A cross-chain swap has three stages

When you approve a wallet-to-wallet cross-chain swap, your source wallet sends the amount you chose to a deposit address, starting a three-stage transfer.

• Deposit the source asset and pay its network fee.
• Wait for the swap route to exchange it for the destination asset.
• Receive the output in your destination wallet after a separate payout.

Those steps can look like one action in a wallet, but they involve transactions and checks on different networks. The exact route depends on the service and assets you choose.

What happens when you start a cross-chain swap?

The swap starts when you select the asset to send, the asset to receive, and the destination wallet address. Your wallet then asks you to approve a transaction that sends the source asset to an address controlled by, or designated for, the swap route.

Check the destination network as well as the address. The same asset name can exist on several networks, and an address format that looks familiar does not by itself prove that the wallet can receive that asset there.

The source transaction needs to be confirmed before the route can safely act on it. A confirmation is a network’s record that the transaction has been accepted; the number required depends on the chain and the service. Until then, the displayed estimate can change or the swap may not proceed.

You also pay the source chain’s transaction fee from your wallet. That fee is separate from the swap’s price impact and from any fee taken from the eventual output. If the wallet shows a minimum amount to receive, treat it as the least you are willing to accept, not a promise that the estimate will hold at every market price.

How does the route exchange assets across chains?

After the deposit is confirmed, the route identifies the input and destination assets and executes the exchange. A liquidity pool, a shared reserve of assets used to fill trades, can price the swap based on how much of each asset it holds.

Some routes exchange directly between the two assets. Others make an intermediate trade through a third asset, so the route may perform more than one exchange before it can pay out the destination asset. A route that supports native assets can move value between chains without first asking you to wrap the source token into a separate representation, though not every service or asset works this way.

The amount you receive depends on the route’s available liquidity and the size of your trade. When a trade uses a large share of a pool, it can move the pool price against you; this is called price impact. The route can also subtract fees for liquidity, network costs, or its own service, depending on how it is built.

For the integrator view of how one flow can coordinate these steps, the fuller thor swap explainer covers the route in more detail. For you as a user, the practical question is simpler: compare the amount you will receive after costs, and check whether it clears your minimum before approving.

How does the destination wallet receive the swap?

Once the exchange is complete, the route sends the output asset to the destination address you gave it. That payout is a separate transaction on the destination chain, so it may appear after the source deposit has already been confirmed.

Check the destination wallet on the correct network and look for the incoming transaction there. If the service provides a transaction record or status page, use it to distinguish a pending payout from a failed swap; the source deposit alone does not prove the destination transfer is finished.

Before you begin, verify the destination address, network, asset, estimated output and minimum received. For a new route or address, a small test can help confirm that the funds arrive as expected, though it adds another transaction and fee.

The three stages make the trade-off clear: convenience comes from presenting several network actions as one request, while settlement still depends on confirmations, liquidity and a final payout. For most people, the better route is the one that clearly shows the minimum output, total costs and destination network before the first transaction is signed.