Changelly, SimpleSwap and other instant swap services: how they work and the risks

Instant swap services such as Changelly, SimpleSwap, ChangeNOW and FixedFloat let you send one coin to a deposit address and receive a different coin in your own wallet, usually without opening an account. They are convenient for wallet-to-wallet swaps, but they are not banks or licensed exchanges in most countries: transactions can be held for identity checks, rates move, and most of them exclude US and UK users in their terms. This page explains how they work, what they charge according to their own terms (checked November 2026) and the alternatives. Crypto assets are volatile and this is not financial advice.

What is an instant crypto swap service?

An instant swap service is a website or app that exchanges one cryptocurrency for another without you holding a balance with it. You choose the pair, enter the address where you want to receive the new coin, send your coins to a one-time deposit address, and the service sends the other coin back once your deposit confirms. Changelly, SimpleSwap, ChangeNOW and FixedFloat are the best-known names.

Most of these services act as brokers: they route your order to liquidity on centralised exchanges or market makers and keep a margin or a fee. They usually support hundreds of coins and many networks, which is why people use them to move between chains (for example bitcoin to USDT on Tron) without signing up to an exchange. Searches like “coin swap sites” and “wallet to wallet crypto exchange” describe the same product.

The trade-off is that you rely on an unregulated or lightly regulated intermediary for the minutes or hours your coins are in transit, and its terms, not a regulator, decide what happens if something goes wrong.

How does an instant swap work step by step?

A typical swap has five steps: pick the coins and amount, choose a fixed or floating rate, paste your receiving address and a refund address, send your coins to the deposit address shown, and wait for the service to send the new coin. A swap usually completes in minutes to an hour, depending on how many network confirmations each blockchain needs and whether the transaction is flagged for review.

1. Quote: the site shows an estimated amount you will receive after its fee and the network fee.
2. Rate type: a fixed rate locks the quote for a short window if your deposit arrives in time; a floating rate settles at the market rate when your deposit confirms.
3. Addresses: you enter the destination address (and a memo or tag for coins such as XRP or TON) plus a refund address in the coin you are sending.
4. Deposit: you send exactly the stated amount on the stated network to a one-time address.
5. Payout: the service converts and pays out to your address; you can track the order by its ID.

Changelly’s terms say a fixed rate is locked for 15 minutes after you confirm (20 minutes for BTC, XMR, LTC, DCR, EOS, GAS, BNB and VET), and floating-rate deposit addresses cannot be used after 3 hours (Changelly Terms of Use). SimpleSwap locks a fixed estimate for 20 minutes and needs at least one blockchain confirmation inside that window; if the deposit arrives late, the order may be refunded or completed at the new rate (SimpleSwap Terms of Service).

Are instant swap services custodial or non-custodial?

Both Changelly and SimpleSwap describe themselves as non-custodial because they do not keep account balances. In practice, once you send coins to their deposit address, the service controls them until it pays out or refunds you. That is a short period of custody, and if a swap is frozen for an AML review it can last for weeks or months under the services’ own terms.

Changelly’s terms state that it “does not provide custodial services” and does not store assets in deposits or balances. SimpleSwap’s terms say the service is non-custodial in one section and, in another, “We do not retain your assets”, yet the same terms set a holding period of up to one calendar year for user funds under review and a storage fee for unclaimed funds. The honest description is “custody in transit”: no stored balance, but the operator decides when and whether your coins move during the swap.

A truly non-custodial swap happens on-chain through a smart contract, as with a decentralised exchange: your wallet signs the trade and the tokens never sit with an operator. That is covered further down. For the broader custody question, see is it safe to keep crypto on an exchange.

How much do Changelly, SimpleSwap and other swap services charge?

Fees differ more in structure than in headline numbers. Changelly lists a 0.25% fee on floating-rate swaps plus network fees. FixedFloat charges 1% on fixed-rate orders and 0.5% on float-rate orders plus the network fee. SimpleSwap says it has no traditional percentage fee and prices through the exchange rate it quotes. On every service, the rate spread can cost more than the stated fee.

