Which mistakes in a swap are recoverable and which are not
Most mistakes in a crypto swap are not recoverable. The few that are recoverable require you to act within a narrow window, and even then there is no guarantee.
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This asset needs a memo / tag. Send it with or the exchanger cannot credit your deposit.
You receive about at . Exchange reference .
Status: waiting for your deposit
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The core problem is that cryptocurrency transactions, once confirmed on a blockchain, are final. There is no chargeback, no reversal button, no customer service desk that can claw funds back from a recipient address. This finality is the feature that makes the system work, but it also means that a single typo or oversight can cost you everything.
Mistakes that are almost certainly not recoverable
Sending to the wrong address. If you type an address incorrectly, or copy a scammer's address instead of the legitimate one, the funds go to that address. If the address is unclaimed (nobody holds the private key), the coins are permanently lost. If someone does hold the key, they control the coins. You have no way to force them to return them, and in most cases they will not.
Sending the wrong asset to an exchange address. If you send Ethereum to a Bitcoin address, or send a token on the wrong network (for example, sending BEP-20 tokens to an ERC-20 address), the exchange's system may not see them. The funds arrive on the blockchain, but they are not credited to your account. Some exchanges can recover these if they control the private key for that address and if they have the technical ability to sweep the unexpected tokens. However, this is a manual process that can take weeks or months, and many exchanges simply refuse. You should never assume this is fixable.
Sending to a contract address that is not a wallet. If you send funds to a smart contract that was not designed to accept or forward them, the coins are locked forever. There is no recovery mechanism.
Sending less than the minimum swap amount. Most exchange systems have a minimum deposit. If you send less, the transaction may be ignored or treated as a donation. Some systems will return the funds after a timeout, but many will not. The policy varies by operator, and you cannot rely on it.
Ignoring the memo or tag field. Some blockchains (notably XRP, Stellar, and some exchanges using BNB or EOS) require a destination tag or memo to identify your account. If you send the coins without it, the exchange receives them but cannot tell whose account they belong to. Recovery is sometimes possible if you can prove ownership, but it is slow and not guaranteed.
Mistakes that are sometimes recoverable
A swap that is stuck as pending. This is covered in detail on the sibling page "crypto-swap-is-stuck-as-pending/">What to do if a crypto swap is stuck as pending." Briefly, if the transaction has not yet been broadcast, or if it is stuck in the mempool with a low fee, you may be able to replace it with a higher-fee transaction (using RBF or CPFP). This is a technical operation that requires wallet control. It is not possible after the transaction is confirmed.
Sending to the correct address but with a fee that is too low. Same mechanism as above. If the transaction is still unconfirmed, you can try to accelerate it. Once confirmed, it is final.
A swap that was completed but the exchange credited the wrong amount. This is a dispute with the exchange operator, not a blockchain-level fix. You can contact support with transaction IDs and screenshots. Some exchanges will correct a clear error; many will not. There is no guarantee.
The one check that prevents almost all of these
The hub page "Swapping crypto safely" covers the single most effective habit: verifying the deposit address yourself, every time, using the exchange's own interface or a trusted source you have used before. Do not copy an address from an email, a chat, or a Google result. If you send to the right address, with the right asset, on the right network, with a memo if required, and with a sufficient fee, the swap will work. Every other mistake starts with a failure in that verification.
If you have already made a mistake, act immediately. For an unconfirmed transaction, try to replace it. For a wrong-address send, accept that it is almost certainly lost. For a missing memo, contact support within minutes, not days. For anything else, treat it as a permanent loss and be surprised if it is not.
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