How to lose everything? Or, my story of swapping crypto on InstaSwap
TL;DR: I sent 575,830 TRX, worth about $193,000 at the time, through InstaSwap to receive ETH. Three weeks later, I have neither the ETH nor a refund. InstaSwap says it never controlled my funds and refuses to commit to reimbursing me if its provider fails to refund them. I have contacted NEAR Intents through every channel I could find without receiving a substantive response about my case. Meanwhile, I traced 190,995 USDT from the swap to an intermediate wallet.
Updated: October 2, 2026.
I sent almost $200,000 through a swap service. The deposit succeeded. The swap failed.
Then I found out what happens when you ask that service to return your money.
On September 11, I placed an order through InstaSwap to exchange 575,830 TRX for approximately 74.74 ETH. I sent the exact amount to the deposit address provided for my order.
The transaction succeeded. Sixty seconds later, the entire deposit was moved out of that address into the settlement route.
My order subsequently showed failed.
InstaSwap’s website promises:
>Funds return automatically if a swap fails.
Three weeks later, my experience of this “automatic” refund consists of emails, demands, unanswered questions and tracing the money myself.
Then InstaSwap explained why it would not commit to returning my money.
They told me, in writing, that they never possessed or controlled my funds and had no technical ability to move them. According to their response, only NEAR Intents could process the refund.
So I asked a straightforward question: if your provider does not return my money, will InstaSwap reimburse me from its own funds?
They explicitly refused to give that commitment.
Their position is that their Terms do not require them to reimburse customers from their own funds for assets held by a third-party provider.
Think about what that means for someone using their service.
I placed the order through InstaSwap. I followed InstaSwap’s instructions. I sent the deposit to the address supplied for that order. The quote included a platform fee.
Once the route failed, I received an explanation of why they would not commit to returning the money themselves.
On September 30, they told me they could provide neither a refund transaction hash nor a refund date.
That leaves me with almost $200,000 unavailable and no concrete resolution.
I have tried to reach NEAR Intents everywhere I could.
Discord. GitHub. Telegram. X/Twitter. Reddit. Email. The support widget on their website.
Over these three weeks, I have not received a substantive response from the NEAR Intents team about my case. No explanation of what happened to my order. No recovery plan. No refund date.
InstaSwap also said NEAR had emailed me requesting information and was waiting for my reply.
I did not receive that email. I asked them to produce it or have the request resent so I could answer.
I am available. I am actively trying to resolve this. Telling me to answer an email I have never received gets us nowhere.
Then I found a transfer that their explanation did not account for.
On September 24, I formally demanded a refund and explicitly told InstaSwap that I no longer wanted the swap executed.
Three days later, on September 27, 190,995.293894 USDT was transferred on Ethereum to an intermediate address recorded in the NEAR Intents quote.
As of my October 2 check, that USDT remained at the address, with no outgoing transfer.
That is not my ETH receiving address.
My InstaSwap order specified approximately 74.74 ETH to:
0x9D6061bb3524E89971971A40787bA4F34E606Fe7
The USDT went to:
0x632F5D32448DE43b8b9cfD063aCfcDac09108bad
I have received neither the ETH nor a refund.
There are two separate stages here: the intermediate TRX-to-USDT conversion and the complete TRX-to-ETH order I placed.
The NEAR Intents stage now shows SUCCESS.
The overall InstaSwap order still shows failed, with no actual output and no receiving transaction hash.
So why did InstaSwap’s September 30 email still describe the provider’s swap as FAILED and say the funds were held by NEAR Intents, when the intermediate USDT transfer had happened three days earlier?
For anyone following my earlier posts, this is an important update: the funds moved further through the route. I traced the USDT to that intermediate Ethereum wallet. I still have not been told who controls it or who can authorize recovery.
On October 1, I sent both teams the updated evidence and specific questions. As of this October 2 update, those latest emails remain unanswered.
From where I stand, this looks like a scam wrapped in a polished interface and a promise of automatic refunds.
The deposit succeeded. My order was not fulfilled. There is no refund.
InstaSwap explains why it will not commit to reimbursing me. NEAR Intents has not answered my case substantively. Meanwhile, I am left investigating their settlement route myself.
How is a customer supposed to feel after three weeks of this?
I can see 190,995 USDT sitting at an intermediate address. Yet I cannot get a clear answer about who can return it.
I did what the service asked me to do. I sent the money. Now I am chasing the people involved, comparing status records and trying to find someone who can fix their failed order.
Why has recovering my deposit become my job?
I want my money back.
The evidence is available for anyone who wants to check:
- Original TRON deposit
- InstaSwap order IK726CC4: failed, ETH recipient and missing payout transaction
- NEAR Intents status and intermediate quote
- September 27 USDT transfer
- Intermediate wallet and balance
If you have dealt with a similar failed swap, who actually arranged the refund? How did you reach someone who could resolve it?
InstaSwap and NEAR Intents: identify who controls the intermediate wallet, assign someone to this case and provide a concrete recovery plan with a refund date.
I have preserved the correspondence and transaction records. I will update this post with your response and the refund transaction if the funds are returned.