Fixed vs floating rate swaps

The difference

With a floating rate, the amount you get is set when the exchange swaps your deposit, after your coins have confirmed. With a fixed rate, the exchange promises an exact amount when you open the order, as long as your deposit arrives in time and matches. A fixed rate moves the risk of the market moving from you to the exchange, and the exchange charges for taking it.

How a floating rate works

When you enter an amount, the exchange quotes what it would pay at its current rate. That number is an estimate. Your deposit then has to confirm, which takes about 10 minutes per Bitcoin block or about 20 minutes before received Monero can be moved, and the exchange swaps at its rate at that point. If the market moved in your favour during that time, you get more than the estimate; if it moved against you, you get less.

A floating order is also forgiving about the amount. The exchange swaps what actually arrives, so if your wallet or another exchange took a fee out of your payment and slightly less came in, the swap still goes through at the rate then, as long as it is above the exchange's minimum.

How a fixed rate works

A fixed quote comes with an expiry. When we asked on 6 November 2026, both ChangeNOW and SimpleSwap held a fixed quote for two minutes, the time you have to turn it into an order. The order then waits for your deposit for the window the exchange sets. If your coins arrive in time and match the amount, you get exactly the amount promised, whatever the market did in between.

The conditions are the catch. A deposit that arrives late, or for a different amount, no longer fits the promise. Depending on the exchange's terms, it is then refunded or swapped at the floating rate of that moment. A Bitcoin payment that waits hours for a block because its fee was too low can miss the window entirely.

What the fixed rate costs

We asked two exchanges for both kinds of quote for the same swap, 0.01 BTC to XMR (about $758), at 21:16 UTC on 6 November 2026:

The price of certainty differs a lot between exchanges and changes from hour to hour. In this check it cost something at both. The floating figure is an estimate, so the real floating payout could have ended up above or below it.

Which one to use

A fixed rate is worth its cost when the market is moving fast, when your coin confirms slowly, or when you need to receive an exact amount, for example to pay an invoice in another coin. You know the result before you send, and a sudden drop during the confirmation wait does not reach you.

A floating rate costs less on average because you pay no premium. Over many swaps the market moves for you about as often as against you, and the fixed premium is paid every time. It also handles small differences in the deposit amount without trouble. It suits swaps where a small move either way does not matter and the coin you send confirms quickly, like USDT on Tron, which is final in about a minute.

Two situations push toward fixed: a large swap, where a 1% move is a lot of money, and a slow chain on the sending side. Two push toward floating: sending from a wallet or exchange that may change the amount, and stablecoin to stablecoin swaps, where the rate barely moves anyway.

What foldoy uses

Every swap through foldoy's own swap box uses a floating rate. In the check above, floating paid more at both exchanges, and the box compares the exchanges on floating quotes, so the one that pays out most gets the swap. The trade page shows the estimate while the swap runs and the amount the exchange reports once it has swapped.

In the US the swaps go through StealthEX, at a floating rate as well.

Reading a quote

• The amount shown already has the exchange's fees, foldoy's 0.4% and the network fee for sending you the coins taken out.
• The rate line, like "1 BTC ≈ 120.9 XMR", is that same amount divided by what you send, so it includes the fees too.
• The dollar values next to each amount use market prices, so the gap between them shows the total cost of the swap at that moment.

The pair pages show the current limits and timing for each swap, such as BTC to USDT, XMR to USDT and SOL to BTC. For the whole process, read What a no-account crypto swap is and how it works.