My swap went below the minimum amount after fees were taken

07 September 2026

The swap cannot proceed. When the amount you sent drops below the minimum required after network fees are deducted, the system treats the deposit as insufficient and abandons the transaction. The funds are recoverable, but the swap itself is permanently failed.

Here is why this happens. Every cryptocurrency transaction carries network fees. These are not charged by the swap service; they are paid to the blockchain miners or validators. When you initiate a swap, the system quotes a minimum amount that must arrive in the deposit address. That minimum assumes the full amount you send will be credited. But if network fees are taken from that same transaction - for example, when a blockchain deducts fees from the output rather than adding them on top - the actual credited balance falls short.

Several scenarios produce this situation. In some blockchains, the fee is subtracted from the total sent. If you send 0.01 BTC and the network fee is 0.0005 BTC, only 0.0095 BTC reaches the swap address. If the minimum was 0.01 BTC, the deposit is too small. Another common cause: you used a third-party wallet or exchange that charges its own withdrawal fee before broadcasting the transaction. The amount shown as "sent" in your wallet may not match what the blockchain actually delivers.

The swap system checks the credited amount against the minimum after all fees are settled. There is no negotiation. If the credited amount is below the minimum, the swap is rejected. The system does not attempt a partial swap or round down the minimum. It simply stops.

What can you recover? The full amount that arrived - minus any network fees already spent - is available for return. The service will send it back to the originating address, or to an address you specify during recovery. The amount returned will be the credited deposit, not the larger amount you originally intended to send. The network fees paid to the blockchain are gone; those cannot be refunded.

The recovery process is not automatic. You must contact support and provide the swap ID. The team will verify the deposit and initiate a refund. This usually takes a few hours to a day, depending on the blockchain's congestion. The refunded amount will be subject to network fees again when it is sent back.

If you are uncertain whether a swap has failed for this reason, check the swap status on the site. It will display "failed" or "expired" with a note about insufficient funds. Do not send additional crypto to the same address to "top up" the amount. That creates a second deposit, which the system treats as a separate transaction and will also fail.

To avoid this problem in future, account for fees before sending. Send slightly more than the minimum shown, enough to cover the highest plausible network fee. Many blockchains post real-time fee estimates; use those to decide the amount. If you are using an exchange that deducts its own withdrawal fee, add that on top as well.

The broader topic of failed swaps and what happens to the trapped funds is covered in the hub page "What a failed swap leaves behind and how to recover it." That page explains the general principles of refunds, timeouts, and how to reclaim crypto that did not complete its intended exchange. It is the natural next place to look if this situation repeats or if you want to understand the full failure landscape.

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