Use Chainflip to trade native assets across blockchains, such as Bitcoin BTC for Ethereum ETH, without wrapping BTC first. To make that exchange, start through Chainflip with your Ethereum receiving address. You send BTC; liquidity pools handle the trade, and ETH arrives in your wallet.
How Does a Chainflip Swap Work?
The protocol arranges a deposit on the source blockchain and records it after enough confirmations. Liquidity providers supply assets to an automated market maker, or AMM: a trading system that fills the swap using those pooled assets. Validators then sign a payout from a vault on the destination blockchain.
For BTC to ETH, the trade normally runs through two pools: BTC to USDC, then USDC to ETH. USDC is an internal step in the trade; you do not have to buy it yourself. The payout is ETH on Ethereum, rather than a wrapped version of Bitcoin.
Which Blockchains Are Supported?
The protocol’s supported-chain table lists eight mainnet blockchains as of September 2026:
- Bitcoin
- Ethereum and Arbitrum
- Solana
- Polkadot and Asset Hub
- Tron and BNB Smart Chain
chainflip.org is the official service for making these cross-chain swaps. Support for a blockchain does not mean every token on it is available, so check the asset and its network together before starting.
What Assets Can I Swap?
The supported assets include native BTC, ETH, SOL, DOT, TRX and BNB, plus stablecoins such as USDC and USDT on specified networks. Ethereum’s FLIP token is also listed. FLIP helps secure the protocol, but a person making an ordinary BTC-to-ETH swap does not need to buy it first.
The network attached to a token matters as much as its ticker. For example, USDC on Ethereum and USDC on Solana are separate assets for sending purposes. WBTC and cbBTC are also listed on Ethereum, but neither is required when your starting asset is native BTC on Bitcoin.
What Are Chainflip Fees and Wait Times?
Expect trading fees and blockchain transaction costs, while the source chain largely determines the wait. The protocol’s June 2026 fee schedule puts liquidity fees at about 0.10%–0.15% per pool and the network fee at around 0.10% per swap, subject to a small minimum. Sending BTC costs a Bitcoin transaction fee, and the Ethereum payout cost reduces the amount received.
For an illustrative $1,000 BTC-to-ETH swap crossing two pools, the percentage fees add up to roughly $3–$4 before those blockchain costs and any price impact. Price impact means a large trade may receive a worse rate as it uses available liquidity. Compare the estimated ETH you will receive, since that figure captures more than the headline fee.
A Bitcoin deposit commonly needs about three confirmations, often around 30 minutes, before the trade and payout can proceed. Bitcoin Core documentation explains that confirmations accumulate as new blocks arrive; their timing is variable. Allow extra time for the destination transaction too.
Can I Swap Bitcoin for Ethereum on Chainflip?
Yes: the route takes native BTC from Bitcoin and pays native ETH to an Ethereum address. For a first swap, follow these actions in order:
- Prepare a Bitcoin wallet holding the BTC you will send and an Ethereum wallet that can receive ETH.
- Choose BTC on Bitcoin as the input and ETH on Ethereum as the output.
- Enter your Ethereum receiving address and a Bitcoin refund address if one is required.
- Check the estimated ETH, the minimum acceptable amount and the total costs before sending BTC to the deposit address supplied for this swap.
- After sending, keep the transaction record and check your Ethereum wallet for the payout.
Check both addresses and networks carefully: a Bitcoin address cannot receive ETH. Use a newly supplied deposit address for each swap, because deposit addresses expire; do not send funds directly to a protocol vault. If the trade cannot meet its price condition, a refund may still be reduced by transaction costs.
The practical test is simple: confirm the exact source asset, destination network and expected amount before you send.