Sending Bitcoin takes four things: the recipient's address, the amount, a network fee and a final check before you press send. The steps are almost the same in every wallet. This guide goes through them, explains address types, fees and confirmations, and shows how to fix a transaction that stays pending.
The last section covers paying a Superswap.cx swap deposit with BTC, where the exact amount and a short rate lock matter. Wallet features below come from each wallet's official documentation, checked on October 22, 2026.
All of these are valid Bitcoin addresses. Modern wallets can send to every type; a very old wallet may reject the newest one.
| Starts with | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
bc1q | Native SegWit (Bech32) | The most common type today; lower fees to spend from |
bc1p | Taproot (Bech32m) | The newest type; some older wallets and services can't send to it yet |
3 | P2SH, often Nested SegWit | Common on older wallets and some exchanges |
1 | Legacy (P2PKH) | The original format; works everywhere, costs more to spend from |
Watch out for look-alikes. Bitcoin Cash can use addresses that start with 1 or 3 too, so make sure you are sending BTC on the Bitcoin network. An address starting with 0x is Ethereum, not Bitcoin.
Bitcoin fees are not a percentage of the amount. You pay a fee rate in satoshis per virtual byte (sat/vB) for the space your transaction takes in a block. A transaction that spends many small coins is bigger, so it costs more than one that spends a single coin, even for the same amount.
Miners pick the transactions that pay the highest rates first. When many people are sending, the rate needed for the next block goes up; when the network is quiet, a low rate is enough. Your wallet estimates this for you. For a live view, block explorers such as mempool.space show current high, medium and low priority rates.
If the payment is time-sensitive, such as a swap deposit or a purchase, choose a rate that should confirm within the next few blocks. If it can wait, a lower rate saves money.
When you press send, the transaction is broadcast to the network and waits in the mempool, unconfirmed. Once a miner includes it in a block, it has 1 confirmation; every later block adds one more. Blocks arrive about every 10 minutes on average, though the gap varies.
The recipient decides how many confirmations they wait for. Small payments between people often count as done after one. For BTC deposits, Superswap.cx usually waits for 1–3 confirmations, then processes the swap, which usually takes 5–30 minutes.
A transaction stays pending when its fee rate is low compared with others waiting. You have three options.
If the fee is only slightly low, the transaction often confirms once the network quietens down. Don't send the same payment again in the meantime, or both may confirm and you pay twice.
RBF sends a new version of the same transaction with a higher fee, and miners take that one instead. In Sparrow, the option appears on unconfirmed transactions you sent (RBF is on by default). In Electrum, right-click the transaction and choose Increase fee. In BlueWallet, open the transaction and tap Speed Up, which appears when the transaction supports RBF. BlueWallet's Cancel uses the same method to pay the coins back to you. The replacement has a new transaction ID, so share the new one with the recipient.
CPFP creates a second transaction that spends an output of the stuck one, for example your change, with a fee high enough to cover both. Miners take the pair together. The recipient can do the same with the coins they are receiving. Electrum offers it as Child pays for parent when you right-click the transaction, and Sparrow supports it too.
If nothing works and the transaction never confirms, Bitcoin Core nodes drop it from their mempool after two weeks by default. The coins never left your wallet, and you can send again, with a better fee.
Paying a swap deposit is a normal Bitcoin transaction with two extra rules: the amount must be exact, and the quote has a timer.
Timer ran out? If the countdown ends before you send, don't pay into the expired order: create a new one for the current rate. If you already sent and something doesn't match, email service@superswap.cx with your Order ID and txid. Support is available 24/7.
Popular BTC swaps: BTC to XMR, BTC to USDT (TRC-20), BTC to ETH and BTC to LTC. For a full walk-through of one route, see how to swap BTC to USDT without KYC.
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Swap BTC to XMR →A Bitcoin transaction is usually in the next block or two if you pay a fee in line with current demand. Blocks come about every 10 minutes on average, so the first confirmation often takes 10 to 30 minutes. A low fee can mean hours or days.
The network fee depends on the size of your transaction in virtual bytes and on how busy the network is, not on the amount you send. Your wallet suggests a fee rate in sat/vB, and you can check current rates on a block explorer such as mempool.space.
Not once it is confirmed. While it is still unconfirmed, some wallets can replace it with a higher-fee transaction that pays the coins back to you, using Replace-By-Fee. BlueWallet calls this Cancel. If the recipient has already acted on the payment, contact them instead.
Confirmed Bitcoin transactions cannot be reversed. If the address belongs to someone, only they can send the coins back. That is why you should check the first and last characters of the address before you confirm, and send a small test amount first for large payments.
Usually the fee was low compared with other transactions waiting at the time. You can wait, raise the fee with Replace-By-Fee if your wallet offers it, or use Child Pays For Parent. If it never confirms, nodes drop it after about two weeks and the coins stay in your wallet.
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