Swap crypto across networks in Phantom

Phantom lets you swap tokens across different blockchains, sometimes called cross-chain swaps or bridging. For example, you can swap BTC to SOL, ETH to USDC on Solana, or Polygon USDC to ETH on Base, directly from the app. For same-network swaps, see Swap crypto in Phantom.

Quick answers

• How long does a cross-chain swap take? Most complete in 5 to 30 minutes. Bitcoin swaps can take 10 to 60 minutes because Bitcoin blocks confirm roughly every 10 minutes.
• Where do I check the status? Open Recent Activity (the clock or activity icon) in Phantom, then look up your wallet address on scan.li.fi for the bridge status.
• My swap is stuck. Wait at least 60 minutes (90 for Bitcoin) before assuming there's a problem. Most stuck swaps complete on their own.
• My source tokens left my wallet but the destination tokens haven't arrived. This is normal mid-swap. Check scan.li.fi to see which step is still processing.
• Should I retry a stuck swap? No. Retrying may create a duplicate transaction. Wait for the bridge to finish.

Before you swap

• You need a small amount of the network's native token on both the source and destination networks to cover fees. For example, swapping Polygon USDC to Solana SOL requires POL on Polygon for the source-side fee and a small amount of SOL on Solana for any final swap step. For more information, see Why do I have to pay a network fee? (and other common questions).
• Don't swap your entire native token balance. If you swap all your POL to another network, you'll have nothing left to pay the Polygon network fee and the swap will fail. Always leave a small buffer.
• Review the quote before confirming. The quote screen shows the estimated arrival time, destination amount, bridge fee, network fees, and price impact. Bridge fees are typically 0.1 to 0.5%, but can be higher for less common pairs or low-liquidity tokens.
• Double-check the destination network. If you select the wrong destination network, the bridge will deliver the tokens there and there's no easy way to reverse it.

How to swap across networks

Browser extension

1. On the Home tab, click Swap.
2. In You Pay, choose the token and source network.
3. In You Receive, choose the token and destination network.
4. Review the quote, including estimated arrival time, fees, and price impact.
5. Click Swap Now.

Mobile app

1. On the Home tab, tap Swap.
2. In You Pay, choose the token and source network.
3. In You Receive, choose the token and destination network.
4. Review the quote, including estimated arrival time, fees, and price impact.
5. Tap Swap Now.

After confirming, you can close the app. The swap continues in the background.

Wait times

Cross-chain swaps take longer than same-network swaps because they require confirmations on two blockchains plus bridge processing time.

Times vary based on network congestion and bridge load. If the swap screen shows "1 minute remaining" but the swap isn't done, this is normal. The estimate reflects bridge processing time, not the underlying blockchain confirmation time. For Bitcoin and other high-confirmation networks, the swap can sit at "under 1 minute" while the destination block is still being mined.

Fees

A cross-chain swap can have up to four fee components:

The quote shown before you confirm includes all of these. If you receive less than the quoted amount, check the transaction on a block explorer to see exactly where the difference came from.

Bitcoin network fees can be unpredictable. During periods of high congestion, your transaction may sit in the mempool longer than usual. Phantom does not currently let you manually adjust Bitcoin fees.

How cross-chain swaps work

When you swap tokens between two different blockchains, Phantom routes the transaction through a bridge. A bridge is a third-party service that locks or burns your tokens on the source network, then releases or mints equivalent tokens on the destination network.

Phantom uses LI.FI to find the best bridge route automatically. LI.FI is an aggregator that compares multiple bridges including Mayan, Across, and deBridge, and picks the route with the best balance of speed, fees, and liquidity. You don't choose a bridge yourself.

A cross-chain swap typically has three or four steps:

1. Your token is swapped or wrapped on the source network if needed, for example SOL to USDC on Solana before bridging.
2. The bridge locks or burns your tokens on the source network.
3. Validators or relayers confirm the transaction across both networks. This is where most of the wait time is spent.
4. The bridge releases or mints tokens on the destination network. If the destination token differs from what the bridge delivered, Phantom does a final same-chain swap.

