ETH to Native BTC
One cross-chain swap, both sides native. No WBTC mint, no CEX, no intermediate IOU. Your ETH leaves an EVM wallet; your BTC lands in a Bitcoin wallet.
What the swap actually does
THORChain is a cross-chain settlement layer. The pool primitive is an AMM, but the delivery mechanism is native: the BTC leaves Bitcoin, not Ethereum; the ETH leaves Ethereum, not Bitcoin. Each side of the swap moves on its own chain using that chain\'s native transaction type.
- No WBTC in the path — no wrapper mint, no wrapper burn, no custodian dependency.
- No CEX — no account, deposit, or withdrawal.
- One signature on the ETH side — the rest is protocol-driven observation and outbound.
Step-by-step: ETH → native BTC
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Open the deving.zone swap for ETH ↔ BTC
The swap interface shows the ETH → BTC pair routed through THORChain. You will see the live quote, the RUNE-intermediate routing path, and a live estimate of outbound slippage before you commit.
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Connect an ETH-compatible wallet
Any EVM wallet works — MetaMask, Rabby, Frame, hardware wallets via their respective adapters. You are signing a standard Ethereum transaction to deposit ETH into a THORChain inbound address. No custom approvals beyond the usual ERC-20 or native transfer flow.
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Specify the Bitcoin destination address
Enter the BTC address where the outbound leg should land. This is a real Bitcoin address on the Bitcoin chain — a receiving address in a wallet you control (Sparrow, Electrum, hardware, or any BTC-compatible wallet). The BTC is delivered there natively.
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Review the quote — fees and slippage
The interface shows three costs: Ethereum gas to deposit ETH, THORChain outbound fee in BTC, and pool slippage based on depth. For typical ETH ↔ BTC sizes on the deep THORChain pools, slippage is well under 1%. Large swaps preview a higher figure; THORChain's streaming-swap option can split the order over multiple blocks to tighten execution.
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Sign and send the ETH
Your wallet signs a standard Ethereum transaction to the THORChain inbound router. This is the only signature required. THORChain observes the deposit, routes through RUNE, and broadcasts the outbound BTC transaction to the Bitcoin mempool.
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Wait for Bitcoin confirmation
Once Bitcoin confirmations accumulate at the destination, the swap is final. Typical end-to-end time is a few minutes — dominated by Bitcoin block time, not THORChain. The tracker in the UI shows each leg as it completes.
Fees and slippage, realistically
Standard Ethereum L1 gas for the inbound deposit transaction. Roughly equivalent to a Uniswap swap in gas terms; exact cost depends on mainnet conditions at the time of signing.
The BTC outbound transaction pays a network-aware outbound fee in BTC. Published on-chain; shown in the quote. Scales with Bitcoin fee conditions, not swap size.
Depth-dependent. On the deep THORChain BTC and ETH pools, small-to-medium swaps quote well under 1%. Large swaps can use streaming-swap mode to tighten execution across multiple blocks.
What else to do with your BTC
ETH → BTC swap questions
Why not just sell ETH on Uniswap for WBTC?
You can. The tradeoff is the wrapper: WBTC is an ERC-20 representing BTC held by a custodian. If the goal is "hold ETH-native exposure inside a Uniswap strategy", WBTC is fine. If the goal is "hold actual Bitcoin at the end", the WBTC path requires an additional unwrap step — either redemption through the merchant network or a further swap on THORChain anyway. One ETH → BTC swap via THORChain collapses both steps into a single transaction.
How does THORChain route non-RUNE pairs?
Non-RUNE pairs route through RUNE as the intermediate asset. An ETH → BTC swap traverses two pool legs: ETH/RUNE, then RUNE/BTC. Quoted slippage is the sum of both legs; the interface previews the exact figure before you sign. The user experience is a single swap — the two-leg structure is an implementation detail, not a UX step.
Is there a minimum or maximum swap size?
Minimums exist to cover outbound fees — the UI enforces them. Maximums are effectively the pool depth at current slippage tolerance. For large swaps, THORChain offers streaming swaps, which split a large order into smaller sub-swaps across multiple blocks to achieve much tighter execution. The interface surfaces streaming-swap quotes when they would improve outcome.
What if I want USDC or a different stable instead of BTC?
Same flow, different destination chain. THORChain routes ETH to native BTC, but also to USDC on Ethereum or any other supported pair. If you want BTC at the end, the flow in this guide is the right one. If you want stables, the swap interface simply targets a different output pool.
Can I do this from a hardware wallet?
Yes. The transaction on the ETH side is a standard Ethereum send; any ETH-capable hardware wallet (Ledger, Trezor, Keystone, etc.) signs it without custom firmware. The BTC destination is just an address you control — no hardware wallet interaction on the output side until you later spend the BTC.
How is this different from a CEX swap?
CEX swaps require account, deposit, KYC, and withdrawal — four steps with custodial risk at each. A THORChain swap is a single signed transaction from a wallet you control to a BTC address you control. The settlement is on-chain both sides. No account, no deposit, no custody-in-between.