ACH withdrawals from your bank account have a long dispute window. That means someone could fund their Swan account, withdraw their Bitcoin, and then tell their bank that the charge was fraudulent, leaving Swan to foot the bill.
In order to offer you the lowest fees possible for automated ACH purchases, and to ensure that Swan itself is not at risk of insolvency due to fraud, we have a system of coin locking. During the time that your coins are unavailable for withdrawal, your Bitcoin is held in custody with a licensed and regulated Nevada-chartered trust company, Prime Trust.
Standard ACH
Purchases deposited via your standard ACH recurring plan are available to withdraw after ten days. Currently, we purchase Bitcoin on the tenth day and make it available for withdrawal. We are moving to a faster system, which will make your funds available in five days. Bitcoin will be available for withdrawal ten days after your deposit in either case. This is a requirement from our bank that we cannot alter.
Instant ACH
If you use your "Buy Instantly" feature, you get the spot price of Bitcoin at the current point in time. Your coins are purchased immediately, and we wait for ten days for the ACH transfer from your bank to settle. Your coins are available for withdrawal ten days after your purchase.
Large Purchases via ACH
If you've purchased equal to or more than $2500/month on a recurring plan, or at least $2500 via our Instant ACH feature, your coins will be available for withdrawal thirty days after the ACH transfer.
Wires
Wired funds become available as soon as the wire clears, typically in 24 hours. Purchases made with cleared funds are available for withdrawal within 24 hours. Large purchases from wires are currently locked for thirty days for protection of users that are new to Bitcoin withdrawals, but may be unlocked on demand by contacting support as soon as 24 hours later. We will soon have a policy on your account that allows you to opt-in or opt-out of auto-locking if you like.
Wire transfers are available from your dashboard menu.
Loyalty Unlocking, Swan Private, and Swan Corporate
Customers that have been with Swan for more than two months may ask support for shorter unlock times, which are offered at the discretion of our team. This also applies to Private (high net worth) and Corporate customers.
While we recognize that other services may offer quicker Bitcoin withdrawals after ACH deposits, it's important to note that these services take on tremendous risk by doing so, and the cost associated with that risk is passed along to customers through higher fees.