Why Is My Transaction Stuck on Pending?

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• USDC$1~0%

Key Takeaways

• Most swaps confirm within minutes. Some take longer, it depends on the network you're using.
• Behind the scenes, our support team tracks far more detail than what's shown in your exchange tracker.
• You can check your deposit's real-time status on our Status Page or a blockchain explorer.
• Feel free to reach out to ChangeNOW Support anytime. Our agents are always ready to help.

Transaction Statuses on ChangeNOW

Every swap on ChangeNOW moves through four main stages, visible right in your swap tracker:

• Awaiting deposit: we're waiting for your crypto to arrive at the exchange address.
• Confirming: basically the same as “pending”. Your deposit has arrived and is waiting for enough network confirmations. We’ll explain this in more detail a bit later.
• Processing: the swap itself is happening between the two assets.
• Sending funds: the exchanged crypto is on its way to your wallet.

These four stages you see on the screen are a simplified user view. Behind the scenes, our team tracks a much more nuanced version. Among the many other statuses they track, a few examples:

• Manual - when a human's reviewing the transfer directly
• Ready for payout - good sign: everything checked, funds about to go out
• Failed - the case when the network rejected the deposit before it reached us.

So if something goes wrong, chances are we already see exactly what's going on with the funds.

Transaction on "Confirming": What Exactly Is Happening

A lot of things, honestly.

We asked one of our support agents to put it simply:

"Confirming means we've received the deposit, and the swap is collecting the confirmations it needs to move to the next status. Think of it like this: during Confirming, the blockchain is essentially putting a stamp on the transfer. Each new confirmation increases the certainty that the transfer is final and irreversible. Once we have enough confirmations, ChangeNOW starts the exchange. The more reliable the network, the fewer confirmations it needs."

Why Transactions Stay Pending: Fees and Network Congestion

Funds being stuck is one of the most frequently submitted tickets we get.

Most of the time, on ChangeNOW swaps take 2-5 minutes to complete. But in some rare cases, it takes a little longer. Of course, people get frustrated and anxious, and we can't blame them.

Source: ChangeNOW Community Chat

Here's another thing you should know: you are never alone.

When a swap's status doesn’t change in 10 to 15 minutes, rest assured, someone on our technical team is already looking into it.

So, we asked our L1 support team manager to explain what actually happens during the "Confirming" stage, and what the possible reasons are for this process to take more time than expected.

There are many factors that can potentially hold up a transfer. Here’s what our agents see most often:

• Your deposit is still gathering confirmations. The most common reason by far. Nothing's wrong, the network just hasn't caught up.
• The transfer failed on the network before it reached us. Some networks are more prone to this than others. If your wallet or a blockchain explorer shows the transfer as failed, the funds likely never made it to ChangeNOW, so there's nothing yet for us to swap. If your explorer shows something different, like a successful transfer, let us know. We'll sort things out.
• The coin got temporarily disabled. Once in a while we have to pause an asset for compliance or technical reasons. If your swap was in progress when that happened, the exchange may fail as a result. In the majority of cases, we refund it automatically, but if you’re worried or things don’t work out after 20 minutes, don’t hesitate to reach out.
• The deposit is flagged for compliance check. Our systems screen transfers for security reasons. Most exchanges do that. It doesn't mean anything's wrong with your account or deposit, it just might take a little longer to clear.
• Something got stuck on our side. Sometimes it happens. And when it does, our team pushes the swap through manually.

We want to make it very clear: none of this means your funds are lost.

There's a lot going on behind the scenes when your swap gets stuck. L1 support agents look into it first. If the issue needs more digging, they loop in L2 agents and technical engineers, sometimes finance or compliance specialists get involved, too. Everyone in that chain works to get your funds processed and delivered safely.

What looks like nothing happening on your screen is rarely nothing happening on ours.

How Long Can a Transaction Stay Pending?

Different networks need different numbers of confirmations before a deposit counts as final, it depends on how that specific blockchain works.

That's one of the main reasons why some swaps confirm in minutes and others take longer.

What to Do While Your Swap Is on “Confirming”

There's not much you need to do here, frankly speaking. But before assuming something's wrong, here’s a few small things that can help you stress less about it, and keep your exchange on track.

• Check your status on the Status Page using your Transaction ID. It’s the fastest way to see exactly where things stand. Even faster than a blockchain explorer.
• Don't repeat the send. A second attempt doesn't speed things up. On the contrary, it just piles up another transfer.
• To double-check: look up your deposit on a blockchain explorer (like Etherscan for ETH or Solscan for Solana) using the network hash - you can find it in the wallet or app you sent the deposit from, right after the transfer goes through.
• Give it some time. Confirming can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours depending on the coin, network conditions, and the fee paid. That's normal.
• Avoid touching the transfer from your wallet (canceling, replacing, or resending) unless you're confident in what that does. On some networks this can create more problems than it solves.

When It's Time to Contact ChangeNOW Support

TL;DR: You can reach out to us anytime, there's no wrong moment to ask. Our support team is always glad to help.

Waiting for a deposit to move is stressful. Especially, when the amount is large. We’ve all been there.

It can get even more frustrating if you're on a schedule: sending funds for a payment or you have a purchase that's waiting on the other end.

And if you're watching the screen and nothing's changing for a long time, that unease is completely understandable, and our team is here for you to resolve the problem as soon as possible.

That said, a few situations are especially worth flagging to us directly:

• It's been well past the usual window for that coin, and the explorer still shows zero or very few confirmations, with no sign of movement.
• The explorer shows your deposit as confirmed, but your ChangeNOW tracker still shows Confirming. That's a mismatch worth checking.
• You sent the deposit to the wrong network or a different coin than the one specified for the swap.
• You can't find the hash on the explorer at all, even with the correct hash and network.

When you reach out, have your ChangeNOW Transaction ID and the network hash ready. It's the fastest way for our team to look into it and get back to you.

Ways to Contact ChangeNOW Support

• Live chat: the chat widget on ChangeNOW website (bottom right corner). Tap "Where can I track my exchange's progress?" to jump straight to the Status Page.
• Telegram — @ChangeNOW_chat
• Email: Support ChangeNOW

Final Thoughts

Sending money off and losing sight of it can be very unsettling. Especially when you don’t understand what's happening to it and not sure whether you will ever see it again.

But here’s the important thing we want to emphasize: when you swap crypto through ChangeNOW, you're working with a service that's been in this market for almost 10 years.

We have a highly experienced support team that takes any transfer issues seriously and works through them daily. We all want your swaps to go as smoothly and issue-free as possible. Because good user experience is what brings people back.

And if your swap does get stuck? That's alright. It happens. Reach out, and we'll help you sort it out.

Contact ChangeNOW support team