Crypto network fees confuse almost everyone at first. Why does sending USDT need TRX? Why did the same transfer cost more today than last week? And if you accept crypto payments, which of these fees are yours to pay? This guide explains gas fees in plain terms, chain by chain, and shows where crypto transaction fees for merchants actually appear when you take payments with Crypto Merchant.
What crypto network fees are
A blockchain is run by many computers that check and record transactions. To get a transaction into the next block, the sender pays a fee to the miners or validators who produce it. That is the network fee. On Ethereum it is called gas, and people now say "gas fees" for network fees on any chain.
A few things hold on every chain:
- The fee is paid in the network's own coin, not in the token you are sending.
- The fee goes to the network, not to the wallet, exchange or payment service you use. Exchanges and wallets may charge their own fees on top.
- The fee depends on the work and the demand, not on the value. Sending 10 USDT or 10,000 USDT on the same network costs about the same network fee.
- Fees change over time. They rise when many people want to use a network at once and fall when it is quiet.
The ethereum.org guide to gas explains the mechanics for Ethereum in detail. The short version is enough to run a business, and that is what follows.
How gas fees work on each kind of chain
The name and the details differ from chain to chain, but the idea is the same everywhere.
Ethereum and EVM networks
On Ethereum, every operation uses a measured amount of gas, and you pay the gas used times the gas price, in ETH. A plain ETH transfer uses a small, fixed amount of gas. A token transfer, such as sending USDC, is a call to the token's smart contract and uses more. BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, Base and Arbitrum One work the same way, with BNB, POL and ETH as their gas coins. Base and Arbitrum One are layer 2 networks built on top of Ethereum: they also use ETH for gas, but their fees are usually far lower than on Ethereum itself.
Tron: bandwidth and energy
Tron uses resources instead of gas. Every transaction uses bandwidth, and smart contract calls, including USDT transfers, also use energy. An account can get these resources by staking TRX, and whatever it doesn't have is paid for by burning TRX. Either way, TRX pays. Tron's resource model docs have the full picture.
Bitcoin and Litecoin: fees by size
Bitcoin and Litecoin charge by the size of the transaction in bytes, not by the amount sent. A transaction that spends many small earlier payments is larger, so it costs more than one that spends a single large payment. Senders choose a fee rate, and miners include the best-paying transactions first, so fees climb when blocks are full. Litecoin works the same way and is usually cheaper.
Solana, TON and the XRP Ledger
Solana charges a small base fee per transaction in SOL, plus an optional priority fee when the network is busy. Sending a token such as USDC to a Solana wallet that has never held it also needs a small deposit to create a token account. TON fees are paid in TON and depend on the work a transaction does, and a new TON wallet has to be deployed before it can send. On the XRP Ledger, a tiny fee in XRP is destroyed with each transaction, and every account must keep a minimum reserve of XRP.
Why you need TRX to send USDT
USDT isn't a blockchain of its own. It is a token issued on several blockchains, and on each one it follows that chain's rules. On Tron, USDT is a TRC-20 token: moving it is a smart contract call, which uses energy and bandwidth, which are paid for in TRX. A wallet holding 500 USDT and no TRX can't send any of it.
The same rule applies on every network:
- USDT or USDC on Ethereum needs ETH.
- USDT or USDC on BNB Smart Chain needs BNB.
- USDT or USDC on Polygon needs POL.
- USDC on Base, and USDT or USDC on Arbitrum One, need ETH.
- USDT or USDC on Solana needs SOL.
Exchanges hide this from their users by charging a withdrawal fee in the token itself and paying the gas from their own wallets. Self-custody wallets don't, which is why customers sometimes find they can't send the USDT they hold until they buy a little TRX.
As a merchant on Crypto Merchant, you don't have to buy TRX or ETH to move your coins: the network fees for sweeps and swaps come from your gas balance, described below. For more on taking Tether, see how to accept USDT payments.