Each step requires confirmations on its blockchain, which is why cross-chain swaps take longer than same-network swaps.

Supported networks

Cross-chain swaps are available between Solana, Ethereum, Base, Polygon, Bitcoin (with limitations, see the Bitcoin section), and Sui (limited routes).

Not every token pair has a bridge route. If LI.FI can't find a route, you'll see "No quotes available." When that happens, swap to a common token such as USDC, ETH, or SOL on the source network first, then do the cross-chain swap with that token.

How to check the status of a cross-chain swap

Step 1: Check transaction history in Phantom

Open Phantom and select Recent Activity (the clock or activity icon), then find the cross-chain swap. It will show one of these statuses:

• Pending: The source-side transaction hasn't confirmed yet.
• Swapping/In Progress: The source confirmed and the bridge is processing.
• Completed: The destination tokens have arrived.
• Failed: The swap could not be completed. Funds are typically refunded to your source wallet, but this can take time.

If the status shows Completed but you don't see the tokens, restart the app.

Step 2: Check LI.FI Scan

LI.FI Scan (scan.li.fi) is the most reliable way to see what stage your bridge is at. Copy your source wallet address, go to scan.li.fi, and paste it into the search bar.

LI.FI Scan shows three milestones:

• Source transaction: Confirmed on the source network.
• Bridge processing: Relayer / validator activity.
• Destination transaction: Confirmed on the destination network.

If the source is confirmed but the destination is still pending, the bridge is still processing. Check again in 10 to 15 minutes.

Step 3: Check the source network explorer

If LI.FI Scan doesn't show your transaction (this happens occasionally for newer or less common routes), check the source network's explorer directly. Paste your source wallet address into:

Step 4: Check the destination network explorer

Use the destination wallet address (which is usually the same wallet, but on a different network) and the destination explorer from the previous section. If the destination shows an incoming transaction matching your swap, the bridge has completed and the tokens are in your wallet. The Phantom UI may just need a moment to refresh.

Bitcoin swaps

Bitcoin is fundamentally different from Solana, Ethereum, and other EVM networks, and that affects how Bitcoin swaps work in Phantom.

Bitcoin address types

Phantom supports two Bitcoin address types:

• Native SegWit (addresses starting with bc1q...): The older, more widely supported format.
• Taproot (addresses starting with bc1p...): The newer format with privacy and efficiency benefits.

Both are derived from the same wallet but have separate balances. BTC received at a Native SegWit address won't appear in your Taproot balance in Phantom until you turn it on, and vice versa.

To switch between address types, go to Settings → Preferences → Preferred Bitcoin Addresses.

For more information, see Supported Bitcoin addresses in Phantom.

Why some Bitcoin swap routes are grayed out

Not all Bitcoin swap routes are available for every address type. If you try to swap from BTC to a network like Polygon and the option is grayed out or you see "No quotes available," it's because the bridge LI.FI selected does not currently support that specific combination of the BTC address type and the destination route.

To work around this, switch to the other Bitcoin address type if you have a balance there, or swap BTC to SOL or ETH first and then swap to the token you need.

Bitcoin swap timing quirks

• Confirmations matter. Bitcoin needs multiple block confirmations before the bridge releases destination tokens. Each block is roughly 10 minutes. A swap can sit at "Pending" for 30+ minutes and still be on track.
• The on-screen timer is bridge time, not Bitcoin time. Don't trust the "1 minute remaining" countdown for Bitcoin swaps. It's reflecting LI.FI's bridge processing, not the Bitcoin block timer.
• Mempool congestion. During heavy Bitcoin network activity, your transaction may take longer to confirm. Check mempool.space to see current congestion.

After a Bitcoin swap completes

• Check both Native SegWit and Taproot balances. The bridge may deliver to one address type even if you expected the other.
• Charts and balance displays may take a moment to update. If your balance doesn't appear within 5 minutes of the swap completing, restart the app.

Stuck or pending swaps

Most stuck swaps complete on their own. Wait at least 60 minutes for non-Bitcoin swaps and at least 90 minutes for Bitcoin swaps before assuming there's a problem.

