---
title: What a block explorer shows about a swap
description: Two transactions, two chains: what the deposit and payout hashes reveal on transparent chains, on Monero and on Zcash, and what only the status page shows.
url: https://sablebolt.io/blog/what-a-block-explorer-shows-about-a-swap
---

[How swaps work](https://sablebolt.io/blog)

# What a block explorer shows about a swap, and what it doesn't

Sablebolt Team 28 October 2026 9 min read

Contents

1. A swap is two transactions with nothing on-chain between them
2. Transparent chains: Bitcoin, Ethereum, TRON, Solana
3. Monero
4. Zcash
5. What the two hashes reveal, and to whom
6. The payout address is not you
7. What the status page shows that no explorer does
8. A worked example: USDT on TRON to Bitcoin
9. Checklist for reading your swap on the explorers
10. FAQ

A swap on sablebolt.io produces two transactions: your deposit on one chain and the payout on another. Each has a hash, each hash opens on an explorer, and the status page links to both. People read those explorer pages for two opposite reasons — to prove a payment was made, and to understand what a stranger could learn from it. This guide takes the chains the site uses one at a time and lists, without promises in either direction, what each explorer displays about a swap and what it cannot display. The explorer behaviour described here is what the linked explorers showed on 12 October 2026; the protocol facts are from each project's documentation.

## A swap is two transactions with nothing on-chain between them

|  | Deposit | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| From | Your wallet | A payout address belonging to the swap's liquidity side |
| To | A one-time deposit address | The recipient address you pasted |
| Chain | The one you send on | The one you receive on |
| Hash on the status page | "Your deposit", from stage 2 | "Payout", from stage 4 |

Neither transaction carries a field that refers to the other. Blockchains record transfers on their own ledger; a Bitcoin transaction has no slot for "this is in exchange for USDT on TRON", and a TRON transaction has no slot for a Bitcoin hash. The only document in which both hashes appear together is the status page, and the status page is a link, not a public listing. Anyone with the link sees both; anyone without it sees two unrelated transactions on two chains.

That is the structural fact. What each chain shows about its own transaction is where the differences are.

## Transparent chains: Bitcoin, Ethereum, TRON, Solana

On these chains every transaction is public in full, and the explorer is a complete record.

| Chain and explorer the status page links to | What the explorer shows about the deposit | What it shows about the payout |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin — blockchain.com | Your sending address(es), the deposit address, the amount, the fee, the time, the confirmation count | The payout address, your recipient address, the amount, the fee, the confirmation count |
| Ethereum — etherscan.io | The sending address, the deposit address, the ETH value or, for USDT and USDC, a token transfer line with the amount; gas paid; the block | The payout address, your address, the token transfer or ETH value, gas, block |
| TRON — tronscan.org | The sending address, the deposit address, the TRC-20 transfer with the amount, energy and bandwidth consumed, the block | The payout address, your address, the TRC-20 transfer, resources used, block |
| Solana — solscan.io | The signature, the sending account, the deposit account, the SOL or token balance change, the slot and its status | The payout account, your account, the balance change, slot and status |

Two things that trip people up when reading these pages:

- **Token transfers show a native value of zero.** A USDT transfer on Ethereum is a call to the USDT contract; etherscan shows "Value: 0 ETH" at the top and the amount of USDT further down under token transfers. On tronscan the TRC-20 transfer line carries the amount. Neither page is saying nothing was sent.
- **The deposit address is one-time.** Looking it up afterwards shows your deposit arriving and, later, being moved on with other funds. That onward movement is the swap's own housekeeping, not your payout; your payout is on the other chain.

For a recipient, the payout page proves everything they need: the amount, their address, the time. It does not show your wallet anywhere, because the payment came from a payout address, not from you.

≈ 2–5 min 1 confirmation on TRON

[Swap USDT TRC-20 to BTC](https://sablebolt.io/swap/usdt-trc20/btc)

## Monero

Monero's explorer page — the status page links to monerohash.com — shows that a transaction with that hash exists, the block it is in, the confirmation count, its size in bytes and the fee. It does not show the amount, the receiving address or the sending address; those are hidden by the protocol's design for every Monero transaction, not only for swaps.

This is true for both roles:

- **XMR deposit** (for example [XMR → USDT TRC-20](https://sablebolt.io/swap/xmr/usdt-trc20)): the explorer shows the transaction and its confirmations climbing to 5. The status page is where the amount is stated, and your own wallet's history is where you see it leave.
- **XMR payout** (for example [BTC → XMR](https://sablebolt.io/swap/btc/xmr)): the explorer shows the transaction and its confirmations; your wallet recognises the output with its view key and shows the amount. If the wallet shows nothing twenty minutes after "Done", check that it has scanned up to the block the explorer names.

The Monero explorer therefore answers one question — "was this mined, and how long ago?" — and leaves the amount to the status page and the wallet.

## Zcash

Zcash depends on which side of the transaction is transparent. The site pays out to transparent (t1) addresses, and that part of a transaction is public exactly as on Bitcoin: on blockchair.com the payout hash shows the payout address, your t1 address, the amount and the confirmation count. If you later move the balance into a shielded pool from your own wallet, that transaction shows the amount leaving the t1 address and the fee, but nothing about where it went inside the pool. The Zcash documentation's rule is the short version: transparent addresses and values are publicly visible, shielded ones are not, and fees are visible regardless. [Zcash address types: what a swap can pay out to](https://sablebolt.io/blog/zcash-address-types-what-a-swap-pays-to) goes through the address formats.

