After you confirm a swap and send your deposit, the exchange moves through a predictable sequence of states. Knowing what each one means takes the anxiety out of waiting and tells you when something genuinely needs attention versus when you simply need to be patient. This walkthrough follows a swap from the moment you create it to the moment your coins arrive.
It begins the instant you confirm. The provider generates a deposit address and starts watching it, and your swap enters the waiting-for-deposit state. Nothing has happened on the blockchain yet; the ball is in your court. You send the exact amount to the deposit address, on the correct network, within the time window the provider allows. Sending a different amount or using the wrong network is the most common cause of a stuck or failed swap, so this is the step to slow down on.
Once your transaction is broadcast and the provider sees it, the swap moves to confirming. Now it is waiting for the deposit network to confirm your transaction enough times to be considered final. This stage is governed entirely by the coin you sent and how busy its network is: a fast chain may clear in a minute, while a congested one can take much longer. Your funds are safe during this wait; the provider simply will not start the conversion until your deposit is irreversible.
When the deposit is confirmed, the swap enters the exchanging state. This is the conversion itself, where the provider trades the coin you sent for the coin you want, and it is usually quick. Then the swap moves to sending, which means the payout transaction has been created and broadcast to the network for the coin you are receiving. From here it is out of the provider's hands and in the hands of that blockchain.
The final state is completed. The payout has been sent, and it will confirm on the receiving network just like any other transaction. Seeing completed on the tracking page means the provider has done its part; the coins may still need a few network confirmations before they are spendable in your wallet, which is normal.
Not every swap follows the happy path, and the other states are worth recognising. Refunded means the swap could not be completed and the provider has returned your funds to the refund address, which is exactly why providing one when you create the swap is worth the extra field. Failed means the swap could not complete on the provider's side. Expired means the deposit window elapsed before your funds arrived, which usually happens when a deposit is sent late or gets stuck on a slow network.
SwapScout mirrors all of these states on its tracking page, so you can follow a swap without refreshing the provider's own site or digging through a block explorer. The page is tied to your swap's tracking identifier, so keep that link until everything has settled. If you ever need to contact support, yours or the provider's, that identifier and the deposit transaction ID are the two things that let anyone find your swap quickly.
A last piece of practical advice: most swaps that look stuck are simply waiting on network confirmations, not broken. Before assuming something has gone wrong, check whether your deposit transaction has confirmed on its own blockchain. If it has confirmed and the swap still has not advanced after a reasonable time, that is the point to reach out, with your tracking ID in hand.