Bitcoin Forum

i have been trying to swap some of my usdt to btc but it is asking me to have a minimum amount of eth to continue the transaction now I have arbeth but it still won’t proceed even though i have more than the minimum amount

is arbeth not counted as eth? someone help me pls i am confused and desperate

Wait what network is your usdt and btc cause if its a native bitcoin isnt swappable there. Not sure what arbeth token is, could be an LP asset? But with the sounds of it, you are using arbitrum and your btc might be in the arbitrum network. They dont use arb as Gas token there but still eth network so you need an ethereum in arbitrum network to cover for some swaps.

USDT, ARB and ETH are different tokens.

In order to move your USDT ERC20, ARB ERC20 or ETH, you need to have ETH since gas fees isn't free. Obviously this mean ARB ERC20 didn't count as ETH or vice versa.

You need to have enough ETH if you want to send or convert your existing tokens to BTC.

from what i found arbeth is in the ethereum network so I thought it counted as ethereum because i found that arb are layer 2 ethereum

i have usdt on tether ethereum network

What ever thing you are doing that is not in centralized exchange you can't have Bitcoin except for a wbtc, and again before you must swapped any altcoin to ETH you must first know the kind of network you are using.
Note: you can only swapped bsc to bsc tokens, and you can swapped with eth network to eth network. After that to swap from ETH to BSC then you need to bridge network to enable you interchange currencies, so all you need to do is to find out to know the network you are swapping between each others. As for bitcoin, after swapping arbeth you need ethereum then move it to a centralized exchange and then buy Bitcoin after which you can withdraw it to non-custodial wallet.

If you care about security and privacy, then I will encourage you to use p2p from some of the p2p service provider here I believe there are reputable people whom you can trade your Ethereum to bitcoin without you having to visit any centralized exchange

Yes, if it's arb, it's still not ETH. You need ETH to proceed with your swap and that is because ETH will serve as your gas fee.
So, to understand it easily.
ETH = gas fee
ARB is not ETH so it won't serve as a gas fee as it's a different token.
And to make the swap, you have to deposit ETH to that wallet for you to be able to gas fee because even if you have arb there if it's on the ETH network(erc20), you'll still be required ETH for that transaction. And wait, you're swapping usdt to btc, I guess that you're getting wBTC and not actual BTC if you're not going to do it on an exchange.

yes, Arbitrum Eth is different from Eth both are different chains.

Layer 2 is like a track and Ethereum is like a vehicle, even with the same units but you can choose the density according to your taste. if the bridge is from eth of course you will be asked for a gas fee with the same coins but it depends on the availability of the dex, can you give me a screenshot? If possible, it doesn't go to altcoin, I usually just go to CEX using the USDT pair, as far as I know, altcoin facilitates Ethereum but not Bitcoin. This kind of confusion is normal, I used to be like that too. Indeed, dex allows unlimited access and the sending fees are cheaper and free to choose gas fees even though the vulnerability is worth it, while cex is indeed easier but this is the opposite with dapps. between erc20 and arbitrum are indeed different in terms of consumption, however erc20 is still very popular.

ARB is a native ERC20 of Arbitrum blockchain which is designed to improve Ethereum scaling issue. USDT is again an ERC20 token which is using Ethereum blockchain. All ERC 20 tokens need Ethereum which acts as a gas to run on it's blockchain. In your case you will need Ethereum in your wallet to complete the swap.

You're mistaking ETH with some random token it seems.
ETH is not a token, its a coin that will be required to pay for the gas fee when you are making transactions, so the ticker is always ETH or Ethereum in your wallet.
if its other ticker, then its definitely not the real ethereum, if you want to swap your USDT, you need to fill in some ETH into your account first whether through exchange or something then you can proceed to swap.
even though swapping in ethereum in its own gonna cost you but it depends whether you will really try to proceed or not.
but even then swapping on chain you will only get wrapped BTC, if you want BTC thats on bitcoin blockchain maybe it makes more sense to use something like binance instead.

No incorrect. The native token on Arbitrium is ETH, which is used for gas on the ARB network. The token is used for other things but not to pay gas fees.

Most chains use ETH for gas, except Polygon which uses Matic.

The op just needs to withdraw some ETH from some exchange and use that to swap his ARB to ETH and then use that to buy BTC and by BTC I mean the wrapped WBTC since you can’t own BTC on any blockchain that isn’t bitcoin.

Okay! Thanks for correcting me. I thought ARB was the token that is used to run Arbitrum ecosystem. As it is an ERC20 just like others it will need Ethereum as gas. I was not aware of it and thanks for clarifying it.

Don't worry. It looks like you are making a transaction on Arbitrum's network. If so, you need to have Ethereum on Arbitrum's network to make the transaction. You should go to the exchanges to buy ETH and transfer it to your wallet, but remember to choose the Arbitrum network when sending to your wallet. When you have enough ETH in your wallet, your transaction can be performed.

Arbt may not be the same token as the ETH, I believe the ETH you're being asked to have is an ETH to be used in purchase of gas so that it can enable you to swap the token from the native coin to exchange coin such as the USDT. Will on this process you'd be asked to either use your fiats token to purchase the ETH on behalf of the gas, or yet you can still use the USDT in the native token to purchase it then the purchase amount will be deducted from your USDT then you can have enough ETH/gas to proceed with your swapping.

You can also try to bridging the transaction.
Meanwhile as at now, i believe the token is still yet in the Wallet and required to be moved to exchange before you can successfully compete your transactions.
This might actually be so broad to you because I've been there before. I'll also have to let you know that whole of these processes will cost you that wouldn't get the exact amount you expected from an onset by the time you'll finish it all up.
Sorry for the inconveniences and good luck Op.

