How to Look Up Crypto Transactions on the Blockchain (Block Explorers for Every Coin)

One of the most empowering things about crypto is that you can verify everything yourself. Every transaction on a public blockchain is visible to anyone with a block explorer — a free search engine for the chain. Paste in a transaction ID or a wallet address and you can see how much moved, when, how many confirmations it has, and where it came from and went to. This guide shows how to look up your transactions on every popular coin, with the right explorer for each — and explains why Monero (and shielded Zcash) can't be traced this way.

This is general educational content. Looking up your own transactions is good practice; remember that on transparent chains, others can look up yours too.

What a block explorer does

A block explorer reads the public blockchain and lets you search it two main ways:

• By transaction ID (TXID). Paste the hash of a transaction to see its amount, fee, confirmations, and the addresses on each side. This is how you confirm a swap deposit or payout actually sent — the same step in checking confirmations.
• By wallet address. Paste an address to see its balance and every transaction in and out of it.

On UTXO chains (Bitcoin-like), you can follow the trail: each transaction's inputs show where the coins came from, and its outputs show where they went — so you can hop transaction to transaction and trace the flow.

Explorers for every popular coin

Use the explorer that matches the coin's network. Paste your TXID or address into any of these:

• Bitcoin (BTC) — mempool.space, blockstream.info, or Blockchair.
• Ethereum (ETH) — Etherscan (also shows ERC-20 tokens like USDT/USDC).
• Litecoin (LTC) — Blockchair or litecoinspace.org.
• Solana (SOL) — Solscan or explorer.solana.com.
• Tron (TRX, USDT-TRC20) — Tronscan.
• TON (USDT-TON) — Tonviewer.
• BNB Chain (BSC) — BscScan.
• Dogecoin (DOGE) — Blockchair.
• Bitcoin Cash (BCH) — Blockchair.
• XRP — XRPScan.
• Many chains at once — Blockchair covers dozens of networks from one search box.

Tip for stablecoins: USDT and USDC exist on several chains, so use the explorer for the network you used — ERC-20 on Etherscan, TRC-20 on Tronscan, TON on Tonviewer (see Stablecoin Swaps).

A worked example

Say you swapped and want to confirm the BTC payout. Take the TXID the swap gave you, paste it into mempool.space, and you'll see the amount, the fee, the confirmations, and your receiving address among the outputs. Want your whole history? Paste your address instead and every transaction appears. On Ethereum it's the same idea on Etherscan — your address page lists ETH and every token transfer, each clickable to trace further. That traceability is exactly why people screen coins and watch for dusting: if you can follow the trail, so can others.

Why Monero can't be looked up

Here's the crucial difference. Monero (XMR) is private by design, so a public explorer can't reveal your transaction the way Bitcoin's can. Monero hides three things on every transaction: the sender (ring signatures), the receiver (stealth addresses), and the amount (RingCT). A Monero explorer like xmrchain.net can confirm a transaction exists and show its size, fee, and time — but not who sent it, who received it, or how much. There is no address page that lists "all transactions for this wallet."

The only ways to view a specific Monero transaction's details are by voluntarily revealing keys:

• A view key — a read-only key that lets someone see incoming funds to that wallet. If you share your view key (to prove a balance, or with a third party), they can see your incoming transactions — so guard it.
• A transaction's private key — Monero's "prove payment" feature lets you reveal a single transaction to a specific person without exposing your wallet.

In short: nobody can trace your Monero unless you hand them the keys. That's why swapping into Monero breaks the trail — see Using Instant Swaps to Get Monero and Bitcoin vs Monero.

Zcash: private only when shielded

Zcash (ZEC) is a special case because it has two kinds of addresses:

• Transparent addresses (t-addr, start with t) — these work just like Bitcoin and are fully public on an explorer. Amounts and addresses are visible and traceable.
• Shielded addresses (z-addr) — these are private; the explorer can't see amounts or parties.

So Zcash is only private if you actually use shielded addresses. A lot of Zcash activity is transparent or moves between shielded and transparent ("deshielding"), which exposes it. And like Monero, shielded Zcash has viewing keys that can be shared to reveal transactions. The lesson: with Zcash, privacy is opt-in — transparent ZEC is as traceable as Bitcoin.

Verify everything on SwapRaven

Block explorers let you confirm every swap and trace any transparent coin yourself — a core habit of safe, self-custodial crypto. Just remember the flip side: on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other transparent chains, your trail is public too. When privacy matters, route into Monero (or shielded Zcash), where there's simply nothing to look up. SwapRaven grades no-KYC instant swaps on trust and privacy so you can move between transparent and private coins straight from a wallet you control.