How a cross-chain swap works
What happens when you swap BTC for ETH or USDC for SOL without an exchange account: deposits, protocols, payouts and what to check.
One asset in, another asset out, on another chain
A cross-chain swap takes an asset on one blockchain and pays out a different asset on another, for example BTC on Bitcoin for ETH on Ethereum. No single chain can do this alone, so a protocol that runs on both sides does it: THORChain and Chainflip are two of them.
You never hand your funds to Aetheria. You either sign a transaction in your own wallet, which sends the funds to the protocol, or you send them to a deposit address that the protocol opened for this swap.
The steps, in order
Compare: Aetheria asks every source at once and ranks the routes on what actually arrives, after every fee.
Check: before anything is signed or shown, this page checks what the route would do on its own: the contract or deposit address, the amount, where the funds go and the minimum you accept.
Send: you sign in your wallet, or send to the deposit address. The protocol receives the funds, swaps them and pays out to the address you gave.
Follow: a status link shows the swap until it is paid out or refunded. Times shown along the way are estimates from the protocol.
What to check yourself
The receiving address: a transfer to a wrong address cannot be undone.
The asset and the network you send from: sending another asset, or the right asset on another network, can be lost.
The minimum: the amount below which the swap does not go through, shown separately from what you are expected to receive.
Compare routes for your own swap
Pick two assets and an amount: every source is asked at once and ranked on what arrives after every fee. No wallet needed to compare.
This page explains how swaps work. It is not investment advice.