ARB is a token on its own, which comply ERC20 standard protocol but in no way it can be used to pay fee unless you use paymaster which usually can be taken advantage to pay the fee using some ERC20 tokens that are supported, i believe it works like that.
in case of yours since your USDT is in ethereum network you need to send ETH to your own address so that you can swap your USDT.
also, make sure that the ARB that you're talking about is legit by seeing the contract address in CMC the ones that got deployed in Ethereum, just to make sure you're not dealing with some random spam ERC20 which might steal your money.
because there are so many scammers these days sending some random ERC20 token to address that have money in which usually the contract of the token itself already modified so its not compliance to ERC20 standard just for the sake of asking you approval of certain token then drain your wallet of money.

you need to know about L1 and L2, and ETH is an example of L1 while ARBITRUM is L2. Both are clearly different and both even have their own coins. I suggest you study this issue more deeply because you could potentially make a mistake in making a deposit and you could lose your assets. In the past, I made a MATIC deposit on the Polygon network while the exchange only supported MATIC on the ethereum network.

I strongly believe you meant about swapping your USDT ERC20 to the WBTC, right? So, you have been finding your wallet with the wrong ethereum. It shall be bridged to the ethereum blockchain. Your ethereum will be obviously useless since it was on arbitrum blockchain.
Try to bridge it use owlto or something else. It's strange to see that if WBTC arbitrum is also there but you have ben disallowed to swap. I can assume that you were in the wrong network.
If your USDT was on the ethereum blockchain then brigdge your arbitrum ETH first


Yes it is. 1 arb eth = 1 eth. The only problem is your ethereum was on the wrong blockchain. Your USDT may be on the ethereum blockchain instead of arbitrum blockchain. Please, bridge it first.

Which of the exchange or platform are you using? It is Trustwallet or which of the platform because if it is Trustwallet then you have to convert some the coins to Eth. arb and eth are two different coins or token so you have to follow the instruction of the platform to convert your coins and send it to whatever place you want to and sell it of. There was a time I wanted to do the same though it was to convert but to send directly to Binance but I had to pay some amount of BNB in Trustwallet.

Though it was not BTC or USDT but it was a token and I asked someone to send me the requested token to pay for the transaction fee and after the payment the transaction went through.

If you exchange it on an exchange, you should be able to make transactions without having ETH because the transaction fee will be deducted from the USDT you have. When you have a USDT balance you are free to buy the crypto you want without having to have ETH. You must have a sufficient amount of ETH when you want to send USDT (ETH network) to the exchange.
ARB and ETH are different and they have their own networks, and you find them when you make a deposit.

ETH network is widely innovated in the space and we should be extremely careful because onces it's congested, transactions are paused. The market is broad and complex at same time, don't be in a position to do things in a hurry. You're absolutely correct, no transaction is done freely without deduction of fees as charges. We just have to open up to be on the safer side and never relent when it involves transaction, asking aides from colleagues because we're humans and we don't know everything in the space.

As per my understanding you are trying to swap USDT (ERC20) to BTC(ERC20). In that case you would require to have Ethereum which will act as a gas to process the transaction. ARB is an ERC20 governance token for the Arbitrum layer 2 blockchain. It cannot act as a gas when you are trying to process and ERC20 swap.

that's because you are using arbeth on the blockchain Arbitrum so whatever you do with USDT you must have a remaining arbitrum fee for the transaction to continue. Likewise with ETH. remember the Ethereum and Arbitrum blockchains are different.

If I understand correctly, you thought your L2 ETH could be used for gas fees on L1? That doesn’t work. Arb ETH is redeemable 1:1 for regular Ethereum, but you need to bridge it first before it can be used on the mainnet again.

L2 used different blokchain but it's simply said that if arbitrum blockchain is connected to the ethereum blokchain since you can use ethereum address on arbitrum address. It means that if arbitrum is a ecosystem expansion from ethereum blockchain.

There are so many L2 blockchain. If you are still new and that's find if you have not yet fully known about that.


It means you need to bridge it to the arbitrum if you are willing to use it with cheaper fees to send and receive your USDT. You can try to swap your USDT to the WBTC if you are willing to do that.

It requires ethereum native coin to pay the fees.

its L2 of ethereum so basically its the same mechanism and fee in arbitrum is also using ethereum so there's no difference really the only thing you need to do is just bridge the ethereum so that it can be used in the blockchain of arbitrum,
it seems OP mistaking arb to be used as a fee in the blockchain while its actually ethereum, arb is just ERC20 token to represents the blockchain but the fee actually used ethereum since its L2 basically means side chain of ethereum, so of course the transaction not gonna went through.
once OP can deposit some ethereum that already bridged to arbitrum, then OP can execute the transaction.
why is that, because its standalone blockchain its just that the data of transactions in arbitrum getting submitted back to ethereum because its needed as a layer 2.

If you buy ETH on the ARB network, the value will be the same as the original ETH, but the only difference is if you use the ERC20 network, the fees are expensive.

If you have to make a transaction between different networks, it won't work and could be lost, especially if you send it to your investment account. Make sure the network is the same before sending. It's easy.

You are right, I agree. Maybe arbitrum is a new ecosystem that some people are not used to using, besides having its own token arbitrum is a very efficient and environmentally friendly chain that can be a solution when ethereum density (erc20) and causes higher gas fees. Ethereum observers and developers know very well, in between density there must be innovation through layer 2, because the market segment is good and in my opinion the most superior in the altcoin class.

For calculations in the withdrawal menu for example cex (binance), there is an estimate of ordinary consumption that supports ethreum (all layer 2 rpc) even though it does not have an eth balance.

This solution is an added value for people's interest in ethreum and if I have free time I often take the time to see in the explorer (etherscan) how much volume and people are using it.