## What the two hashes reveal, and to whom

| Fact | Visible from the deposit hash | Visible from the payout hash | Visible on the status page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your sending wallet's address | Yes, on a transparent chain; no on Monero | No | No — only the deposit address and the recipient |
| The amount you sent | Yes on a transparent chain; no on Monero; on Zcash, yes if the sending side is transparent | No | Yes |
| The amount delivered | No | Yes on a transparent chain; no on Monero | Yes |
| The recipient's address | No | Yes on a transparent chain; no on Monero | Yes |
| Where the payout came from | No | The payout address, which is not your wallet | No |
| That the two belong to one swap | No | No | Yes — this is the only place |
| The rate that was used | No | No | Yes, as the two amounts |

Read the last two rows together. Someone who holds one hash and looks at the chain sees one transfer. Someone who holds the status link sees the pair and the rate. Someone who holds neither and watches two public chains sees two transactions among all the others, with their amounts and times; whether they connect them is a matter of matching amounts and timing, which the chains do not prevent and this site does not claim to prevent. This is why the floating-rate difference between the estimate and the delivered amount is described plainly in [Floating rate: what changes between the estimate and the payout](https://sablebolt.io/blog/floating-rate-estimate-vs-payout) and never as a feature.

## The payout address is not you

The payout comes from an address on the receiving chain that belongs to the swap's liquidity side. For the person you are paying this has one practical consequence: their explorer page and their wallet show an incoming payment from an address they do not know. The payout hash from the status page is the proof that the payment is yours. Send them the hash, not the deposit hash — the deposit shows money leaving your wallet towards a one-time address, which proves nothing to them.

The same point in the other direction: when you receive a payout into an exchange account, the exchange sees a deposit from the payout address; the status link and the payout hash are the record you have.

## What the status page shows that no explorer does

[Reading a swap status page](https://sablebolt.io/blog/reading-a-swap-status-page) covers every stage; here is the part that matters for this topic. The page shows what you send and what you get, the estimate and then the delivered amount, the recipient, the refund address if you set one, the creation time, and both hashes with links. It is the only place the two transactions are presented as one event, and so the only document worth protecting: anyone with the link sees the addresses on it. Share it with the person you are paying if they need the proof; otherwise keep it as your record.

## A worked example: USDT on TRON to Bitcoin

Made-up numbers; the form shows the live ones.

1. You open [USDT TRC-20 → BTC](https://sablebolt.io/swap/usdt-trc20/btc) , enter 500 USDT and paste a bc1q… address. Suppose 1 BTC = 100,000 USDT and the Bitcoin payout fee shown is 0.00002 BTC: 500 ÷ 100,000 − 0.00002 = **0.00498 BTC** estimated.
2. You send 500 USDT. Within a minute the status page is on "Confirming" and shows the deposit hash. On tronscan: your address, the deposit address, "500 USDT" on the TRC-20 transfer line, the energy and bandwidth it consumed, one confirmation after about 2–5 minutes.
3. "Swapping": the rate is read. "Sending": the payout hash appears. On blockchain.com: an input from a payout address, an output of the delivered amount to your bc1q… address, the fee, 0 confirmations, then 1, then more at roughly ten-minute intervals.
4. "Done" when the Bitcoin network has confirmed it. The page shows the delivered amount; if BTC moved 0.3 % against USDT in the five minutes of confirmation, it is **0.00496 BTC** or **0.00500 BTC** rather than the estimate.

What the two explorer pages have in common: nothing, except that one shows 500 USDT leaving at 14:02 and the other shows about 0.005 BTC arriving at 14:09. What the status page has: both, side by side, with the rate between them.

## Checklist for reading your swap on the explorers

- At "Confirming": the deposit hash opens, the amount matches what you sent, and the confirmation count is rising towards the number the page asked for.
- At "Sending": the payout hash opens on the receiving chain's explorer, the recipient address is yours, and the amount matches the status page.
- Paying someone: the payout hash is what you send them, with the status link if they need the pair.
- On Monero: the explorer shows the transaction and its confirmations only; the amount is on the status page and in your wallet.
- Status link saved and treated as the record — it is the only document that holds both hashes.

## FAQ

Can anyone see that I made a swap?

The two transactions are public on transparent chains, with their amounts and times, like every other transaction there. Nothing on either chain labels them as a swap, and nothing links them except the status page. On Monero neither amount nor addresses are visible on the explorer.

The recipient says the payment came from an unknown address.

That is the payout address. Send them the payout hash from the status page; it shows their address and the amount.

Why does etherscan show "Value: 0 ETH" for my USDT payout?

Because a USDT transfer is a contract call. The USDT amount is under the token transfers section of the same page.

The Monero explorer shows no amount. How do I prove the payout?

Your wallet shows the incoming amount once it has scanned the block; the status page states the delivered amount. The explorer confirms only that the transaction was mined and how many blocks ago.

Can the explorer tell me whether the swap is finished?

No. It knows only its own chain. "Done" on the status page means the payout has the confirmations the receiving network needs; the explorer shows the count, the page draws the conclusion.

Does the deposit address link back to me later?

On a transparent chain the deposit transaction shows your sending address, as every transaction there does. After the swap the deposit address is not used for you again, and its later movements are not your payout.

## Related posts

- [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)
- [Monero & Zcash Zcash address types: what a swap can pay out to Five Zcash address prefixes, two that the swap form accepts, and what a transparent payout looks like on the explorer before your wallet shields it. 28 October 2026 8 min](https://sablebolt.io/blog/zcash-address-types-what-a-swap-pays-to)
- [Monero & Zcash Monero in 2026: where it can still be swapped and what changed Three exchange delistings with their dates from the primary notices, the state of FCMP++ as of 12 October 2026, and what an account-free swap between two addresses means for XMR. 28 October 2026 9 min](https://sablebolt.io/blog/monero-in-2026-where-it-can-be-swapped)