USDT And USDC Networks

[Franklinjames6]

Can someone explain to me why USDT and USDC is so strange when it comes to sending?  I have never used either of these coins due to the confusion on how you need gas fees or some other coin in order to send it.

I know that USDT's main network is ETH.  It is also on the tron network and several other networks.  How many total networks is USDT and USDC on?

So if you buy some USDT or someone sends you USDT in the ETH network... say it's $100 USD worth.  Now you want to send the USDT to a site or someone else.  You can't send unless you have ETH? 

How does this work in the other networks?

How would this work when you send USDT or USDC from your Coinbase wallet to another wallet?  What about if you were sending it from your own wallet to another wallet?  You still have to manually put whatever gas fee or whatever fee into it before you do the USDT or USDC send regardless of network?

[TastyChillySauce00]

The way it works, USDT and USDC are ERC20 tokens, ERC20 token is actually just a contract running on the Ethereum blockchain and if you want to send it you're basically modifying the contract state and to modify contract state you will need to pay fee using gas coin. Therefore, yes you need gas coin to send USDC and USDT.

You can see networks where USDT is available in this link and USDC in this link. The list might be incomplete because there's bridged and oft version.

Solana is more or less the same just like how it works on Ethereum, you'll need gas coin to send your stablecoin. Any network that uses EVM and SVM under the hood will have the same mechanism, even move language based blockchain is the same except some blockchain that explicitly saying they don't charge fee like Plasma that enable gas free for simple stablecoin using transfer and transferFrom call but swapping, and other still requires you to have the blockchain gas coin XPL.

However, if the blockchain was built with stablecoin in mind like Arc where they set USDC or any stablecoin as the native coin to pay for gas, you can actually use stablecoin for gas directly.

If your wallet is self custodial wallet, you're going to need to pay for the gas yourself which means you need to have the native coin to pay for the gas. But if you're using custodial wallet, the exchange is going to charge you in form of the token you're sending but under the hood the exchange is also paying the gas with native coin. However there is something called paymaster where you can bypass the gas requirement and pay in stablecoin instead, but at higher rate in self custodial wallet.

How would this work when you send USDT or USDC from your Coinbase wallet to another wallet?  What about if you were sending it from your own wallet to another wallet?  You still have to manually put whatever gas fee or whatever fee into it before you do the USDT or USDC send regardless of network?

Sending stablecoin or any activities that write to the blockchain will require you to pay gas, otherwise validator aren't willing to confirm your transaction for free, therefore yes.

[Franklinjames6]

Let's say someone sends me some USDT in the ETH network and it's about $700 USDT.  I want to now send this $700 USDT to a site or exchange or to someone else.  But in order to do that, I need ETH?

Now if someone sent me about $20 worth of ETH as well.  I have $700 USDT that is through the ETH network.  I have $20 ETH.

Assuming I have this USDT and ETH in my own wallet and not in an exchange, now I want to send $700 USDT to a site or exchange or to someone else.  When I do this, how much ETH fees am I going to be paying?  I heard ETH fees are very expensive but it depends on if there is a lot of congestion?  So if not congestion, what is the lowest amount of fees it can be?  I did some research and it says if you use a wallet like metamask or exodus and want to send $700 USDT that is on the ETH network at not busy time, it will cost between 1 cent to 25 cents in fees only?  If so, that is very cheap then.  I thought the ETH fees to send USDT on the ETH network would cost anywhere from $2 to $20.  But that is not correct?

What If I have this $700 USDT and $20 ETH in an exchange like coinbase and now want to send it to a site or exchange or to someone else?  Will the fees still be the same?  The confusing part about that is how do you pay the ETH fees to send it if you are doing this in an exchange?  My assumption is if you have USDT and ETH in metamask or exodus, when you are about to send USDT under the ETH network, you have to manually send the ETH first?

I have never used metamask or exodus but this USDT is very confusing.  Can you explain how it works in both of these scenarios?  1st is when you have USDT and ETH in your metamask or exodus wallet and want to now send $700 USDT and the other situation is the same except the money is on coinbase and you want to send to a site or exchange or someone else?

[TastyChillySauce00]

Let's say someone sends me some USDT in the ETH network and it's about $700 USDT.  I want to now send this $700 USDT to a site or exchange or to someone else.  But in order to do that, I need ETH?

