---
title: BTC to XMR step by step: confirmations and timing
description: Bitcoin to Monero takes about an hour from sending to spendable XMR. Where the time goes, which Monero address to paste, what each explorer shows, how to plan.
url: https://sablebolt.io/blog/btc-to-xmr-step-by-step
---

[Monero & Zcash](https://sablebolt.io/blog)

# BTC to XMR step by step: confirmations, timing and the 10-block lock

Sablebolt Team 21 October 2026 8 min read

Contents

1. The timeline at a glance
2. Why the route is slow: the Bitcoin side
3. Which Monero address to paste
4. Step by step
5. The 10-block lock, explained
6. What the explorers show on each side
7. Planning the amount
8. Checklist before you send
9. FAQ

[BTC → XMR](https://sablebolt.io/swap/btc/xmr) is one of the slowest routes on sablebolt.io, and the slowness comes from the two chains, not from the swap. Bitcoin takes its time to confirm your deposit; Monero then locks what you receive for ten blocks before your wallet lets you spend it. This guide walks the route from the first click to spendable XMR, with the timing of each step, the address you paste, and what the explorers show on each side. Facts about Monero were checked against getmonero.org and the Monero source on 11 October 2026.

## The timeline at a glance

| Step | Where | Typical time | What you wait for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Create the swap | sablebolt.io | 1 min | Nothing — you get a deposit address |
| 2. Send BTC | Your wallet | 1–2 min to appear on the network | Your wallet to broadcast |
| 3. Confirming | Bitcoin | ≈ 21–44 min | 2 Bitcoin confirmations |
| 4. Swapping | sablebolt.io | ≈ 1–2 min | The rate to be set and the payout prepared |
| 5. Sending | Monero | ≈ 2–4 min | The payout transaction to enter a block |
| 6. Done, but locked | Your Monero wallet | ≈ 20 min | 10 Monero blocks |
| **Total to spendable XMR** |  | **≈ 45–75 min** |  |

Steps 3 and 6 are the ones you cannot speed up. Everything else is a couple of minutes.

## Why the route is slow: the Bitcoin side

The swap starts after your deposit has 2 confirmations on Bitcoin. Bitcoin blocks arrive about every ten minutes on average — bitcoin.org puts it as approximately every 10 minutes, with no guaranteed minimum or maximum delay. Two confirmations therefore take 21–44 minutes in the typical case, and occasionally longer when two slow blocks follow each other.

The confirmation count is fixed per chain on the site and is the same for every swap from Bitcoin. It is also why [XMR → BTC](https://sablebolt.io/swap/xmr/btc) feels different: that direction waits for 5 Monero confirmations, about 11–24 minutes, and then the Bitcoin wait moves to the payout side where it does not hold up the rate.

While your deposit is confirming, the rate is not yet set. Bitcoin can move a fair amount in half an hour, so the amount of XMR you receive will differ from the estimate — up or down. The arithmetic is in [Floating rate: what changes between the estimate and the payout](https://sablebolt.io/blog/floating-rate-estimate-vs-payout) ; the section "Planning the amount" below applies it to this route.

≈ 21–44 min 2 confirmations on Bitcoin

[Swap BTC to XMR](https://sablebolt.io/swap/btc/xmr)

## Which Monero address to paste

A Monero wallet offers more than one kind of address. The ones you will meet:

| Type | Starts with | Length | Use it here? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary (standard) address | 4 | 95 characters | Yes |
| Subaddress | 8 | 95 characters | Yes — the default your wallet should give you |
| Integrated address | 4 | 106 characters | Carries an embedded payment ID; meant for businesses taking automated payments. Use a subaddress instead. |

The form's guidance for the Monero recipient reads: 4… or 8…, 95 characters, no payment ID needed. A subaddress is the best choice. The Monero documentation says a subaddress is what you should use by default to receive Monero, and that individuals should prefer subaddresses; every modern wallet creates a fresh one on request. There is no separate payment ID field on the form, and you do not need one: long payment IDs were removed from Monero in release 0.15.

If you are paying out to an exchange's Monero deposit, use the address they show, exactly as shown.

## Step by step

1. **Open [BTC → XMR](https://sablebolt.io/swap/btc/xmr)** and enter the BTC amount. The form shows "You get (estimate)" with the Monero network fee already taken out, and the arrival time for the Bitcoin side.
2. **Paste both addresses** — the Bitcoin address you will send from, then a Monero subaddress from your wallet. The form checks both formats.
3. **Click "Get deposit address".** The status page opens with a one-time Bitcoin address and the exact amount to send. Save the link: there is no account to find it from later.
4. **Send the BTC from your wallet** , in one transaction, for exactly the amount shown. Use a fee your wallet marks as normal priority or faster; a low-fee transaction can sit in the mempool for hours and the whole timeline waits on it.
5. **Watch "Confirming".** The status page shows the deposit hash with a link to blockchain.com. The count climbs 0, 1, 2.
6. **"Swapping", then "Sending".** The rate is set, the XMR payout is broadcast, and the page shows the payout hash with a link to the Monero explorer.
7. **"Done".** The page shows the delivered XMR amount. Your wallet shows the same amount as incoming — locked.
8. **Wait for the lock.** After 10 Monero blocks the balance becomes spendable.

## The 10-block lock, explained

Monero's consensus rules require every transaction output to age 10 blocks before it can be spent. The constant is in the Monero source as CRYPTONOTE_DEFAULT_TX_SPENDABLE_AGE = 10, and Monero blocks are targeted at 120 seconds — getmonero.org's FAQ says a new block is added approximately every 2 minutes. Ten blocks is therefore about 20 minutes.

