FAQ and common messages

What the bot's most common error and info messages mean, and exactly what to do about each one.

Alkanex tells you the truth on-chain. When a trade cannot go through, the bot says so in plain language and, where it can, refunds you. This page takes the real messages you may see and explains what each one means and what to do next. Every heading quotes the bot's actual wording.

The single most important thing to know: a swap that reverts on-chain returns your frBTC to your wallet. The swap transaction sets a refund pointer, and the bot refuses to record a zero-delivery as a successful buy. Your funds are not lost when a swap reverts. Only the on-chain network fee for the attempt is spent.

The token will not trade

"No AMM pool yet. Token is not tradeable here."

There is no liquidity pool for this token, so there is nothing to trade against. The token card shows a no pool badge and no buy entry.

What to do: nothing you can fix from the bot. A pool has to exist before anyone can trade the token. Refresh the card later to see if one appears.

"No route to frBTC. This token is on an isolated island and cannot be traded yet."

The token has a pool, but the bot cannot find any path of pools that connects it back to frBTC, the wrapped BTC that pools price in. Without a route to frBTC, there is no way to price or settle the trade.

What to do: wait for a pool that bridges this token to a routable one. The bot routes through other pools automatically when a path exists (up to a few hops), so once liquidity connects the token, trading opens on its own.

The router searches paths up to three hops and ranks them by the amount you actually receive, not the fewest hops, with a tie-break toward the deepest liquidity. "No route" means no path of any length reaches frBTC yet.

An untradeable token card showing the `no pool` badge and the "No route to frBTC" line.

The buy did not go through

"Buy cancelled to protect you"

This is the slippage guard doing its job. The price moved more than your slippage tolerance between quote and execution, so the swap reverted on-chain and the buy did not happen. When your operator has the reassuring panel enabled, the bot shows you the full picture: what you were buying, your minimum after slippage, and what the pool would give right now.

In that case the panel ends with: "Your frBTC is safe and waiting in your wallet. Only the on-chain network fees for the attempt were spent."

What to do: tap Retry with a higher slippage (you accept a worse price), or try a smaller amount. The bot spells out the choice: "raise your slippage (you accept a worse price) or try a smaller amount, then tap Retry."

The frBTC refund is on-chain and always on. The reassuring panel itself, with the live re-quote and the over-collected fee credited back, is a presentation layer your operator can enable. Whether or not you see the full panel, the underlying safety is the same: your frBTC returns to your wallet.

The "Buy cancelled to protect you" panel with the wanted / minimum / pool-now lines and the Retry button.

"Slippage exceeded. The price moved against you."

A shorter form of the same situation: the price moved against you past your tolerance. "Try again or raise tolerance."

What to do: retry, raise slippage in Settings, or use a smaller size.

"The swap reverted on-chain. No tokens were delivered and your frBTC was refunded to your wallet."

The swap failed on-chain for a reason other than slippage (for example the pool state changed mid-flight). The result is the same as any revert: no tokens, and your frBTC is back in your wallet.

What to do: try again. If it keeps reverting, the pool may be too thin for your size. Try a smaller amount.

"Pre-broadcast simulate reverted. The pool may have moved."

Before broadcasting, the bot simulates the trade. This message means the simulation failed, usually because the pool moved since the quote. Nothing was sent.

What to do: refresh the card and try again with a current quote.

Funding and balance messages

"Not enough spendable BTC"

This is the one-UTXO explanation, and it surprises people, so read it carefully. The bot quotes the wording directly:

A buy spends one BTC piece (UTXO). Pieces that hold your tokens are protected and never spent as BTC, so they do not count.

Bitcoin holds your balance in separate pieces called UTXOs. A self-funded buy has to be paid from a single plain-BTC piece. If your BTC is split across several small pieces, or sits bundled with tokens, no single spendable piece is large enough, even though your total looks fine.

The message tells you exactly what it needs and what you have: "This buy needs X BTC in one spendable piece. Your largest spendable piece is Y BTC." It then suggests a workable size: "Try Z BTC or less, or deposit more BTC to your wallet."

What to do: buy at or under the suggested amount, or tap Deposit BTC and add a single larger deposit, which lands as one fresh spendable piece.

This single-piece requirement only applies to a buy funded straight from BTC. If you already hold frBTC (for example from selling a token), buys spend that instead, with no single-piece requirement. See the Buying page.

"Not enough frBTC. Deposit or wrap more."

Your frBTC balance does not cover the buy. frBTC is the tradeable, pool-native form of BTC.

What to do: deposit BTC (it stays BTC) and buy; the bot wraps what the trade needs. Or sell a token to get frBTC. Wrapping is not instant: it waits for your deposit to confirm on Bitcoin and then settles as part of a separate transaction, so expect a few minutes, gated on Bitcoin block times.

"Not enough BTC. You have X. Pick a smaller amount or deposit more."

The amount you picked is more than your spendable BTC for this buy.

