Swap Bitcoin to Monero privately, step by step

Bitcoin is public by design. Every transaction, every amount and every address sits in a ledger anyone can read. Monero, on the other hand, hides the sender, the receiver and the amount by default. Moving from one to the other is how many people take their savings into a coin that does not broadcast its balance to the world.

Before you start

• A Monero wallet you control. Feather, Cake Wallet and the official Monero GUI are common choices. Write the seed phrase down on paper.
• A fresh receiving address. Monero wallets can generate subaddresses. Use a different one for each swap so it cannot be linked to anything else you receive.
• A Bitcoin wallet of your own to make the deposit from, and a Bitcoin address of yours as the refund address.

The swap

1. Go to the BTC to XMR page and enter how much Bitcoin you want to send.
2. Check the amount. It is what reaches your Monero wallet after fees, and you see it next to the market price.
3. Paste your Monero subaddress and your Bitcoin refund address. Swapea checks the format and network of both before creating anything.
4. Send the exact amount of Bitcoin to the deposit address we give you.
5. Follow the swap on your private swap page. Bookmark it or follow it from our Telegram bot.

How to leave less trace

The Bitcoin you send is still visible on the Bitcoin chain. Anyone watching that address will see coins leave it. What they cannot see is where the Monero went after the swap. A few habits help.

• Do not reuse a Monero address you have already used.
• If you can send from your own wallet, avoid sending straight from an exchange account that knows your name.
• Let the Monero sit for a while before you move it. Spending it right away, in the same pattern you received it, only adds timing clues.

Fixed or floating rate

When the Bitcoin network is congested, confirmations can take a while. With a floating rate you get the price at the moment your deposit confirms. With a fixed rate you lock in what you see, for a small premium, as long as you send within the time limit. If the market is moving fast, fixed gives peace of mind. If not, floating usually comes out slightly better. We explain it in fixed vs floating rate.