Wait one — your deposit confirms
When you send BTC — the deposit step of any crypto swap — the provider does not see “money”. It sees an unconfirmed transaction, and it waits for the network to bury it under blocks before treating it as real. Depending on the chain and its congestion, that can take a few minutes or the better part of an hour. This is the wait most people mistake for a stuck swap.
Your status page shows this stage the moment the transaction appears — before it confirms — precisely so you know the wait is the chain's, not ours. Nothing about your swap is wrong while this stage runs; the network is simply doing the thing that makes it trustworthy.
Wait two — the exchange itself
Once your deposit confirms, the provider executes the exchange at its quoted terms. This is usually the fastest stage. Rarely, it is also where a provider pauses a swap for identity checks under its own risk policy.
A provider hold is not a loss. It is a pause under that provider's compliance terms, and your status link keeps tracking it the whole time. Nobody legitimate will ever email you asking for a “release fee” — that is a scam, every time.
Wait three — the payout broadcast
The provider broadcasts your payout to the address you gave. From here your coins are on-chain and independent of everyone: the payout transaction appears on your status page, and any block explorer can watch it with you.
This is also why the payout address and its network matter so much at review time. The blockchain delivers to exactly the address in the transaction — there is no customer service desk on a blockchain.
What “usually” means — and what it doesn't
Every duration above is a typical range, not a promise. Chain congestion, provider queues, and fee markets all move. A service quoting you an exact delivery time is inventing it — the honest version of speed is a live status page, not a countdown.