Fees and terms as published by each service (checked November 2026):

Sources: Changelly Terms of Use, SimpleSwap Terms of Service (sections 5, 6, 8 and 9), FixedFloat FAQ, CoW Protocol fee documentation. Kraken figures from our exchange fee comparison.

To compare like with like, enter the same amount on two services and compare the final “you get” figure, not the advertised fee. On a floating rate, the amount can still move between quote and payout. On small swaps, the network fee for withdrawing the new coin can be the largest single cost.

Why do instant swaps get frozen for KYC or AML checks?

Swap services screen deposits with blockchain analytics. If your coins are linked to a hack, sanctions, a darknet market, a mixer or a high-risk exchange, or the amount is unusually large, the swap is paused and you are asked for ID and proof of where the funds came from. Changelly’s AML policy says flagged transactions “will be put on hold” pending verification.

Changelly’s AML/KYC policy describes risk scoring that rates accounts as low, medium or high risk after “sudden swaps of big amounts”, and lists enhanced due diligence triggers such as untraceable cryptocurrencies, ongoing investigations and politically exposed persons. It asks for full name, date of birth, address and a government ID, may “restrict transactions and the associated account under suspicion” and keeps identification records for five years (Changelly AML/KYC policy).

SimpleSwap’s terms allow it to freeze transactions during investigations and request identity and source-of-funds documents. They also set out costs that apply to frozen or stuck orders: a 1% administrative fee with a $100 minimum to return frozen funds (section 8.2), a refund window of up to 31 calendar days (sections 6.3 to 6.4), a maximum holding period of one calendar year (section 6.6) and a 5% monthly storage fee on funds unclaimed for more than 90 days (section 9.2) (SimpleSwap).

These freezes are not hypothetical. After the February 2025 Bybit hack, Bybit reported that $42.89 million of the stolen funds had been frozen “thanks to the coordinated efforts of industry partners, including Tether, THORchain, ChangeNOW, FixedFloat” and others (Bybit timeline). Elliptic reported that the anonymous exchange eXch refused Bybit’s requests to block the stolen funds and that most of the stolen Ether was converted to bitcoin “using eXch and other services” (Elliptic). Our Bybit hack explainer covers the case. The lesson for ordinary users: coins received from a tainted address, even innocently, can trigger a hold.

What should you do if your swap is on hold?

Do not send more coins and do not pay anyone who contacts you offering to release the funds. Contact the service only through its official website, quote your order ID, and answer the verification request with the documents it asks for. If you cannot or will not verify, ask in writing for a refund to your original address and keep copies of every message and transaction hash.

• Collect evidence first: deposit transaction hash, order ID, screenshots of the quote, and where the coins came from (exchange withdrawal records, invoices).
• Read the refund terms: SimpleSwap’s terms allow up to 31 calendar days for a refund and deduct network and recovery fees; Changelly says floating-rate refunds usually take 1 to 7 business days and some fixed-rate refunds up to 20 business days.
• Watch for recovery scams: people who reply to complaints on social media promising to “release” a frozen swap for a fee are a common follow-up fraud.
• Complain formally: Changelly’s terms require written notice within 30 days of a dispute and use arbitration under the laws of England and Wales.

Because none of these services is covered by a deposit guarantee or an ombudsman scheme in most countries, the operator’s terms are effectively your only route. That is the main argument for using small amounts or a regulated venue.

Are instant swap services available in the US, UK and EU?

Often not, according to their own terms. Changelly lists the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, India, Japan and Turkey among its restricted locations, and SimpleSwap’s restricted list includes the US, the UK, Japan, India and many EU member states. Using a VPN to get around these lists breaches the terms and gives the operator grounds to suspend or freeze your order.

The restrictions follow regulation. In the EU, anyone providing crypto exchange services to EU residents needs a MiCA authorisation as a crypto-asset service provider, and the transitional period for firms operating under national rules ended on 1 July 2026; authorised firms appear in ESMA’s interim register (ESMA). In the UK, crypto businesses must register with the FCA under the Money Laundering Regulations before offering services, and a new authorisation regime is expected from 25 October 2027 (FCA). Our MiCA explainer covers what an authorisation means.

