Why is my Bitcoin transaction stuck on 1 confirmation?
It isn’t stuck: one confirmation means it is already in a block. The next one comes with the next block, about 10 minutes away on average, sometimes an hour.
One confirmation means it is already in a block
A payment has one confirmation once a miner has put it in a block. It has left the queue of waiting payments, and Bitcoin.org explains that from then on “it will continue to be buried under every block after it”. Each new block adds one confirmation. So a payment showing one confirmation is not stuck in the way an unconfirmed one can be: it is waiting for the next block, or the wallet or exchange is waiting for more confirmations before it changes the status. To see the count for yourself, look up the transaction ID on UTXOHub; its page shows how many confirmations it has and updates as blocks arrive.
Look up your paymentThe next confirmation comes with the next block
Your second confirmation arrives when any miner finds the next block, whatever fee your payment paid. Blocks come about every 10 minutes on average, but finding one is a matter of chance, so the gaps vary. Kraken’s deposit guide notes that “sometimes it can take Bitcoin miners 30 or even 60 minutes to mine a single block”, and a few blocks can also arrive minutes apart. Waiting doesn’t bring the next block closer either: as Russell O’Connor explains, the next block is always expected about 10 minutes from now, however long it has already been since the last one. If no block has appeared for a while, the latest blocks page shows how long it has been.
See the latest blocksHow long does a Bitcoin transaction take?A higher fee won’t speed it up now
Speed up, Bump fee and Cancel work only before the first confirmation. They replace the waiting payment with a new version, and Bitcoin Core’s guide to replacement says it “has no effect once a transaction has been confirmed”. Child pays for parent, where the receiver spends the coins on with a higher fee, also only helps a payment that is still waiting. BitBox’s help gives the same advice for a payment with one to five confirmations: “Wait for further confirmations; you do not need to increase its fee.” A service that offers to accelerate a payment that already has a confirmation can’t make the next block come sooner, so there is nothing to pay for.
Speed up a payment that hasn’t confirmed yetYour wallet or exchange may be waiting for more
Many wallets and exchanges keep a payment pending until it has a set number of confirmations, so “1/3” or “1/6” is a count, not an error. The BitBox wallet shows Pending (1/6) and changes the status to Complete after six confirmations. Kraken says it credits bitcoin deposits after three confirmations, which takes about 45 minutes. Binance requires at least two before a bitcoin deposit is unlocked, and Crypto.com lists two for bitcoin deposits. These numbers are each service’s own and can change, so check its help pages for the current one. Until the count reaches it, there is nothing for you or the sender to do but wait for blocks.
How many confirmations does a payment need?Kraken deposits and withdrawalsIf UTXOHub shows more confirmations than your wallet
If the payment’s page on UTXOHub shows several confirmations while your wallet still says one, the wallet hasn’t caught up with the latest blocks. Check it is online, then close and reopen it or use its refresh option. If an exchange still shows the deposit as pending after the count has passed the number it asks for, check its status page for deposit delays, then contact its support through the app or website with the transaction ID. Never give anyone your recovery words: no real support team asks for them.
Bitcoin confirmed but not receivedIf the count went back to zero
Rarely, two miners find a block at almost the same time. The network soon follows whichever chain the next block builds on, and nodes “throw away stale blocks belonging to shorter forks”, as the Bitcoin developer guide puts it. If your payment was only in the block that was dropped, it goes back to waiting with zero confirmations, unless the block that replaced it already holds it. It can then confirm in a later block. This is one reason exchanges wait for more than one confirmation before they credit a deposit, and why each extra confirmation makes a payment harder to reverse.
What is a chain reorganisation?References
- Bitcoin.org, “Frequently Asked Questions”.
- Kraken Support, “Cryptocurrency deposit processing times”.
- Russell O’Connor, “Why Is It Taking 20 Minutes to Mine This Bitcoin Block?”.
- Bitcoin Core, “Opt-in RBF FAQ”.
- BitBox Support, “Why is my Bitcoin transaction pending?”.
- Binance Support, “Why Hasn’t My Deposit Been Credited?”.
- Crypto.com Help Center, “How to Deposit Crypto into the Crypto.com App/Web”.
- Bitcoin Developer Guide, “Block Chain”.