What happens to my deposit if the swap site goes offline while my trade is processing

07 September 2026

Your deposit is not lost, but it may be stuck. If the swap site goes offline mid-trade, the funds sit in the smart contract or on the blockchain exactly where the transaction left them - and whether you can recover them depends on which step failed.

Here is the mechanics, step by step.

The moment the site dies

A swap is not one action. It is a sequence: you sign a transaction, the site broadcasts it, the blockchain confirms it, then the site (or its backend) triggers the second leg - sending you the other coin. The site going offline interrupts that sequence. Your deposit is already on-chain. The contract holds it. The site's absence does not erase it.

What matters is where in the sequence the interruption happens.

Case one: you signed, but nothing broadcast

If the site dies before your signed transaction reaches the network, nothing happened. Your coins are still in your wallet. The signed transaction is a file on your device. You can discard it and try again later, or broadcast it manually if you know how. No recovery is needed because no deposit was made.

Case two: your deposit confirmed, but the swap never completed

This is the common failure. Your transaction is confirmed. The site's contract now holds your coins. The site was supposed to send the output coin to your address, but it went offline before doing so.

Two sub-cases follow.

The contract is custodial

Many swap contracts hold the deposit until the second leg is sent. If the site dies, that contract is still on-chain. The funds are there. The problem is access. If the site operators control the contract's private keys and they are gone, the funds are effectively frozen. You cannot retrieve them without their cooperation. No code on your side changes that.

Some contracts include a refund clause. If the swap does not complete within a set time, the contract may allow you to withdraw your original deposit. That is not automatic. You need to trigger it, usually by calling a function on the contract. If the site is offline, you can still do this - the blockchain does not care about the site's status - but you need the contract's address and the right interface. A block explorer can help. This is not simple for most users.

The contract is non-custodial

Some swaps are structured as a pair of transactions. You send coin A. The contract immediately forwards coin B, or it holds both sides in escrow until both parties deposit. If the site dies after your deposit but before the counterparty's deposit, the contract may lock both sides. Again, a refund function may exist. Again, you must trigger it yourself.

What you actually control

Your wallet signed one transaction. That signature authorises the movement of your coins to the contract. It does not authorise the site to hold them forever. But "does not authorise" is not the same as "you can get them back." The blockchain executes what the contract code says, not what you intended.

If the contract has no refund mechanism, and the site is gone, your deposit is gone. Not stolen in the technical sense - it sits in a contract that nobody can move - but gone for practical purposes. You cannot force a contract to release funds it was not programmed to release.

What is worth doing

Check the transaction hash on a block explorer. See if the contract holds your coins. Look for a "refund" or "withdraw" function in the contract's code. If you find one, you can try to call it. If you do not, your only hope is that the site returns, which is a hope, not a plan.

The next thing to read

This page sits under "What your wallet signs during a failed swap." That page explains the exact signature you gave and what rights it grants. Read it before attempting any manual recovery. You need to know whether you even signed a refund path.

The short version: your deposit is not destroyed by the site going offline. It is locked. Locked is recoverable only if the contract was written to allow it. Most small swap sites are not. Treat an offline site with a pending swap as a loss, then check the contract before you give up entirely.

Back to wallet security