How to Choose the Right Network When Sending Crypto

Send USDT from an exchange, or ETH from one wallet to another, and at some point a dropdown asks which network you want. That little menu is where a lot of money goes missing. Plenty of coins exist on several blockchains now, and the send form expects you to know which one the other side is watching.

Here’s the method I use to get it right. You’ll want the account or wallet holding the coins, a way into the receiving wallet or exchange, and a bit spare for a trial send.

It takes a few extra checks. Skip them, pick badly, and the coins may never come back.

What you need before you pick a network

• Your sending wallet or exchange account. On an exchange, have 2FA or a passkey ready.
• A login to the receiving side, so the deposit address comes from you and not from someone’s chat message.
• The network that receiving side accepts for this particular coin.
• A memo or destination tag, when the receiving exchange asks for one.
• A balance big enough for the fee, the minimum withdrawal and one small trial send on top.
• Some sense of how a wallet address works and what yours looks like.

By network, I mean the blockchain the coin actually travels on.

Choose the wrong network, or paste the wrong address, and the funds are gone. Nobody can reverse it. Coinbase doesn’t soften this: an on-chain send can’t be undone, and it has no way to pull back coins that went to a bad address or over the wrong network.

How to choose the right network when sending crypto, step by step

Step 1. Start with what the receiving side accepts

I always work backwards from the destination. Tether supports USDT on Ethereum, Tron, BNB Smart Chain, Solana, Ton, Avalanche and Aptos, plus a handful of others. Circle‘s native USDC list is just as long and includes Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Solana and Polygon PoS.

None of those chains can see each other. According to ethereum.org, every blockchain is developed in its own isolated environment, which is why tokens don’t flow between them on their own. So USDT sent over Tron simply never shows up for a wallet that’s looking at Ethereum.

People trip here by thinking that if a platform lists the coin, it must list every network. Kraken’s advice is to pick whatever network the receiving wallet uses, because an incompatible one can cost you the whole amount.

Step 2. Get a deposit address for that exact network

Go to the deposit page on the receiving exchange. Pick the coin, and then pick the network, before copying a single character.

Coinbase’s version is “Receive crypto”, then the asset, after which it shows the address and any memo or destination tag that goes with it. Kraken is strict about the match: whichever network you chose while generating the address has to be the one you send over.

Copy the network’s name word for word. Binance’s list, for example, says “Tron (TRC20)” and “BNB Smart Chain (BEP20)”, and that wording is what you’ll look for later.

One trap I’d flag is an old saved address from another network. Make a new one.

Step 3. Look closely at the address

Addresses leave hints. An Ethereum or other EVM address opens with 0x and then 40 more characters, so it’s 42 long. On Tron you’ll see a leading T, on the XRP Ledger an r, and on Stellar a G.

For Bitcoin, Binance takes addresses beginning with 1, 3, bc1q or bc1p. Solana’s are anywhere from 32 to 44 characters, and capital letters matter there.

That only gets you part of the way, which frustrates me. Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism and Polygon all hand out the same 0x style, and Binance Academy blames exactly that lookalike ERC-20 and BEP-20 format for the mix-ups. MetaMask goes a step further and warns that being EVM-compatible doesn’t guarantee a 0x address every time.

Step 4. Find out if there’s a memo or tag

Certain chains carry an extra field. Exchanges use it to sort deposits arriving at one shared address into the right customer’s account.

XRP calls it a destination tag, and it’s a number. Stellar, Cosmos, Hedera and EOS call theirs a memo, and on Binance even USDT on TON comes with a memo box.

If that field is empty or wrong, Coinbase warns your transfer could be held up or lost outright. Whether you need one is the receiving platform’s call. A wallet you control yourself normally doesn’t, since nobody else shares that address.

Forgetting the memo when the destination is an exchange is the one I see people worry about most. Binance’s XRP note is blunt: going to another exchange without the tag means the withdrawal fails.

Step 5. Pick the matching network where you’re sending from

Binance’s app path runs “Assets”, then “Overview”, then “Send”, and then you tap “Withdraw Asset”. After choosing the coin you paste the address, set the network, hit “Withdraw” and confirm. Binance wants that network to be identical to the one used by the platform receiving the coins.

Coinbase.com starts from the Dashboard with “Send crypto”. You enter the asset and amount, click “To” and choose one of the supported networks, paste the address, and then it’s “Preview Send”, a quick look, and “Send now”. Even Coinbase tells you to double-check that the recipient’s wallet actually handles the network you picked.

