit address by hand — use the copy button or the QR code; a mistyped address on Bitcoin is validated by checksum and will simply fail, but it wastes time.

Going the other way: ETH → BTC

ETH → BTC reverses the timings: the deposit side is Ethereum with 15 confirmations (about 3 minutes), so the rate lock is fast and drift is small; the payout is Bitcoin, visible immediately and usable after one block (~10 minutes). Use a fresh Bitcoin receiving address — bc1q (native SegWit) or bc1p (Taproot) are both fine; do not paste a Lightning invoice.

Related swaps

• BTC → USDT (ERC-20) if what you want on Ethereum is dollars rather than ETH.
• ETH → USDT (TRC-20) to leave Ethereum for the cheapest stablecoin rail.
• BTC → XMR if the goal is privacy rather than a different smart-contract chain.

Frequently asked questions

How long does BTC to ETH take? About 20–30 minutes at a normal Bitcoin fee — nearly all of it waiting for 2 Bitcoin confirmations.

Do I need ETH for gas to receive ETH? No. Receiving costs you nothing; the payout fee is included in the estimate.

Will I get ETH or WBTC? Native ETH on Ethereum mainnet.

Can I send from Coinbase / Binance? Yes; the exchange's withdrawal fee is deducted before the deposit arrives, and the swap is recalculated for the amount received.

Why does my wallet show 0 ETH after the payout hash exists? Almost always the wallet is on another network. Switch to Ethereum mainnet.