u/Due-Investment6848

New to Monero and a bit confused about how the whole process works.

I bought around £100 worth of USDT and used about 83 USDT to purchase 1 XMR through a marketplace/exchange. The order appears in the transaction/history section, but the XMR hasn’t shown up in my wallet yet.

I’m using Feather Wallet, and since direct USDT support isn’t really there, this seemed like the only way to convert into XMR.

A few things I’m unsure about:

Does the order need to be accepted/processed first before the XMR arrives?

Is ~83 USDT for 1 XMR a reasonable rate?

How long do Monero transactions usually take to fully appear/sync in Feather?

What exactly do “locked” or “frozen” funds mean in Monero wallets?

The wallet currently says the funds are temporarily restricted/frozen and should unlock later today. I’m coming from BTC/Electrum where confirmations usually feel more straightforward, so I’m still learning how Monero handles this stuff.

Any clarification would help a lot.

It’s interesting seeing reports that crypto is being used for Strait of Hormuz transit payments, although unsurprisingly it’s Bitcoin and not Monero.

From a privacy perspective, Monero would make much more sense. Governments and companies involved in sensitive trade routes probably don’t want every payment publicly traceable forever. A transparent chain exposes far more information than many actors would be comfortable with in situations tied to sanctions, oil shipments, or geopolitical tension.

But realistically, Bitcoin still dominates for one major reason: liquidity.

A country-sized participant can move enormous amounts through Bitcoin markets with far less slippage and far more counterparties available. Monero’s market is much smaller, so entering or exiting at that scale would be difficult and highly noticeable economically, even if the chain itself is private.

This is something people often overlook when discussing privacy coins. Adoption matters just as much as technology. Privacy tools become significantly more powerful when they have deep liquidity, broad acceptance, and large-scale everyday usage.

If Monero had Bitcoin-level adoption and market depth, situations like this might look very different.

Using Monero with a Ledger confuses me a bit regarding the wallet file.

From what I understand, the private keys are supposed to stay on the Ledger device itself. So why does Monero still create and require a wallet file on the computer?

A few things I’m trying to understand:

If I lose the wallet file but still have the Ledger, can I fully restore/access my XMR?

If the Ledger is lost but the wallet file remains, does the wallet file alone help in any way?

If someone gets access to only the wallet file (without the Ledger), can they see balances or spend funds?

What exactly is stored inside the wallet file when using a hardware wallet?

Trying to understand the security model a bit better.