Whatever the form preselects, ignore it until you’ve held it up against the name you copied in Step 2.

Step 6. Let fees break the tie

Sometimes both ends share two or three networks. That’s when cost becomes the deciding factor.

Kraken puts the fee for the selected network right on its withdrawal page, and the number shifts from one network to the next. Binance, in September 2026, charged about 0.01 USDT to withdraw USDT over BNB Smart Chain against about 1.5 USDT over Tron (TRC20).

Just don’t let a bargain on the sending side pull you onto a network the receiver can’t read. Saving on the fee is pointless when nothing lands.

Step 7. Test with a small amount before the full send

My first transfer to any new destination is a little over the withdrawal minimum, which is also what Coinbase suggests for confirming the address and memo. Once it’s credited on the other end, I send everything else to that same address on that same network.

Yes, you pay the fee twice. When it’s around 0.01 USDT I don’t even notice, and on the expensive networks a second fee still hurts far less than losing the transfer.

What each network charges you to send

I pulled these from Binance’s public network data on September 14, 2026. Binance takes the fee in the coin you’re sending, and the numbers move often, so look at the withdrawal screen on the day.

The TRC20 row surprised me, since it came out as the priciest way to move USDT of everything listed here.

Moving USDT in particular? This page is about picking the network. Our step-by-step guide to sending USDT over TRC20, ERC20 or Solana takes that one token and walks the whole transfer, fees and arrival times included.

Watch for dead ends as well. Binance accepts BNB over Ethereum (ERC20) as a deposit but won’t let you withdraw it that way. And if Tron is where most of your USDT lives, have a look at our roundup of the best TRC20 wallets for somewhere to keep it.

How long you’ll wait on each network

It mostly comes down to how many confirmations the receiver insists on before crediting you. For USDT deposits Binance asks for only 1 on BNB Smart Chain, Tron, Solana and TON, but 6 on Ethereum, 12 on AVAX C-Chain, 25 on Optimism, 120 on Arbitrum One and a full 200 on Polygon POS.

Layer 2 networks can stack another delay on top. Binance holds Scroll deposits until the linked Ethereum transaction confirms, which it puts at roughly 1 to 2 hours.

Coinbase is vaguer. It only says on-chain sends need time, though a transfer to another Coinbase user off-chain lands instantly.

When the network choice goes wrong, and what to try

• If the network you’re after isn’t offered, that platform doesn’t handle it for this coin. Choose one that appears on both sides.
• Forgot the memo or tag on an exchange deposit? It won’t be credited on its own. Binance runs an Unknown Memo/Tag Recovery page, while Coinbase wants you to reach support with the transaction hash.
• Coins that went to your own wallet on the wrong EVM network aren’t lost, according to MetaMask. Switch that wallet over to the network they arrived on, then bridge them across.
• An exchange deposit on a network it doesn’t support is the bad case. Binance Academy says most exchanges can’t get those funds back, and Kraken won’t promise recovery either.
• When a deposit sits on pending, look up how many confirmations that chain needs and search the transaction hash in a block explorer before you message support.
• Held up by 2FA? Complete the passkey or authenticator prompt, and glance at the network field one last time before you confirm.

Why is a self-custody mix-up so much easier to fix? Our piece on crypto wallets vs exchanges walks through who holds the keys in each case.

Habits that stop network mistakes before they happen

• Do a trial send whenever the address or the network is new to you.
• On a hardware wallet, read the address off the device itself. Ledger treats that screen as the one thing you can trust.
• Check every character, not just the ends. Ledger says a swapped-in address often shares its first and last characters with yours, which is how most people miss it.
• With stablecoins, match the token contract to the issuer’s published list. Circle keeps one for USDC and points out that USDC.e on X Layer is a bridged version it didn’t issue.
• Leave a little of each network’s gas coin in wallets you control, BNB on BNB Smart Chain for example, so the tokens aren’t stranded later.
• Your seed phrase stays with you. Fixing a network error never requires handing it to an exchange or a support agent.

Questions people ask about crypto networks

The short version

Let the receiver choose. Check which networks it takes, create the address on one of them, read the address and look for a memo, set the same network where you’re sending from, weigh up the fees, and do a trial run before the real amount goes out.

Moving Bitcoin instead? Our walkthrough on how to send Bitcoin to another wallet covers it.

This article is for general information only and is not financial, legal, or investment advice. Prices and features change; check the vendor’s official page before buying.