Yes

Assuming I have this USDT and ETH in my own wallet and not in an exchange, now I want to send $700 USDT to a site or exchange or to someone else.  When I do this, how much ETH fees am I going to be paying?  I heard ETH fees are very expensive but it depends on if there is a lot of congestion?  So if not congestion, what is the lowest amount of fees it can be?  I did some research and it says if you use a wallet like metamask or exodus and want to send $700 USDT that is on the ETH network at not busy time, it will cost between 1 cent to 25 cents in fees only?  If so, that is very cheap then.  I thought the ETH fees to send USDT on the ETH network would cost anywhere from $2 to $20.  But that is not correct?

Fee depends on congestion is true, but the whole point is the fee you're going to pay depends on how costly the transaction is, a simple stablecoin transfer approximately use 65,000 gas and as of writing this a gas cost 0.065 gwei, it would cost about 0.011$ worth in ETH. A gwei is 0.000000001 ETH. When network congested, a gas can cost more, like 1-2 gwei a gas.

What If I have this $700 USDT and $20 ETH in an exchange like coinbase and now want to send it to a site or exchange or to someone else?  Will the fees still be the same?  The confusing part about that is how do you pay the ETH fees to send it if you are doing this in an exchange?  My assumption is if you have USDT and ETH in metamask or exodus, when you are about to send USDT under the ETH network, you have to manually send the ETH first?

I have never used metamask or exodus but this USDT is very confusing.  Can you explain how it works in both of these scenarios?  1st is when you have USDT and ETH in your metamask or exodus wallet and want to now send $700 USDT and the other situation is the same except the money is on coinbase and you want to send to a site or exchange or someone else?

I have never used metamask or exodus but this USDT is very confusing.  Can you explain how it works in both of these scenarios?  1st is when you have USDT and ETH in your metamask or exodus wallet and want to now send $700 USDT and the other situation is the same except the money is on coinbase and you want to send to a site or exchange or someone else?

Sending from exchange does not need ETH, the exchange handle it for you as I said earlier, they will charge you in the form of token you're sending which in this case USDT with their own fee, like 0.5 USDT or something like that.

here is a good link that you can use to see how much a transaction will cost, be it swapping, buying NFT, bridging or simple act of transferring stablecoin which consumes approximately 65000 gas, https://etherscan.io/gastracker. Usually wallet like metamask automatically set the fee for you.

[Franklinjames6]

What would be the best software wallet to use if you want to receive around $700 USDT through ETH network and around $20 ETH then?  Is it either metamask or exodus or trust wallet?  I don't have any experience with these wallets.


So assuming I use exodus then.  Now I want to send $700 USDT through the ETH network.  Now because I have $20 ETH in the same exodus wallet, I still need to manually pay the ETH gas fee for this... is that what you mean?  Can you explain how this would work?  So I go to send $700 USDT in the exodus wallet and there should be an area where it allows me to press on ETH to send?  How would this work exactly?


But if the USDT and ETH is in coinbase...as long as coinbase notices you have ETH in your wallet, it will manually handle the fees itself right?  But in both of these situations... how do you choose how much in ETH gas fees you want to pay?  Such as lowest fee or regular fee or priority since you have the option?


I checked that etherscan site before.  I see standard, fast and rapid.  Below I see costs of swap, nft sale, bridging and borrowing.  Where is the send USDT through ETH network fee then?  


I'm confused but right now how much would it cost to send $700 USDT from the ETH network assuming...


Sent from Metamask Wallet

Sent From Exodus Wallet

Sent From Trust Wallet

Sent From Coinbase


So right now from looking at that site, it costs less than $0.01 in ETH fees to send $700 USDT in the ETH network?  If that is the case, where are these high $10 to $20 ETH sending fees that I read about when sending USDT in ETH network or ETH itself?  Is it normal for ETH fees to send USDT in ETH network to be around a cent or so?

[crwth]

This is a pretty fundamental question everyone should know, and I think the posts here already cover some of it.

You need another coin, depending on which chain you are on (TRX, SOL, ETH, etc.), because it's made up of contracts. You need to change something on the blockchain, move a specific coin to another, and that will incur the transaction fee you are asking about.

