FixedFloat 5.3 / 10

FixedFloat is an instant, no-signup cryptocurrency swap service running at ff.io since 2018. It positioned itself early in the "no-account exchange" category and was the first instant-swap platform to integrate the Bitcoin Lightning Network — a feature that still differentiates it from most peers in 2026. The service lists 80+ assets across Bitcoin, Ethereum, BSC, Tron, Solana, Monero, Polygon, Cosmos, plus several ERC-20 and BEP-20 tokens, with two pricing modes: a 0.5% floating rate that tracks spot at confirmation time, and a 1% fixed rate that locks the quote for 120 seconds.

How it works

You pick a pair (e.g. BTC → XMR), choose fixed or floating, enter a destination address. FixedFloat generates a one-time deposit address; you send funds, the service swaps through its liquidity backend, and forwards the output. A swap takes from ~30 seconds (Lightning → Lightning) to ~15 minutes (on-chain BTC → on-chain XMR with confirmations). No account, no email, no local order history — only a URL with the order ID, which you can save to track status.

KYC & privacy

Officially, FixedFloat does not require KYC for standard swaps — no signup, no email, no ID. In practice, the platform operates an AML flagging system that can freeze individual swaps post-deposit when a counterparty address is tagged (by Chainalysis-style attribution services) as linked to sanctions, mixers, darknet markets, or other risk categories. When that happens, the user must submit a proof-of-funds declaration to recover the deposit. This places FixedFloat at the discreet tier on our KYC rubric: no friction at entry, but meaningful intervention power retained by the operator.

The swap itself is custodial during the window: deposits land in FixedFloat-controlled hot wallets before being forwarded — this is the architecture that allowed the two 2024 incidents to happen.

Strengths and limits

The strengths are real: Lightning Network support is deep and fast, pair coverage is wider than most no-KYC instant swaps, and the UX is genuinely frictionless. Fees are competitive for the category, and the fixed-rate mode is useful when the receiving chain is slow. On the other side, FixedFloat's 2024 was difficult: a $26M hot-wallet hack in February followed by a $3M incident in April (see Halborn's post-mortem and CoinDesk). User-owned funds were not affected per the operator's statement, but pending orders were delayed for weeks. The service has been operating normally since the security overhaul, but the codebase is closed-source, no public audit has been published, and the legal entity is not disclosed. There is also no official .onion mirror in 2026 and Tor access has been restricted.

Verdict

FixedFloat earns a 5.3/10 at the discreet (L2) KYC tier. It is a solid tool for one-off no-signup swaps — especially when Lightning is on one side of the pair — but it should not be trusted with amounts that would hurt to lose during the ~15-minute custody window. For larger swaps or for users who want trustless execution, a P2P exchange like Bisq or an atomic-swap front-end is a better fit.