Non-custodial swaps as a privacy tool — what I've learned comparing protocols

Been researching privacy-preserving ways to move between cryptocurrencies (specifically XMR to other assets) without going through KYC exchanges, and wanted to share findings since this comes up a lot here.

Why this matters for privacy:

Centralized exchanges link your identity to every transaction through KYC. Once you've verified your identity on an exchange, every coin that touches that account is now associated with you permanently in their records — even years later if there's a data breach or subpoena.

Non-custodial cross-chain swap protocols avoid this entirely. You never create an account, never submit ID, and the protocol never takes custody of your funds — it just facilitates a direct wallet-to-wallet swap.

Protocols worth knowing about:

THORChain — Fully decentralized, no KYC by design. Supports XMR directly which is rare. Has occasionally paused trading for security audits, worth checking status before large swaps.

Chainflip — Similar non-custodial model, faster settlement, but currently does not support XMR directly (mainly BTC/ETH/SOL pairs).

Tokensfund > I built this so people will be able to compare both in one place.

A privacy consideration people miss: even with non-custodial swaps, the destination address you provide is visible on-chain. If privacy is the goal, sending to a fresh address (not one already linked to your identity) matters more than which protocol you use.

One real limitation: none of these protocols are anonymous by default — they're non-custodial, which is different. XMR's privacy comes from Monero's own protocol design (ring signatures, stealth addresses), not from the swap mechanism. Swapping into XMR via THORChain doesn't retroactively anonymize your BTC, for example.

Curious if others here have audited these protocols' actual privacy guarantees more rigorously, or if there are better alternatives I'm missing for XMR-specific routes.