From what I see now, most USDT is in TRX because of the low fees it incurs. Not ERC-20 anymore. If you don't have TRX, you cannot move it because you still have to pay the TX fee. The only free thing that you can do is receive coins, and that wouldn't require you to have the native coin for that specific chain.

[Franklinjames6]

But when I googled how much would it cost to send $700 USDT on the ETH network with ETH with either exodus or metamask or trust wallet,  it says between $0.01 to $0.05 in fees though?   So is that accurate or not?

I thought sending USDT through the ETH network was expensive and it could be anywhere from $2 to $20?  But now it's only $0.01 to $0.05?

I read the network with the lowest cost for USDT is Solana and Polygon.  Tron is still low as well.

[_act_]

But when I googled how much would it cost to send $700 USDT on the ETH network with ETH with either exodus or metamask or trust wallet,  it says between $0.01 to $0.05 in fees though?   So is that accurate or not?

I thought sending USDT through the ETH network was expensive and it could be anywhere from $2 to $20?  But now it's only $0.01 to $0.05?

I read the network with the lowest cost for USDT is Solana and Polygon.  Tron is still low as well.

Sending token on ethereum network before has expensive fee, but the fee is now low than before. Fusaka upgrade which was on December 3rd, 2025 made ethereum and ethereum tokens transaction to be very cheap. You can send ethereum the the noncustodial wallet and try it and see the transaction fee that will be required.

[$crypto$]

But when I googled how much would it cost to send $700 USDT on the ETH network with ETH with either exodus or metamask or trust wallet,  it says between $0.01 to $0.05 in fees though?   So is that accurate or not?

I thought sending USDT through the ETH network was expensive and it could be anywhere from $2 to $20?  But now it's only $0.01 to $0.05?

I read the network with the lowest cost for USDT is Solana and Polygon.  Tron is still low as well.

Rather than you complicate yourself about the cost of USDT in the ETH network, you better check yourself, before you click the confirmation button there will see how much the cost is needed.

Last time I sent USDT in the ETH chain it only took $0.34 ETH, so I concluded sending 700 USDT would not be more than $1 especially now that gwei is down.

You can see this as a flat fee for USDT. https://gasfeesnow.com/

[noorman0]

-snip-
I'm confused but right now how much would it cost to send $700 USDT from the ETH network assuming...

It isn't always ETH; it depends on the native coin of the network being used for the USDT transfer. For example, if the sender uses the Tron network, you need to have TRX coins in your wallet to cover the transaction fees; or BNB if they use the BSC network.

To avoid confusion, simply ask the sender to use a network for which you already hold the coin needed to pay for gas fees. If you don't have any, I would suggest the Ethereum network, as the cost to send tokens is currently relatively low (less than $0.50).

[Johnlomape]

Can someone explain to me why USDT and USDC is so strange when it comes to sending?  I have never used either of these coins due to the confusion on how you need gas fees or some other coin in order to send it.

I know that USDT's main network is ETH.  It is also on the tron network and several other networks.  How many total networks is USDT and USDC on?

So if you buy some USDT or someone sends you USDT in the ETH network... say it's $100 USD worth.  Now you want to send the USDT to a site or someone else.  You can't send unless you have ETH?  

How does this work in the other networks?

How would this work when you send USDT or USDC from your Coinbase wallet to another wallet?  What about if you were sending it from your own wallet to another wallet?  You still have to manually put whatever gas fee or whatever fee into it before you do the USDT or USDC send regardless of network?

You must have gotten some explanation about what is confusing you about these two projects but I will like to share short idea on what I know and how you can understand this so you don't continue to get confused by the day.

If you have a USDT on Ethereum blockchain on your wallet, it is a must that you will need an Ethereum each time you want to send out your USDT coin at every time. The moment you don't have Ethereum to send your USDT, it will be impossible for your to send the coin. If you  have USDT or USDC on an exchange, you don't need any Ethereum for you to send out your USDT because the charge will be deducted from your USDT balance and some exchange can collect up to $2 to send your USDT.

[hugeblack]

I read the network with the lowest cost for USDT is Solana and Polygon.  Tron is still low as well.

As mentioned above, https://gasfeesnow.com/ is the best tool for tracking rates; you can double these fees if the network is congested, but generally, they reflect actual costs.
In short, $0.50 is sufficient for any transaction; it makes no difference whether you are sending $10 or $10 million, as the fee remains the same.