How does a peg-in work?
You give us a Liquid address, we give you a Bitcoin taproot address (bc1p) that belongs to SideSwap. Send BTC there and we pay out L-BTC to your Liquid address, in the normal case after just 2 Bitcoin confirmations, paid directly from our hot wallet. Behind the scenes, deposits are batched into larger federation peg-ins that we run ourselves. We sit through the 102-block claim window so you don't have to.
Why do I see something like 10/50 confirmations?
The required confirmations depend on the amount and our available hot wallet balance, anywhere from 2 up to 103. Most peg-ins clear at 2. If your deposit lands while our balance is being replenished, you're effectively waiting on a batch peg-in already in progress, and the status shows the remaining wait. The target can adjust, so treat it as an estimate. Your peg-in URL stays valid and can be revisited any time to track progress.
What does the instant credit limit in the app mean?
It shows how much we can credit immediately from our hot wallet. It's a live number and moves with demand. If it's temporarily unavailable, the app says so, and peg-ins simply take longer (up to 103 confirmations) until our balance is replenished. Funds are never at risk either way.
What does a peg-in cost?
A fixed network fee of 300 sats plus our 0.1% service fee, regardless of size. The 300 sats is deducted from your deposit before the 0.1% is applied, so on a 10,000 sat peg-in you receive 9,690 sats. That's the full cost, nothing else is deducted.
How long is my peg-in address valid?
Peg-in addresses no longer expire after 7 days. We still recommend generating a fresh peg-in for each deposit rather than saving an old address, as addresses may occasionally be retired when we rotate wallets. Your peg-in URL always shows the current status of your deposit.
My deposit address starts with bc1p, is that right?
Yes. Taproot has been live on Bitcoin since 2021 and any modern wallet can send to it. If your exchange or wallet rejects a bc1p address, that's a limitation on their side.
Can I see SideSwap's liquidity?
Yes. Hot wallet liquidity remains visible directly in the SideSwap app, via our API and on our website.
Why is Liquid changing how peg-ins are paid for?
Every peg-in creates UTXOs the Liquid federation must later spend and consolidate, a cost the federation has so far subsidised. ELIP 202 (user-pays peg-in), merged into Elements but not yet active on Liquid, shifts this cost onto peg-in transactions themselves. Because SideSwap batches deposits into large peg-ins, our users are insulated from this change. If activation parameters affect anything, we'll update our fees and this page.
