While nobody likes paying transaction fees when sending their crypto, there’s a very good reason why they exist. Transaction fees protect the blockchain network from being flooded with spam transactions, which could slow the network to a halt and cause serious headaches for users who are trying to send real transactions.
Fees for transferring crypto between wallets and exchanges vary depending on the blockchain network used, the degree of network congestion, and other factors. For example, the average fee for transferring BTC on the Bitcoin network is usually between $1 and $3. However, during the most extreme spikes in network activity, Bitcoin fees have reached as high as $60 and more.
In addition to block rewards, transaction fees also provide an added incentive for miners or validators to secure their networks. It’s in the best interest of any public blockchain to have a large and diverse set of miners or validators securing the network.
Key highlights:
- Bitcoin transaction fees depend on how much data is contained in your transaction and how congested the Bitcoin network is
- Usually, you'll be able to send BTC for between $1 and $3 in fees, but fees can increase significantly during spikes in network activity
- During bull markets for BTC, there's usually a lot of demand for transacting on the Bitcoin network, leading to high fees; the highest recorded fees surpassed $60 in 2021.
FAQs about crypto transfers and transaction fees
Cryptocurrencies are a new technology and have a lot of unique properties that make them confusing at times. We've prepared a list of some of the most common questions our users have on the topic of cryptocurrency transaction fees and moving crypto from exchanges to wallets.
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What is the cost to send Bitcoin to another wallet?
The cost to send Bitcoin to another wallet depends on two main factors - the amount of data contained in your transaction and the level of Bitcoin network congestion. The Bitcoin blockchain produces blocks approximately every 10 minutes, and each block can contain up to 4 megabytes of data. Miners prioritize pending transactions with higher fees.
If there’s a lot of demand for transacting on the Bitcoin network, you’ll have to pay a higher fee in order to get your transaction processed in a reasonable amount of time.
Bitcoin wallets will typically give you the option to select the fee rate you wish to pay, which is expressed as how many Satoshis you’ll be paying per vByte (sat/vB). To cut a long story short, paying more in fees will result in your transaction being processed faster.
Typically, Bitcoin transaction fees spike during bull markets. When the price of BTC increases, more people will want to buy Bitcoin and use it. Since we’ve recently been in a bearish period, BTC transaction fees have been relatively low for a while.
According to data from BitInfoCharts, the average Bitcoin transaction fee between January 2023 and now has usually hovered in the range between $1 and $3, occasionally dropping as low as $0.70. However, there have been some notable spikes - at one point in May 2023, the average Bitcoin transaction fee spiked to over $30 due to a sudden surge in the popularity of “BRC-20” tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain. Another big spike happened in December of 2023 when the average Bitcoin transaction fee reached as high as $37.1.
Overall, Bitcoin transaction fees tend to follow market conditions for BTC. During bearish or neutral markets, you can usually send BTC for between $1 and $3. Meanwhile, the network can become prohibitively expensive to use during bull markets, when there is an extreme amount of demand for transacting on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Image source: BitInfoCharts.
If there was recently a big spike in Bitcoin transaction fees and if you’re not in a hurry to send your Bitcoin transaction, it might not be a bad idea to wait a few days for fees to come back down to a more affordable level.
The average cost to send Bitcoin to another wallet: Usually $1-$3, with occasional spikes to $30 and more
Does it cost to transfer crypto between wallets?
Yes, you will have to pay a fee if you want to transfer crypto between wallets. The fee you’ll have to pay will vary significantly depending on which cryptocurrency you’re using. If you’re using Bitcoin or Ethereum, the transfer will likely cost a few dollars (paid in BTC or ETH, respectively). However, some cryptocurrencies like XRP and Solana only charge a fraction of a cent in transaction fees.
Wallet to wallet crypto transfer fee (average fee range by network, network fee spikes are in parentheses)*:
- Bitcoin: $1-$3 ($37.1)
- Ethereum: $2-$8 ($30.3)
- XRP: $0.0001-$0.0010 ($0.028)
- Litecoin: $0.006-$0.020 ($0.09)
- Dogecoin: $0.01-$0.50 ($8.2)
*Data for the past 12 months
Is there a fee for transferring crypto from Coinbase to a Ledger wallet?
Yes, you will have to pay a fee if you want to transfer crypto from Coinbase to a Ledger wallet. The Coinbase to Ledger Nano fees are the same as if you were withdrawing from Coinbase to any other wallet.
For example, if you’re trying to withdraw ETH from Coinbase to your Ledger wallet, you will need to pay a fee in ETH. Coinbase charges this fee so that it can pay the necessary fees on the Ethereum blockchain in order for the withdrawal transaction to be processed.
When you’re withdrawing crypto from Coinbase, the exchange will provide you with an estimate of how much you’ll be paying in fees. The fee you pay for withdrawing from Coinbase will ultimately depend on the network conditions on the blockchain you’re using.
It’s worth keeping in mind that the fees will be the same regardless of whether you’re transferring crypto to a Ledger Nano X or Nano S Plus.
Do you have to pay a fee to transfer crypto from Binance to Ledger?
Yes, you will have to pay a fee to transfer cryptocurrency from Binance to a Ledger hardware wallet. Binance charges withdrawal fees to cover the costs of making the transaction on the blockchain network on which the withdrawal is happening. Binance charges the withdrawal fee denominated in the asset you’re withdrawing. For example, if you want to withdraw ARB tokens through the Ethereum network, Binance will charge the withdrawal fee in ARB, not ETH.
