Bitcoin to Monero: a step-by-step swap guide (and what stays private)

The most requested privacy swap, explained end to end: timing by confirmations, the three fee components, address formats, the privacy of each side, and the mistakes that delay or lose a swap.

What a BTC → XMR swap actually does

You send Bitcoin to a deposit address that exists only for your swap. When the deposit has 2 Bitcoin confirmations, the floating rate is locked and Monero is sent to the address you provided. There is no account, no order book and no custody beyond the minutes between confirmation and payout. The BTC → XMR pair page has the form pre-selected and shows the live limits and the current all-in cost.

Timing, honestly

Bitcoin deposit: 2 confirmations. At a normal fee that is about 20 minutes; with a low fee during congestion it can be hours. The swap cannot start earlier, because a zero-confirmation Bitcoin transaction can be replaced.
Monero payout: broadcast immediately after the deposit confirms; visible in your wallet after one 2-minute block; most wallets mark it spendable after 10 confirmations (about 20 minutes).
Total: roughly 30–45 minutes when Bitcoin is not congested. The status page shows each stage.

Cost, in three parts

The Bitcoin fee you pay to send the deposit. Your wallet sets it; the swap does not. Choose a fee that confirms in one or two blocks — a cheap fee that sits in the mempool for hours also exposes you to rate drift.
The exchange spread. Built into the floating rate you see in the form.
The Monero payout fee. A fraction of a cent.

The pair page fetches a live quote for a sample amount and compares it with the CoinGecko mid-rate, so the spread plus payout fee is shown as a single percentage before you commit.

Addresses

Deposit (Bitcoin): you send to the address shown after clicking Swap now. Any Bitcoin wallet works; do not use Lightning.
Payout (Monero): paste a standard address — 95 characters starting with 4 (primary) or 8 (subaddress). No payment ID is needed. Do not paste an exchange's Monero deposit address: exchanges often require a payment ID or an integrated address and may not credit a plain payout.
Refund (Bitcoin): optional but recommended; if the deposit lands outside the limits, funds return here minus the network fee.

Privacy: which side is which

Monero is private by design — ring signatures hide the sender, stealth addresses hide the receiver, RingCT hides the amount. The XMR you receive carries no history from the swap. Bitcoin is the opposite: the deposit is a permanent public record from the address you sent from.

So the privacy of the whole operation is decided on the Bitcoin side:

If you send from an exchange withdrawal, that exchange can see that your withdrawal went to a swap deposit address.
If you send from a long-lived address that is already linked to you, the swap is linked to you.
If you send from a fresh address in your own wallet, an observer sees a payment to an unknown address and nothing more.

Use a Monero subaddress for the payout so each swap lands in a new address of your wallet.

Step by step

Open BTC → XMR. Check the minimum and maximum shown at the top.
Enter the BTC amount; the XMR estimate updates every minute.
Paste your Monero address and, optionally, a Bitcoin refund address.
Click Swap now. Save the status page link — there is no login to recover it.
Send exactly the shown BTC amount to the deposit address with a reasonable fee.
Watch the status page; the XMR appears in your wallet after payout, spendable after ~10 Monero confirmations.

Mistakes and what they cost

Low-fee deposit: hours of waiting and a rate locked far from the estimate you saw.
Exchange XMR address as payout: funds may not be credited by the exchange; recovery means a support ticket with them.
Sending from a Lightning wallet: on-chain only; a Lightning payment never reaches the deposit address.
Amount below the minimum: cannot be swapped; returned to the refund address minus fee, or stuck if no refund address was given.
Exchange withdrawal with the fee deducted: less arrives than quoted; the swap is recalculated at the live rate.

Going the other way

XMR → BTC is the return leg: 5 Monero confirmations (about 10 minutes) on the deposit side, then a Bitcoin payout that needs one block to be usable. The privacy-sensitive side there is the Bitcoin address you receive to — use a fresh one.