However, if you have sent crypto to an active address, you can try to find the owner of the wallet and contact them to try to negotiate a return of your funds. Once you’ve identified the correct blockchain, find a wallet that natively supports that network. Trust Wallet supports over 70 blockchains – giving you a higher likelihood of accessing your assets via the blockchains it supports. The majority of the cryptocurrencies and wallets allow you to add the address via QR codes.
What Happens if Crypto Is Sent to the Wrong Blockchain?
- First, verify from the recipient that they have sent the correct address.
- I’m not familiar with what Metamask is or the process I would need to go through.
- If your wallet does not support multiple network integration, you can export to a more versatile wallet using your private key or seed phrase.
- If you accidentally send cryptocurrency to the wrong address within the same exchange, there’s a chance it can be fixed.
- If this happens to you, start by checking your transaction ID using a blockchain explorer to ensure the funds went through the blockchain.
Now that you’ve figured out the network to which you sent it, Here are some steps that could help you recover your cryptocurrency. The notable crypto network or standards are BEP-20, ERC-20, TRC-20, and BEP-2. Users can easily mistake BEP-20 for BEP-2 and ERC-20 for TRC-20 and vice-versa. Thankfully, I saved my screenshots and the link to the etherscan transaction page.
Identify the correct blockchain and compatible wallet
Once you have made a successful transaction to an address that you will likely be using in the future as well, just bookmark it. This preemptive measure kills the likelihood of entering the wrong address during transactions. If you are not sure which wallet to pick, Trust Wallet is a good option supporting both ERC-20 and BEP-20. Just make sure to add the BEP-20 token to the Trust Wallet by entering the token’s smart contract in the Add Custom Token section and selecting Smart Chain as the token network. This creates a new wallet for that specific BEP-20 token, making the balance visible.
How to Avoid Sending Crypto to the Wrong Address
When it comes to cryptocurrency transfers, once a transaction is confirmed, it can’t be undone. This solid security feature also means that if you send crypto to the wrong address, it’s not as easily recoverable as with traditional banks. It is a system that runs itself, and there is no customer support to help you reverse your transaction without too much hassle. In some wrong transfer cases, users select the wrong network while transferring assets to the right wallet address.
Obtain your secret recovery seed phrase:
That trail of info was very helpful when I went back to recover my coins. God only knows how many coins are out there, frozen in mismatched network carbonite.
All these details are necessary as they will allow the support team to help you better. Follow their guidance closely, which might also include providing identity verification. Keep in mind that if you can’t prove ownership of the receiving account, resolving the issue might be more challenging. If you accidentally send cryptocurrency to the wrong address within the same exchange, there’s a chance it can be fixed. Most exchanges have processes in place to detect and correct such errors, but you’ll need to prove ownership of both the sending and receiving accounts.
Cryptocurrency wallet naming services like Ethereum Name Service (ENS) and Unstoppable Domains package lengthy cryptocurrency wallet addresses into human-readable domain names. To reduce the chances of getting a recipient’s wallet address https://cryptolisting.org/ wrong, request for the domain address if available. A cryptocurrency wallet address is usually a lengthy combination of alphanumeric characters. To ensure that the recipient’s address is entered correctly, always copy and paste.
If you’ve wrongly sent ERC-20 tokens–ETH– via the Binance Smart Chain–BSC– or even sent BEP-20 tokens through the Ethereum network, don’t panic. This is recommended for custodial wallet transactions on a centralized exchange like Gate.io; you can contact customer support to submit a retrieval application. Since Metamask is compatible with both Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain networks, the transaction would still go through. However, they would be received as Binance-pegged Ethereum (BEP-20 format) on the BNB Smart Chain network.
Now that you have restored your wallet to Metamask, add the desired token. Once you have that, you will recover the funds using another wallet app. For example, you sent some $RAINBOW from Metamask to your ETH address on Exodus (which, as of this writing does not support $RAINBOW). So you bought some what are capital market devices coins on an exchange and tried to send them to your TrustWallet app, or wherever. The notable wallets used for this procedure include MetaMask, Math wallet, SafePal, TokenPocket, and Trust Wallet. Now that you’re clear on that, there are slightly different processes for different situations.