What a swap provider does when you accidentally send below the minimum amount

07 September 2026

The swap provider will hold your funds and not process the trade. The transaction will not be forwarded, and you will not receive the intended output coins.

This is not a bug or a mistake by the system. It is a deliberate safety measure. Every swap provider sets a minimum deposit amount for each pair it offers. That minimum is calculated to cover the provider's costs and leave a viable output. If you send less, the provider cannot complete the trade without losing money or producing an output so small it would be consumed by network fees. Rather than attempt a trade that would fail or lose your money in a different way, the software freezes the deposit.

What happens to your coins

Your coins arrive at the deposit address. The provider's system checks the amount against the minimum. The check fails. The swap is marked as "under-minimum" or "below minimum" internally. The funds sit at that address. They are not returned automatically. Most providers will not trigger a refund for an under-minimum deposit unless you contact support. Some providers will eventually sweep small balances to a central wallet, but that process is not a refund - it is housekeeping, and you may not be able to identify your share later.

What you should do

Contact the provider's support team. Provide the transaction ID and the deposit address. Explain that you sent below the minimum. Support can manually release the funds back to you. This is not an instant process. It can take hours or days, depending on the provider's staffing and policies. Some providers charge a manual intervention fee. Others do not. You will not know until you ask.

Why the system does not refund automatically

Automatic refunds for under-minimum deposits sound like an obvious feature. They are not standard. The reason is network fees. Returning coins costs the provider a transaction fee. If the deposit is very small, the fee to return it may be larger than the deposit itself. The provider would lose money on every such refund. Manual intervention lets the provider decide whether to absorb the fee, deduct it from your deposit, or ask you to cover it. No provider will publicly state its policy on this, because every case is different.

The role of your wallet signature

This situation is one of the cases covered by the hub page "What your wallet signs during a failed swap." When you sign the swap order, you agree to the minimum amount. The signature does not say "process this trade no matter what." It says "process this trade if the terms are met." Sending below the minimum means the terms are not met. The signature does not force the provider to proceed. It also does not force the provider to refund. The signature gives the provider permission to take the deposit under the agreed terms. If those terms are not satisfied, the provider holds the coins without clear instructions. That is why manual intervention is required.

Can you prevent this

Check the minimum before you send. The swap page displays the minimum for each pair. Do not round down. Do not assume a small shortfall will be accepted. It will not. If you are sending from an exchange or wallet that deducts a fee from the transfer amount, account for that fee. Send enough so that the amount arriving at the deposit address is at or above the minimum. If you are unsure, send a test amount that is clearly above the minimum, then confirm the system accepts it before sending the rest.

What cannot be recovered

If the deposit address has an expiry time and that time passes, recovery becomes harder. The provider may no longer monitor that address. The coins may be swept to a cold wallet. Support can still retrieve them, but the process will take longer and may involve additional verification. This is covered on the sibling page "Can I recover coins sent to an expired swap deposit address." If the provider goes offline entirely while holding your under-minimum deposit, the coins are effectively lost. That scenario is covered on the page "What happens to my deposit if the swap site goes offline while my trade is processing."

The honest answer is short: the provider holds your coins until you ask for them back. Some providers return them quickly. Some charge a fee. Some take days. None will process the trade. The only reliable action is to contact support immediately and provide proof of the transaction.

Back to wallet security