What to do: pick a smaller amount or deposit more.

"Amount too small. Try a bit more frBTC." / "That trade is below the minimum size. Try a slightly larger amount."

Trades have a minimum size of about 1,500 sats. Smaller amounts are not accepted.

What to do: increase the amount to at least the minimum.

Do not confuse this with the 10,000-sat figure elsewhere in the bot: 10,000 sats is the deposit dust floor and the withdraw minimum, not the trade floor. The trade minimum is roughly 1,500 sats.

"Your balance sits in a UTXO that holds more than one alkane. Wait for the DIESEL dust to settle, then try again."

This is the DIESEL dust case. The tokens you want to sell are sitting in the same Bitcoin piece (UTXO) as another alkane, often a little freshly mined DIESEL. The bot will not spend a piece that mixes more than one alkane, because that could move the wrong thing.

What to do: wait. The mixed piece resolves on its own as the dust settles into its own output over the next blocks, then sell again.

If you have DIESEL mining on, buys and normal swaps can mine a small amount of DIESEL into your wallet in the same transaction. DIESEL mining It is mined to you, not skimmed by the bot, and your operator enables it account-wide. Occasionally that dust lands bundled with another token for a block or two, which is what this message is about. It settles on its own.

Timing and in-flight messages

"Tx not confirmed in time. Check the explorer."

The bot waited for your transaction to confirm and hit its window without seeing a confirmation. This does not mean the trade failed. It means the bot stopped actively watching.

What to do: open the explorer from the trade and check the transaction's status directly. Bitcoin confirmation times depend on the mempool and the fee rate you set. A higher fee tier buys confirmation priority, not literal speed.

"Your previous trade is still going through. Hang tight until it settles, then you can place the next one. No new trade was started."

You tried to start a trade while a previous one for you was still in flight. The bot runs one trade at a time per user, so it blocked the new one before anything moved.

What to do: wait for the current trade to settle, then place the next. The key reassurance is in the message itself: "No new trade was started." Nothing was double-spent or duplicated.

Fee and broadcast messages

"Fee cap too low. Raise it in Settings."

Your network-fee cap is below what the current mempool requires to get the transaction relayed. The cap exists to protect you from overpaying when fees spike, so the bot refuses to silently blow past it.

What to do: open Settings -> Fee cap and raise it, or wait for the mempool to calm down. The default cap is 50 sat/vB. The Fees panel shows the live network rate so you can set a cap above it.

The same wording appears on a bridge: "fee cap too low, raise it in Settings." The fix is identical: raise the cap in Settings.

"Broadcast rejected by the network. Try again."

The transaction was built and signed, but a Bitcoin node rejected it when the bot tried to send it. This is usually transient (mempool state, a spent input, a brief node issue).

What to do: tap retry. If it persists, refresh the card so the bot rebuilds against current state and try once more.

"This conversion expired. Open it again from your wallet." / "This preview expired."

Quotes and previews are time-limited so you never trade on a stale price. After a while they expire and you reopen them.

What to do: open the action again from the wallet or token card to get a fresh quote.

Less common messages

Message	What it means	What to do
"Could not load funding UTXOs. Please try again."	The bot could not read your spendable pieces this time.	Retry. It is usually a transient read.
"Quote failed. Try again."	The pricing request did not come back.	Refresh the card and retry.
"Trade service offline."	The trading service was briefly unavailable.	Wait a moment and try again.
"Wallet decryption failed. Contact support."	The bot could not unseal your wallet to sign.	Do not retry blindly. Contact support.
"Server misconfigured. Master key missing."	An operator-side key is not loaded; the bot refuses to sign rather than guess.	Wait and retry later. This is on the operator, not you.
"Could not verify your deposit address. Do not deposit. Contact support."	The bot could not re-verify your deposit address against its allowlist and fails closed.	Do not send funds to it. Contact support.

Quick reference

You see	The short version
No AMM pool yet / No route to frBTC	The token cannot be traded yet. Nothing you can fix.
Buy cancelled to protect you	Slippage guard fired. Your frBTC is safe. Retry with higher slippage or a smaller size.
Not enough spendable BTC	Your BTC is split across pieces. Buy a suggested smaller amount, or deposit one larger piece.
Not enough frBTC	Deposit BTC (it stays BTC) and buy; the bot wraps what the trade needs. Or sell a token for frBTC.
Balance sits in a UTXO with more than one alkane	DIESEL dust. Wait for it to settle, then retry.
Tx not confirmed in time	Still pending, not failed. Check the explorer.
Previous trade is still going through	One trade at a time. Wait for it to settle. No new trade was started.
Fee cap too low	Raise the cap in Settings, or wait for fees to drop.
Broadcast rejected by the network	Usually transient. Retry.

When in doubt, the safest read of any trade error is this: the bot does not record a failed swap as a success, a reverted swap returns your frBTC, and it never starts a second trade on top of a live one. If a message worries you, open the explorer link or your wallet to confirm your balance directly.

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