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Check your send on a block explorer, not the spinner
When a send is spinning, stop refreshing the wallet and read the record on a block explorer instead.
Written by John AlewineReviewed by the Crypto Guidance team
Published ยท Updated
You sent crypto and the wallet shows a spinner. Do not keep refreshing. Look it up on a block explorer.
A block explorer is a search engine for a blockchain. Paste the transaction hash and see what the ledger recorded: success, pending, or failed. Wallets and apps interpret. The explorer shows the record itself.
How to read it
- Pending is not done. Wait for confirmations. A confirmation is a block that includes your transaction. It is a waiting convention, not a sacred number.
- An exchange deposit can show in the explorer and still read pending in the app, because exchanges wait their own depth.
- Labels are hints. They are sometimes wrong.
- A token you did not buy in your history means nothing. Interacting with it is the trap.
- A "confirmation accelerator" site is usually phishing.
- Lookalike explorer sites exist. Use the real one from your bookmark.
An AI chatbot can explain what a field means. The record on the explorer is what you read, and the decision stays with you.
Practice once on purpose so the next time is not your first. More is on the Security page. For a second set of eyes, I sit with people one at a time and never ask for your keys or seed phrase.