The difference between cross-chain and same chain swaps
A swap creates one transaction per chain involved. What matters is the specific network, not whether the chains are EVM-compatible — Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Base are three separate chains, so moving between any two of them is cross-chain.
Same chain swaps
Swapping two assets on the same chain (for example USDT to USDC on Ethereum) is a single transaction. The contract call and the credit to your wallet are the same transaction, under one hash, even when the route passes through several liquidity pools or intermediate tokens along the way. It completes in full or not at all, and appears as one entry in Utila.
Cross-chain swaps
Swapping between two chains (i.e. Ethereum to Arbitrum, or Ethereum to Bitcoin) is two transactions. The first, on the source chain, sends your funds into the bridge. The second, on the destination chain, delivers the asset to your wallet. Each has its own hash, exists only on its own chain, and confirms independently, so it appears as two entries in Utila: an outgoing contract call, then an incoming transfer.
It's important to understand that a cross-chain swap does not complete in one step.
The source transaction confirmation means your funds reached the bridge, not that they arrived.
The destination transaction is only broadcast once the bridge sees enough confirmations on the source chain, so there is always a gap between the two. How long that gap depends mainly on the destination chain — its block time and the confirmations the bridge requires.
Tracking a cross-chain swap.
Because the two legs live on different chains, a block explorer can only ever show half the picture — searching the source hash on the destination chain's block explorer returns nothing.
For LI.FI routers, the transaction details in Utila include a link to the bridge explorer (LI.FI Explorer), and that's the one place that shows both legs together with their current status. This is the most reliable way to follow a cross-chain swap: instead of waiting to see whether the funds appear, you can see which leg is in progress and what it's waiting on.
Note that other routers do not have a bridge explorer, so you'll only see the first leg.
Basic terms
Term | Definition |
Swap | Exchange one token for another within the same blockchain. |
Bridge | Move tokens between different blockchains. |
Route | The provider-defined path your tokens take - including bridge and decentralized exchange (DEX) hops. |
Provider | The third-party service executing the swap or bridge (such as Li.Fi, Relay, Symbiosis). |
Approval | On EVM chains, this is the permission given to a smart contract to move a specific token. |
Slippage | The acceptable difference between expected and final output due to market changes during execution of the swap or bridge. |