Who pays which fee
When you accept crypto payments, fees show up at several points. Here is who pays each one, and how.
| When | Who pays | How |
|---|---|---|
| The customer sends a payment | The customer | From their own wallet, in the network's coin. Some exchanges take their fee out of the amount sent instead, which can leave the payment short. |
| A payment is swept into your pool wallet | You | The network fee only, from your gas balance. Crypto Merchant adds no sweep fee. |
| Coins are swapped into your holding coin | You | Network fees from your gas balance. The swap rate includes a service margin. |
| You pay out to your own wallet | You | A payout is an on-chain transfer, so the network charges its normal fee. |
| An underpaid invoice is refunded | The customer | The network fee is taken from the refund. |
| An invoice is paid | You | Crypto Merchant's fee of 1%, deducted when the payment is credited. Expired and cancelled invoices cost nothing. |
The customer's fee matters to you too. If a customer pays from an exchange that takes its withdrawal fee out of the amount, less arrives than the invoice asks for. Your underpayment tolerance (we recommend at least $1) absorbs small shortfalls, and the invoice still counts as paid. Larger shortfalls leave the invoice underpaid until the customer sends the rest or asks for a refund.
How the Crypto Merchant gas balance works
Rather than making you buy and hold the gas coin of every network you accept, Crypto Merchant keeps one gas balance for your business, in US dollars.
- 1
You go live with $25
Make the one-time go-live payment in any coin. The full amount is credited to your gas balance.
- 2
Sweeps and swaps draw on it
When a payment is swept into your pool wallet, or your coins are swapped into your holding coin, the network fee is paid from the gas balance.
- 3
If it runs out, payments still move
The network fee is then taken from the payment being moved instead.
The gas balance only pays network fees. It can't be withdrawn or paid out as cash, and it isn't refunded as cash if you close your account. Developers can read it from the balances endpoint as gas_balance_usd. The wallets, sweeps and gas docs have the details.
Supported networks and their gas coins
These are the networks live on Crypto Merchant at the time of writing, with the coin each one uses for fees. The coins and networks page always shows the current list.
| Network | Gas coin | Coins you can accept |
|---|---|---|
| Ethereum | ETH | ETH, USDT, USDC |
| BNB Smart Chain | BNB | BNB, USDT, USDC |
| Polygon | POL | POL, USDT, USDC |
| Base | ETH | ETH, USDC |
| Arbitrum One | ETH | ETH, USDT, USDC |
| Tron | TRX | TRX, USDT |
| Solana | SOL | SOL, USDT, USDC |
| Bitcoin | BTC | BTC |
| Litecoin | LTC | LTC |
| TON | GRAM | GRAM |
| XRP Ledger | XRP | XRP |
How to keep crypto transaction fees low
You can't avoid network fees, but you can make sure you aren't paying more than you need to.
Steer customers to low-fee networks
The network matters more than anything else. A stablecoin transfer on Ethereum itself usually costs much more than the same transfer on Base, Arbitrum One, Polygon, BNB Smart Chain or Solana, and the fee is paid twice: your customer pays one to send, and you pay one when the payment is swept. Customers only see the networks you turn on, so you can leave out the expensive ones. But keep the networks your customers actually use. If most of them hold USDT on Tron, a payment option they can use today is worth more than a slightly lower fee. Our guide to stablecoin payments for business compares the options.
Time your sweeps
With automatic sweeps, each payment moves into your pool wallet as soon as it confirms, at whatever the fee is at that moment. With manual sweeps, payments stay on their deposit addresses until you start a sweep. On networks where fees swing with demand, such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, that lets you wait for a quieter time. Either way, a paid invoice is credited to your balance as soon as it confirms. Sweep timing only changes when the coins move.
Mind small payments
A network fee is about the same for a small payment as for a large one, so it takes a bigger share of small payments. If you sell low-priced items, favor networks with low fees.
Pay out less often, and swap only if you need to
Each payout is its own on-chain transfer with its own network fee. There's no payout minimum, so it's easy to pay out more often than you need to; fewer, larger payouts mean fewer fees. And if most of your sales come in one stablecoin, per-coin payouts skip swaps altogether, along with their network fees and the margin in the swap rate.
Network fees are much easier to manage once you know where they come from. See pricing for everything Crypto Merchant charges, or create a free account to set up your coins and sweep rules.