← All guides Beginner • 5 min

Quick Start

Get from zero to your first cross-chain swap in under 5 minutes. You'll need a crypto wallet (MetaMask or Coinbase Wallet) with a small amount of crypto for testing.

1

Create your Riverforge account

Click Register in the top-right of the homepage. Enter your email and a strong password. You'll be logged in immediately and redirected to the dashboard.

Tip: Use a real email — you'll need it for password recovery and important account notifications. We never spam.
2

Connect your wallet

On the dashboard, find the My Wallets card on the left side. Click the Connect Wallet button in its header.

A popup will appear with three options:

Pick whichever you have installed. Your wallet extension will pop up asking you to approve the connection — click Connect or Approve.

If you don't have a wallet yet, see our Wallet Setup guide.

3

Verify your wallet (optional but recommended)

In the My Wallets card, you'll see your connected wallet listed. Click the Verify button next to it. Your wallet will pop up asking you to sign a message — this proves you own the address. Signing is free and doesn't move any funds.

4

Pick tokens and amount

In the Swap Crypto Safely card in the middle of the dashboard:

Riverforge will only show you tokens you actually have a balance in for the "From" side.

5

Review and execute

Click Find Routes. Riverforge's AI will analyze possible paths and only show you routes scoring 90/100 or higher on safety. You'll see:

Click Execute Swap. Your wallet will pop up asking you to sign and submit the transaction. Approve it and Riverforge handles the rest.

Important: Never share your seed phrase or private keys. Riverforge will never ask for them. We only request signatures on transactions you're approving — that's how all DeFi works.

Done!

Your swap is on its way. You can watch progress in the dashboard. For cross-chain swaps, the destination tokens may take 1-15 minutes to arrive depending on the bridge.

Need help? Check the Troubleshooting guide or contact us.

Next up

→ Your First Cross-Chain Swap (deeper dive)