If you searched for alternatives to a European broker such as Coinhouse or Coincub, the same check applies: look the firm up on your national regulator’s register or ESMA’s list before sending money, rather than relying on a “licensed” badge on its website.

What are DEX aggregators, and are they a safer alternative?

A DEX aggregator such as CoW Swap, 1inch or Jupiter (on Solana) finds the best price across decentralised exchanges and executes the swap on-chain from your own wallet. No operator holds your coins, so there is no deposit to freeze, but you pay network gas, you sign token approvals, and mistakes cannot be reversed. They swap tokens on the same chain or via bridges, not fiat.

How fees work, using CoW Protocol’s published structure: a volume fee of 0.02% on standard assets and 0.003% on correlated pairs such as stablecoins, plus 50% of any price improvement over the quote on market orders, capped at 0.98% of the order. Fees are taken from the tokens you receive, not charged separately (CoW Protocol docs).

Before most swaps of tokens (not native coins like ETH), your wallet asks you to approve a smart contract to spend that token. 1inch explains that “smart contracts can’t access your tokens unless you approve access from your end”, that an approval is needed for each contract, and that approving costs a small gas fee unless the token supports signed permits (1inch Help Center). Approvals stay active after the swap, so an approval granted to a malicious or later-exploited contract can drain that token: approve only on sites you reached yourself and revoke approvals you no longer need.

DEX aggregators suit people who already use a self-custody wallet such as MetaMask; our MetaMask vs Trust Wallet vs Phantom comparison covers which wallet works on which chain. Several wallets also offer built-in swaps that route through aggregators and add their own fee, shown before you confirm.

Which is the best alternative to Changelly or SimpleSwap?

It depends on what you are swapping and where you live. For swaps involving fiat money, or larger amounts, a regulated exchange in your country is the lower-risk option because it is supervised and verifies you up front. For token-to-token swaps on one chain, a DEX aggregator keeps custody with you. Instant swap brokers fit small cross-chain swaps where both risks are acceptable.

If you move stablecoins, check which network the receiving wallet or exchange supports before choosing a route; our USDT vs USDC vs DAI page explains issuer freezes and network differences. For choosing a regulated venue, start with how to choose a crypto exchange.

What is a wallet-to-wallet crypto exchange?

A wallet-to-wallet crypto exchange is a swap where you send coins from your own wallet and receive a different coin back in your own wallet, without holding a balance on an exchange. Instant swap brokers do this through a deposit address; DEXs and aggregators do it through a smart contract your wallet signs. Either way, you need correct addresses, networks and memos.

Three checks prevent most losses on wallet-to-wallet swaps:

• Network match: USDT on Tron, Ethereum and other chains are different tokens on different networks. Send on the network the order specifies.
• Memo or tag: coins such as XRP, XLM and TON often need a destination tag or memo; missing it on a deposit can make funds unrecoverable without manual support.
• Address poisoning: scammers send tiny transactions from look-alike addresses so that a copied address from your history is theirs. Copy addresses from the source, not from past transactions, and compare more than the first and last characters.

How can you spot a fake swap site or swap scam?

The most common swap scams are clone websites that copy a known service’s design under a slightly different domain, sponsored search ads leading to those clones, fake “support” accounts on social media and Telegram, and wallet-drainer sites that ask you to sign an approval or a permit. Type the address yourself, bookmark it, and never share a recovery phrase with anyone.

• A genuine swap service never needs your seed phrase or private key; it only needs a destination address.
• Check that the deposit address shown on the order page matches the one in the confirmation email, if the service sends one.
• On a DEX, read what you are signing: an “approve” or “permit” for an unlimited amount to an unknown contract is the typical drainer request.
• Rates far better than every other site are a warning sign, not a bargain.

Swaps are also taxable events in many countries: a crypto-to-crypto swap counts as a disposal in the US, UK, Spain, Canada and Australia. See our crypto tax overview by country and keep the order IDs and transaction hashes from every swap.