Crypto network fees and confirmation times, explained

Short answer

Crypto network fees are paid to the miners or validators who add your transfer to a block, not to the recipient, and they rise and fall with demand. Bitcoin adds a block about every 10 minutes on average and Ethereum every 12 seconds, but a transfer only lands after the receiving platform sees enough confirmations. Exchanges show the fee at the time you send.

At a glance

• Bitcoinfee paid in BTC; a new block about every 10 minutes on average, with no guaranteed minimum or maximum delay
• Ethereumfee (gas) paid in ETH, quoted in gwei; one block per 12-second slot; the fee is paid even if the transaction fails
• Solanafee paid in SOL; base fee of 5,000 lamports per signature (a lamport is 0.000000001 SOL), plus an optional prioritization fee
• Tokens (USDC, USDT)the fee is paid in the network’s own coin, such as ETH on Ethereum or SOL on Solana
• Exchange withdrawalsthe platform charges its estimate of the network fee, shown before you confirm

Sources: Bitcoin.org · ethereum.org: Gas and fees · ethereum.org: Blocks · Solana: Fees · Coinbase: Pricing and fees disclosures · Checked on September 27, 2026

What a network fee pays for

Every blockchain has limited room in each block. Your transaction competes with everyone else’s for that room, and the fee is your bid. When many people send at once, the price of a place in the next block goes up. When the network is quiet, it goes down. That is why no one can quote a fixed “bitcoin fee” or “gas fee”: it is set at the moment you send.

Coinbase’s own wallet help puts it simply: network fees, also called miner fees, are paid for processing transactions and securing the network, and they do not go to Coinbase. Miners prioritize transactions with higher fees, so a low fee can leave a transaction “stuck” at the bottom of the queue.

How each network sets the fee

Bitcoin. The sender offers a fee and miners pick the transactions that pay best. Bitcoin.org notes that if a transaction pays less than the network is currently prioritizing, the first confirmation may take considerably longer.

Ethereum. The fee is gas used × (base fee + priority fee). The protocol sets the base fee, which is burned; the priority fee is a tip to the validator. ethereum.org’s own example: a plain ETH transfer uses 21,000 gas; at a 10 gwei base fee and a 2 gwei tip that is 252,000 gwei, or 0.000252 ETH. The base fee can move by at most 12.5% per block, and the fee is paid whether the transaction succeeds or fails.

Solana. Every transaction pays a base fee of 5,000 lamports per signature, half burned and half paid to the validator, plus an optional prioritization fee that helps the transaction get scheduled ahead of others.

Other networks. Each network charges in its own coin. Coinbase lists ETH for Ethereum, Base, Optimism and Arbitrum, AVAX for Avalanche C-Chain and BNB for BNB Smart Chain. The practical rule: to move USDC on Ethereum you need some ETH in the same wallet; to move it on Solana you need SOL.

What platforms add on top

When you withdraw from an exchange or app, the platform pays the network and charges you for it, sometimes with extra processing fees. What the platforms themselves publish:

Source: platform help pages linked in each row · Checked on September 27, 2026

Coinbase notes that the fee it actually pays may differ from the estimate it charges, for example because it batches transactions. Cash App says it may at times charge more than the estimated network fee to cover volatility. Both show the fee before you confirm, so the figure to trust is the one on your confirmation screen.

Confirmations: why “sent” isn’t “arrived”

A transaction gets its first confirmation when it is included in a block. Each later block adds one more. Receiving platforms wait for a set number before they credit you, because more confirmations make a transaction harder to reverse.

Timeline

1. You sendthe wallet or exchange broadcasts the transaction with its fee
2. Waiting in the queuethe transaction sits unconfirmed until a miner or validator includes it
3. First confirmationit is included in a block (on Bitcoin, about 10 minutes on average, sometimes much longer)
4. More confirmationseach new block adds one; Kraken waits for four on bitcoin, about 40 minutes
5. Creditedthe receiving platform adds the funds to the balance

Sources: Bitcoin.org · Kraken: Deposit processing times · Checked on September 27, 2026

Bitcoin.org’s own guidance: one confirmation is “somewhat reliable” for light wallets, three “mostly reliable”, and six the minimum recommendation for high-value transfers. Kraken warns that a bitcoin block can take 30 or even 60 minutes, which is outside its control, and says Solana deposits and withdrawals are near-instant. Some platforms also show an in-between status: at Kraken, a “Credited” deposit can be traded but not yet withdrawn.

When a transfer is stuck

• From an exchange or app: you can’t raise the fee yourself. Wait for the confirmations and contact the platform’s support with the transaction ID if the estimated time has passed.
• From your own wallet: some wallets let you choose speed before sending (Coinbase’s wallet offers Slow, Normal and Fast) and speed up or cancel a pending Ethereum-type transaction by re-submitting it with a higher fee.
• Never pay a stranger who offers to “unstick” or “release” a transfer. That’s a scam pattern; see sent crypto to wrong network.

If you are moving money to your bank next, the crypto leg is only half the wait: an ACH transfer adds its own days (see how long does ACH take and how to cash out crypto).

This page explains how fees and timing work. It is not financial advice.