Confirmation Requirements: How Long Venues Actually Wait

Entry last verified August 2026.

What a confirmation requirement is

The number of blocks a venue waits after a deposit transaction is included, before crediting the funds.

It exists because a transaction can be reversed by a chain reorganisation. Each additional block makes that exponentially less likely, and the threshold a venue chooses is a judgement about acceptable risk.

Why the numbers differ so much

Chain security. A chain that is cheap to attack requires more confirmations to reach the same assurance. Small chains with low hash power or stake are the reason some assets have thresholds in the dozens.

Block time. A chain with short blocks needs more of them for the same elapsed security.

Finality model. Chains with explicit finality can credit after the finalisation point rather than after a block count, which is why crediting on those networks is predictable rather than probabilistic.

Amount. Some venues use tiered thresholds, requiring more confirmations for larger deposits.

The typical shape

Chain type	Usual requirement	Approximate wait
Large proof-of-work chain	Several blocks	Tens of minutes
Large proof-of-stake chain	To finality	Around 15 minutes
High-throughput chain	Many blocks	Seconds to minutes
Small or low-security chain	Many blocks	Can exceed an hour

The last row is the informative one. A venue requiring a large number of confirmations on a particular chain is telling you it does not trust that chain’s settlement quickly, and that assessment is made by people with a direct financial stake in getting it right.

Using this as a signal

Confirmation requirements are one of the few public statements a regulated business makes about a chain’s security, backed by its own money.

Comparing thresholds for the same asset across venues, and for different assets at the same venue, gives a practical ranking of settlement assurance that no marketing material provides.

Platforms publish these in their deposit documentation. A regulated European platform and its peers list them per asset and per network, and the list is worth reading before sending anything, because it also tells you the expected wait.

What to do while waiting

Nothing. The transaction is on-chain and will be credited when the threshold is reached.

Contacting support before the stated threshold has passed achieves nothing, and posting publicly about a pending deposit attracts fraudulent support accounts within minutes.

The edge cases

Deposits during a network upgrade. Venues suspend deposits around upgrades. Sending during a suspension window can result in a long delay before manual crediting.

Wrong network. The most common cause of a deposit that never arrives. The asset exists on multiple chains and the venue was watching a different one. Recovery depends on the venue’s process and is not guaranteed.

Deposits below the minimum. Most venues have a minimum deposit, below which funds may not be credited automatically. Published alongside the confirmation requirements and frequently overlooked.