The order lifecycle

An order on Kotova X is a record of an agreement between you and the source executing your swap. Kotova creates that record, shows you what the source reported, and keeps polling for updates. It does not move any of the funds involved at any stage.

Creating an order

Confirming a quote does not move money. It starts a two-step handshake.

First, Kotova reserves an order reference — a short code beginning X- — and re-checks two things against the live database rather than the cached front page: that the source you selected is currently accepting orders, and that your exact asset-and-network pair is listed on it. If either check fails, no order is created and you are returned to the quote to choose another source.

Second, Kotova asks the source to open the swap. For most sources this request runs in the background while you review the order, so the deposit address is ready by the time you confirm. A few require a refund address before they will create anything at all — Chainflip always, Changelly on fixed-rate orders — and for those the order is created at the moment you confirm, once you have supplied that address.

When the source replies, the order page shows:

• the deposit address, which belongs to the source and not to Kotova
• a deposit memo or tag, if that network needs one
• the exact amount to send
• your order link and countdown

A fresh deposit address is issued for every swap. Do not reuse one from an earlier order.

Two safeguards apply here. Pressing confirm twice does not create two orders — a repeated request within a short window returns the order that already exists. And if you go back and change the amount or the assets before sending anything, the previous order is discarded and a new reference issued.

The deposit window

Every order carries a deadline. Kotova sets it to whichever comes sooner: sixty minutes from creation, or the source’s own deadline.

That second half matters, because source deadlines vary a great deal. Some fixed-rate quotes are held for well under an hour; some variable-rate orders stay open upstream for days. Kotova displays one consistent window regardless — up to 60 minutes, sometimes shorter depending on the source — and never longer than sixty minutes even where the source would allow it. A short window on a rate-locked order stops the countdown promising a rate that has already lapsed.

Caution

Send exactly one deposit, of the exact amount shown, on the exact network shown, including the memo if one is displayed. Multiple deposits, partial deposits and deposits sent to an expired address may be unrecoverable.

Confirmations and execution

Once your deposit is visible on-chain, the source waits for that network’s required number of confirmations before treating it as final. The threshold is set by the executing source, not by Kotova, and differs per network. Bitcoin is typically 1–3 confirmations depending on the network and executing partner. Where Kotova knows the source’s exact threshold, the order page shows a running count.

After confirmation the source performs the swap and sends the output to your receiving address. On a fixed-rate order the amount was locked at creation; on a variable-rate order it is determined when the swap executes, so it may differ from the estimate you saw. See Fees.

Your order page polls for updates every few seconds while it is open. A scheduled job on Kotova’s side re-polls independently every few minutes, so an order still reaches its final state if you close the tab. Orders created through the API are refreshed when the integrator reads them and by the same scheduled job.

Status vocabulary

Status	What it means
Initiated	Order created. Awaiting your deposit.
Received	Deposit seen. Waiting for network confirmations.
Confirmed	Confirmations reached. The source is performing the swap.
Sending	The source is sending the output to your address. The order stays here until the payout’s transaction hash is recorded, even if the source already reports the swap as finished.
Complete	The payout has been broadcast, and its transaction hash is shown on the order page.
On hold	Shown instead of Sending on orders at some sources, when the source reports the swap as finished but about ten minutes later no payout has been recorded. Displayed as “Payout on hold”. See Troubleshooting.
Expired	The deposit window elapsed without a recorded deposit.
Emergency	The source needs a decision from you. Displayed as “Action required”.
Refunding	A refund has been accepted; the return transfer is not yet on-chain.
Reverted	Funds have been returned.

Kotova keeps the source’s own status string alongside its own, so nothing reported upstream is lost in translation. On the order page the status only moves forward, so a slow or out-of-order response cannot make a completed step appear to un-happen.

Late deposits

An elapsed countdown does not automatically mean a late deposit is lost. Kotova keeps re-polling the source for a period measured from when the order was created — usually twenty-four hours, shorter on some sources and rate types. If the source still accepts the deposit, the order rejoins the normal path and proceeds to completion or to a refund.

This is a recovery mechanism, not a guarantee. Whether a late deposit is honoured is entirely the source’s decision.

Expiry

An order shows as expired when its countdown elapsed with no confirmed deposit. If you never sent anything, nothing further happens and nothing is owed — create a new order at the current rate.

Kotova’s expiry and the source’s expiry are separate clocks. Because Kotova caps its own window at sixty minutes, an order can read as expired here while the source still considers it open. That is what the late-deposit re-polling above exists to catch.

Emergency states

Some sources can move an order into an exceptional state — a deposit that arrived outside the window, an amount outside their limits, a rate that moved beyond their tolerance, or a hold applied by their own compliance process. Your order page will say so and, where the source allows it, offer a choice.

What is on offer depends on the source:

Source	Choice available
FixedFloat, ChangeNOW	Continue at the current rate, or refund
SideShift	Refund only
Changelly, StealthEX, Godex, Exolix, CCE Cash	No post-creation choice; resolved upstream
Chainflip	Refund conditions are set at order creation and apply automatically

You have roughly an hour to decide, measured from when the problem was first observed. If that window passes without a decision and a refund address is on file, Kotova dispatches the refund on your behalf to that address. If no refund address is on file, an order at FixedFloat is instead continued at the current market rate rather than left stuck.

If a source rejects the refund address you gave, it is cleared, you are asked for another, and a fresh decision window begins. This is covered in more detail in Refunds, cancellations and emergencies.

Order visibility and the 90-day cutoff

Your order page is protected by the receiving address you entered when you created the order. That address is the passcode, and no token issued by the source opens the page. The one other way in is a Kotova account: an order created while signed in, or saved to an account later, also opens without the address for that account, once it is signed in with its email address confirmed.

An order placed through an app that uses the Kotova X API cannot be saved to a Kotova account and gets no Kotova emails. That app keeps you updated, and the order page still opens with the receiving address.

Ninety days after creation, an order is archived, and the page stops serving it to anyone who opens it with the address. An order saved to an account stays readable for that account while it is signed in. The passcode is still checked first, so archive status is never revealed to someone who cannot prove ownership of the order.

Archiving governs visibility, not retention. What Kotova stores, and for how long, is described in Privacy and data retention.

Tip

If you need transaction hashes or amounts for your own records, save them before the ninety days elapse.