Use LI.FI Scan (scan.li.fi) to identify which step is the issue:

What if my funds are stuck?

If the source transaction confirmed but the bridge has been stalled or failed for more than an hour, contact Phantom Support with the following:

1. Source and destination wallet addresses.
2. Source transaction hash or signature (find this in Recent Activity by tapping the swap). On Solana this is an 88-character base58 string. On Ethereum, Base, and Polygon it's 66 characters starting with 0x. On Bitcoin it's 64 hexadecimal characters with no 0x prefix.
3. The amount and tokens involved, for example 0.001 BTC to SOL.
4. A screenshot of the swap status screen if available.

Phantom Support cannot reverse a bridge transaction or force the bridge to complete, but with this information we can escalate to LI.FI and the underlying bridge provider.

One leg succeeded but the other never broadcast

If your source-side transaction confirmed but the destination transaction never appeared on the destination blockchain at all, do not reset your wallet. Resetting will not recover the missing leg and may erase transaction history. Contact Support with both wallet addresses and the source transaction hash so we can escalate to the bridge provider.

Common issues

"No quotes available"

LI.FI couldn't find a bridge route for that exact token pair. If a specific token-to-token route has no quotes, the most reliable workaround is to use a widely supported intermediate token:

1. On the source network, swap your token to USDC, ETH, or SOL.
2. Do the cross-chain swap with that common token.
3. On the destination network, swap the common token to the token you actually wanted.

This adds an extra fee, but it almost always works because USDC, ETH, and SOL have the deepest cross-chain liquidity.

"Insufficient funds" or "Not enough ETH/SOL/POL"

You don't have enough of the native token on the source network to pay the network fee. This can be confusing because you might have plenty of the token you're trying to swap, but you still need a small amount of the native token (the network's gas token) to submit the transaction. See Why am I seeing "Not Enough Funds"?

Swap simulation failed

Phantom simulates the transaction before submitting it. If the simulation fails, the swap won't go through. Causes include the following:

• Token has trading restrictions (some tokens block contract-initiated transfers).
• Bridge route has temporary liquidity issues.
• Slippage tolerance is too low. Try increasing it slightly.

Swap failed after loading

The bridge may have hit a liquidity issue or timeout mid-way. Try the following:

• A slightly smaller amount.
• A different intermediate token (for example, go through USDT instead of USDC).
• Waiting a few minutes and trying again. Bridge liquidity refreshes regularly.

Received less than expected

Cross-chain swaps stack fees: source gas, bridge fee, destination gas, and price impact. The quote shown before confirming includes all of these. If the final amount is significantly below the quote, check both source and destination explorer to see the exact deductions at each step. Slippage protection limits how much less you can receive, but small differences are normal.

Swapping SOL to ETH

A common point of confusion: SOL is the native token of the Solana network, and ETH is the native token of the Ethereum network. They live on different blockchains.

If you select SOL on Solana to ETH on Ethereum, that is a cross-chain swap (a bridge), and it will go through LI.FI just like any other cross-chain swap. There's no shorter path, even though both are native tokens of major networks, moving value between Solana and Ethereum requires a bridge.

If the swap appears to fail or "do nothing" when you set this pair, check the following:

• That you're on the Swap screen (not Send).
• That you've selected the correct networks for both tokens (the network selector is below each token).
• That you have native tokens on both sides for fees.
• That LI.FI returned a quote. If it shows "No quotes available," try a smaller amount or use USDC as an intermediate.

Phantom Cash is not a cross-chain swap

If you're swapping your Phantom Cash balance to a token like SOL or USDC, that's a same-chain swap on Solana. Cash account holds CASH, which is a Solana-based token. It does not use a bridge and is not affected by the cross-chain wait times in this article. If a Cash swap is failing, see Fix Phantom Cash issues instead.

See also

• Swap crypto in Phantom
• Why do I have to pay a network fee? (and other common questions)
• Swap low-liquidity tokens in Phantom
• What if I received a wrapped token?