Home Common What can I do if my swap's outgoing Lightning payment is pending?

What can I do if my swap's outgoing Lightning payment is pending?

Last updated on Mar 18, 2025

Usually, Lightning payments complete within a couple of seconds. But there are situations where Lightning payments can take longer or even fail.

Here is what you can do:

  1. Make sure that the destination wallet/node is online. Many Lightning mobile wallets use notifications to wake up wallets, but this may not always work reliably. Having the wallet open and active on the receiving phone is a good way to ensure the app is online and ready to receive payments. This only applies to non-custodial Lightning wallet's like Phoenix or Breez, custodial Lightning wallets like Wallet of Satoshi do not need to be online.

  2. Make sure the receiving wallet/node and has enough inbound liquidity to receive the payment. Most non-custodial Lightning wallets give you a visual overview of how much you can receive ("inbound liquidity"). If the receiving wallet is not in your control, one can estimate if inbound liquidity is an issue by checking the size and amount of public channels with a Lightning Network explorer like Amboss. If a node only has one or two small channels, then this usually hints on a problem reaching this node with the payment.

  3. Finally, there are technical issues in Lightning node implementations that can cause "stuck" payments, which usually fail.

If an outgoing Lightning payment of a swap failed and you used our Web App, you can claim your refund via our Web App's refund page. Most other swap clients like Aqua Wallet or Boltz Client refund failed swaps automatically for you.

If you are not sure why your swap failed and need help, message us via the support chat widget or send an email to hi@bol.tz. Sending multiple messages via different platforms doesn't speed things up, quite the contrary so please just send one message. We usually reply within 24h.