Frequently Asked Questions

We often receive questions about slow or faulty transactions. Find the answers to the most frequently asked questions below and find out directly what you can do. Blockchair only provides blockchain search and analytics services, so there is nothing we can do to help you with your payments.

• Why does it take so long before my transaction is processed?

  If you have been waiting for a long period for your transaction to be processed, the most likely reason is a low transaction fee.

  Miners process transactions based on the transaction fee attached to a transaction. It can take quite some time before your transaction is processed: several minutes, hours, sometimes several days, and in some cases, it seems your transaction will never be processed!

  If your transaction fee is low, it might take some time before the transaction is included in a block. To have your transaction prioritized by miners over other transactions, you can attach a higher transaction fee to your transaction, incentivizing miners to include your transaction in a block quicker.

  Some wallets support functionality to increase the transaction fee.

  Please reach out to your wallet or exchange to find out what you can do to have your transaction processed faster.

• What can I do to speed up my transaction?

  For Bitcoin transactions:

  If your transaction has replace-by-fee (RBF) enabled, then you technically have the ability to resend the transaction with a higher transaction fee. You should resend it using your wallet.

  If RBF is not enabled, then you should wait until your transaction is processed or dropped from the mempool.

  For Ethereum transactions:

  You should increase the transaction fee (gas price). The new parameters should be set in your wallet or by your exchange.

  Not every wallet or exchange supports the function to increase the transaction fee. To check whether your wallet or exchange supports increasing the transaction fee or not, you should contact your wallet or exchange. There is nothing Blockchair can do to increase your transaction fee and have your transaction processed faster, unfortunately.

  Warning!

  Beware of scammers! No one can reverse your transaction and only YOU have the power to speed up your transaction. Don’t fall for scammers impersonating members of Blockchair! We will never ask for your private keys, seed phrase or mnemonic phrase.

  We will not write to you first, be that in a private message on Telegram or other social media, and we do not provide support for individual requests which are unrelated to Blockchair’s products and services.

• I see that my Bitcoins are marked ‘unspent’. What does it mean?

  In Bitcoin and Bitcoin-like networks (such as BCH, BSV, LTC and others), an ‘unspent’ status of coins means that these coins were received by an address and have not left that address yet. These coins can still be sent to someone else. You are able to transfer these coins if you own the private key related to the address on which the coins are registered. Once sent to someone else, the coins are marked as ‘spent’.

  Please note that in Bitcoin and Bitcoin-like networks, a transaction usually has multiple receivers. You are only able to spend the coins that are registered to the address of which you own the related private key.

• Can I reverse a cryptocurrency transaction which was sent incorrectly?

  Irreversibility is one of the fundamental properties of blockchain technology. Once a transaction is included in a block, it is not possible to reverse the transaction.

  If you want to know whether there is still a chance to get your funds back, please contact your wallet or exchange. Blockchair does not process transactions, nor do we provide wallet services. We can not reverse transactions in public blockchains. No one can.

• Why do I see my money on Blockchair and how come Blockchair has my money?

  Blockchain is a public distributed database of which anyone can make a copy. Your cryptocurrency transactions and address balance are also stored in such a database. However, your money and assets are not stored on Blockchair.

  At Blockchair we provide insight into data that is stored in blockchains. We offer ways to find, sort, and filter blockchain data, so you can easily check your address balance and transaction history. We do not provide wallet services and do not process transactions.

• I sent Bitcoin to a Bitcoin Cash/Bitcoin SV address (or vice versa). Is it possible to retrieve my funds?

  If you have sent Bitcoin Cash or Bitcoin SV to a Bitcoin Segwit-address (an address starting with a 3), it is not possible to recover the funds. Otherwise, the answer depends on who is the recipient of the transaction:

• Is it possible to retrieve Ethereum that I deposited to an ERC-20 address (or vice versa)?

  If you made a deposit on an exchange and sent Ethereum to an ERC-20 address (or vice versa), please contact the exchange to find out if they can retrieve your funds. If you sent Ethereum to an ERC-20 address (or vice versa) which you control, you should be able to retrieve the funds. We cannot help you with this; your wallet can explain how to do this.

• Is it possible to retrieve Ethereum or ERC20s tokens that I sent to a Binance Smart Chain address (or vice versa)?

  If you sent funds on the Ethereum network to a BSC address (or vice versa) and you are the owner of the private key belonging to the BSC address, then you should import the private key of the BSC address into an Ethereum wallet (for example Metamask). You will then be able to move the funds again on the Ethereum network. This also works the other way around.

  Please note that not all wallets and exchanges technically support retrieving funds. Please contact your wallet or exchange to see if it’s possible to retrieve your funds.

  If you wish to send your Ethereum or ERC20 tokens to the BSC network (or vice versa), then you should use the Binance Bridge.

• What does the ‘Bitcoin halving’ mean?

  In public blockchain networks, miners verify transactions in blocks and are rewarded with transaction fees and newly minted coins. In Bitcoin and several other blockchains, the number of newly minted coins per block is cut in half every 4 years, so inflation is limited. In Bitcoin networks, the reward started with 50 BTC per block, which has already been halved to 6.25 BTC per block. For more information, check out our halving countdown dashboard.