Monero swap complete but balance locked? Here's why

Your swap says it's complete and your wallet shows the XMR, but you can't send it yet. That's normal. Monero wallets show two balances: the total, and the unlocked part you can spend right now. New Monero always starts out locked.

The 10-block rule

Any XMR you receive has to be 10 blocks deep before you can spend it. Blocks arrive about every two minutes, so the wait is usually around 20 minutes from the moment the payout confirms. The rule protects against double-spends and short chain reorganisations. It applies to every Monero payment, not just swap payouts.

What your swap goes through

1. You send your deposit, for example BTC or USDT, to the provider's deposit address.
2. The provider waits for your deposit to confirm on its own network.
3. The provider sends XMR to your address. Your wallet shows it, but it's locked.
4. After 10 Monero blocks, the XMR moves to your unlocked balance.

That means the time from deposit to spendable XMR is the deposit network's confirmation time plus about 20 minutes. A swap showing "complete" means the payout has been sent. It doesn't mean the XMR is spendable yet.

When it takes longer than 20 minutes

• Your wallet isn't synced. The balance only unlocks once your wallet, and the node it uses, has synced past the payout block plus 10. Check the sync status, or switch to another node.
• The restore height is wrong. If you restored a wallet with a restore height later than the payout, the wallet won't see the payout at all. Rescan from an earlier height.
• It's your change that's locked. If you've just sent XMR, your change is new and locked for 10 blocks too.
• The sender set a custom lock. A sender can set a longer unlock time. This is rare and is being phased out of Monero. It shows up in your transaction details.

Before you swap

Use a fresh subaddress for each swap and make sure your wallet is synced before you start. Our guide to Monero address types explains which address to paste, and best Monero wallets compares the wallets.

Sources

• Monero Moneropedia — Account (locked vs unlocked balance)
• Monero GUI issue #2293 — the 10-block (~20 minute) waiting time
• Monero Stack Exchange — waiting for the balance to become spendable
• Monero Moneropedia — Transaction unlock time
• Monero CLI wallet guide — balance and refresh

For information only — not financial advice. Wallet and provider behaviour changes; check the sources above.