What it looks like in a wallet:

- Right after "Done", the wallet shows the incoming transaction and a balance that is higher than the *unlocked* balance. The difference is your new XMR.
- The transaction's confirmation count climbs from 1 to 10. Wallets label the funds "locked", "pending" or "unconfirmed" during this time.
- At 10 confirmations the funds move into the unlocked balance and you can send them on.

This is not a hold by the swap and not a property of this route; every XMR received by anyone from anyone waits the same 10 blocks. It exists to protect against chain reorganisations invalidating a spend. It also means that if you plan to send the XMR onward immediately — to an exchange, to pay someone — budget twenty extra minutes after "Done".

## What the explorers show on each side

The two chains are opposites in what they reveal.

| Side | Explorer linked from the status page | What you can see | What you cannot see |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin deposit | blockchain.com | Your transaction, its confirmations, the amount, the sending and deposit addresses | — |
| Monero payout | monerohash.com explorer | That the transaction exists, its block and confirmation count, its size and fee | The amount, the receiving address, the sender. These are hidden by Monero's design. |

So on the Bitcoin side the explorer is the full record and matches the status page figure to the satoshi. On the Monero side the explorer only tells you that a transaction with that hash was mined and how many blocks ago. The proof that the payout is yours is your own wallet: it recognises the output with your view key and shows the amount. If your wallet is not showing anything twenty minutes after "Done", the first thing to check is whether it has finished scanning up to the block the explorer names.

A worked check: the status page says 0.4123 XMR delivered and shows the payout hash. On the Monero explorer the hash resolves to a transaction in block N with 3 confirmations. Your wallet, synced to block N+3, shows +0.4123 XMR, locked, 3 of 10 confirmations. Fourteen minutes later: 10 of 10, unlocked. That is the whole verification.

## Planning the amount

Because the rate is set when the deposit confirms, and Bitcoin confirmation takes 21–44 minutes, this route sees more difference between estimate and payout than most. A worked example with made-up numbers:

- Suppose 1 BTC = 400 XMR when you open the form and the Monero payout fee shown is 0.0001 XMR. You enter 0.01 BTC: 0.01 × 400 = 4 XMR, minus 0.0001, so "You get" shows **3.9999 XMR**.
- During the 30 minutes your deposit takes to confirm, BTC moves 2 % against XMR. At confirmation the rate is 392: 0.01 × 392 − 0.0001 = **3.9199 XMR** delivered.
- Had it moved 2 % the other way: 408 × 0.01 − 0.0001 = **4.0799 XMR**, and the status page shows the 0.08 XMR surplus next to the delivered amount.

If a particular XMR amount must arrive — a minimum deposit at the receiving side, an agreed payment — oversend by a margin sized for a 30–45 minute window, say 2–3 %, then send immediately so that the window does not grow. For 4 XMR that must arrive: aim for "You get" of at least 4.12 XMR. Fixed-rate swaps are not offered, so the margin is the tool.

## Checklist before you send

- Recipient is a Monero address of 95 characters starting with 4 or 8 — a subaddress from your own wallet is best.
- No payment ID anywhere; if a service insists on one, ask them for a subaddress or an integrated address.
- "You get" is above the amount that must arrive by your margin.
- Bitcoin fee in your wallet set to a normal or fast priority.
- Status link saved.
- You have 20 minutes in hand after "Done" before the XMR is spendable.

## FAQ

How long does BTC to XMR take in total?

From sending the BTC to spendable XMR, about 45–75 minutes: 21–44 for two Bitcoin confirmations, a few minutes for the swap and the Monero payout, then about 20 minutes of lock. "Done" on the status page arrives before the lock ends.

Can I speed up the Bitcoin part?

Only by paying a competitive fee so your transaction is in the next block. Two confirmations are required regardless; nothing on the site changes that per swap.

My wallet shows the XMR but will not let me send it.

That is the 10-block lock. Check the confirmation count on the transaction; at 10 it becomes spendable.

The Monero explorer does not show the amount. Is that a problem?

No. Monero hides amounts and addresses on-chain. The status page shows the delivered amount, and your wallet confirms it.

Which Monero address should I give — primary or subaddress?

A subaddress (starts with 8). It is what Monero's own documentation recommends by default. The primary address (starts with 4) also works.

Is the reverse route faster?

[XMR → BTC](https://sablebolt.io/swap/xmr/btc) waits 5 Monero confirmations, about 11–24 minutes, before the rate is set, and then the Bitcoin network's own time to confirm the payout. There is no 10-block lock on the BTC you receive; Bitcoin has no equivalent rule. See [Monero](https://sablebolt.io/coin/monero) and [Bitcoin](https://sablebolt.io/coin/bitcoin) for both coins' swap facts.

## Related posts

- [How swaps work Floating rate: what changes between the estimate and the payout The estimate is a snapshot and the payout is set when the deposit confirms. What happens in between, with numbers. 18 October 2026 7 min](https://sablebolt.io/blog/floating-rate-estimate-vs-payout)
- [How swaps work Reading a swap status page: every state from waiting to finished Waiting, Confirming, Swapping, Sending, Done — what each stage means, which hash to look up where, and when a wait is normal. 19 October 2026 9 min](https://sablebolt.io/blog/reading-a-swap-status-page)
- [How swaps work Memo, destination tag, payment ID: the coins that need an extra field Five assets on sablebolt.io have a second field next to the address. When it is required, when it is not, and what goes wrong without it. 20 October 2026 9 min](https://sablebolt.io/blog/memo-destination-tag-payment-id)