The Binance to Ledger fee is the same as if you were withdrawing crypto from Binance to any other external wallet. The withdrawal fees charged by Binance can change depending on network conditions. In order to get up-to-date information about Binance withdrawal fees, make sure to check out the exchange’s official fee schedule.
Does Ledger Live take fees?
If you’re using Ledger Live to send your crypto with your Ledger device, the wallet does not charge any additional fees other than the transaction fee required by the network you’re using, for example, Bitcoin or Ethereum. This fee will go to miners/validators and not Ledger. The amount you will have to pay in fees will depend on network conditions.
However, if you’re using Ledger Live’s built-in features for buying cryptocurrency or swapping between different cryptocurrencies, you will be charged a fee for the service. Ledger Live allows users to buy crypto through different partner services, and the fees will depend on which partner and payment method you will be using. For up-to-date information about Ledger Live fees, please check your Ledger Live software.
Ledger also takes a fee for users of its Ledger Recover service. Ledger Recover allows users to access their wallet even if they lose their backup seed phrase.
Hardware wallets manufactured by Ledger are widely regarded as the safest and most reliable way to store Bitcoin and other crypto assets. As long as the seed phrase storage is handled with care, there's no way that any malicious actor or software could endanger the safety of your crypto.
What is the Trust Wallet to Trust Wallet transfer fee?
There are no special Trust Wallet fees. The fees for sending crypto from your Trust Wallet to another Trust Wallet user are the same as if you were sending crypto to any other wallet.
Trust Wallet app is a non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet, which means that the private keys needed to access crypto are managed by the user. Trust Wallet, as a company, doesn’t have any access to your crypto, and as far as the blockchain is concerned, all wallet software is the same. So, even if you’re sending crypto to another Trust Wallet user, you will still have to pay the transaction fee charged by the network.
How to send Bitcoin to another wallet?
You can send Bitcoin to another wallet using your own wallet or by withdrawing BTC from a cryptocurrency exchange.
Regardless of which Bitcoin wallet you’re using, it should have a “Send” feature that will allow you to send Bitcoin to another wallet. Of course, you will need to know which address you will be sending your Bitcoin to.
Make sure to double-check that you’re sending Bitcoin to the right address, as Bitcoin transactions are irreversible. If you accidentally send BTC to the wrong address, you won’t be able to cancel the transaction or get your BTC back unless the owner of that address returns it to you.
If your Bitcoin is on a cryptocurrency exchange and you want to send it to another wallet, the exchange most likely provides instructions on how to withdraw your Bitcoin. Some exchanges might charge an extra withdrawal fee on top of the network fee required by the Bitcoin blockchain.
Please keep in mind that you will need to pay a transaction fee when sending Bitcoin to another wallet. Bitcoin transactions require a transaction fee to prevent the network from being flooded with spam transactions, and the fees also provide an extra incentive for miners to secure the network.
If you're looking for a hardware Bitcoin wallet, we recommend the Ledger Nano S Plus. It provides a great deal of security for all your cryptocurrencies, and it's also priced reasonably at around $80.
If you are looking for software Bitcoin wallets instead, here are some of the best options available on the market. These wallets are all non-custodial, which means the responsibility to keep private keys safe is on the side of the user.
How to transfer from Coinbase to Coinbase Wallet without fees?
When you’re transferring crypto from your Coinbase account to your Coinbase Wallet, you will have to pay a fee since the transaction is happening on a blockchain. Coinbase Wallet is a non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet, which means that you have the responsibility to manage your funds, and Coinbase cannot actually access them.
However, it is possible to send cryptocurrency for free between different Coinbase accounts. If both the sender and recipient opt in to the “Instant Send” feature under their privacy settings, they can send crypto to each other for free. Please note that these are internal transfers on Coinbase and don’t actually happen on the blockchain.
You can save on Bitcoin and Ethereum transaction fees by using layer 2 platforms
Beyond just waiting for network fees to drop or manually paying less in fees (which could mean that your transaction will take a very long time to process), one of the best ways to save on Bitcoin and Ethereum fees is to use layer 2 platforms.
A layer 2 platform works on top of a blockchain, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. It uses the underlying blockchain to guarantee security but implements various methods to reduce the cost of transactions, such as bundling many different transactions into one transaction.
The premier layer 2 solution for Bitcoin is the Lightning Network, which uses smart contracts and payment channels to give users a very cheap and fast way to transact with BTC.
Meanwhile, there is a huge variety of layer 2 solutions for Ethereum, with some of the most popular examples being Polygon, Optimism, and Arbitrum. If you're an Ethereum user and would like to explore a layer 2 solution, we provide a guide showing you how to transfer ETH from the Ethereum mainnet to Arbitrum.
The main downside of using layer 2s is that they introduce some complexity to the user experience. In addition, the exchange or wallet that you want to use might not support the specific layer 2 platform that you've chosen to use.
The bottom line: It's very hard to avoid fees when using crypto
Any time you want to make a transaction on a blockchain, you will have to pay a transaction fee. This applies both to withdrawals from cryptocurrency exchanges to external wallets and transactions from your wallet to another user’s wallet. The cost of transactions on a blockchain is the same regardless of whether you’re using software wallets or hardware wallets.
Bitcoin and Ethereum are both very popular, and the design of both cryptocurrencies prioritizes security at the expense of efficiency. As a result, both cryptocurrencies have substantial transaction fees.
One way to mitigate this issue is to use layer 2 solutions like the Lightning Network or Arbitrum. However, even if you’re using layer 2 solutions, you’ll eventually have to move funds back to the respective mainnet and have to pay fees on the transaction.
If you’re looking for cryptocurrencies with low transaction costs, make sure to check out our list of the cheapest cryptocurrencies to transfer.
