Last updated: 15 October 2026
A wallet address is a string of letters and numbers that people use to send you crypto on a specific blockchain network. It's safe to share, unlike your private key or seed phrase, which control the funds.
Most sending mistakes don't come from a wrong address. They come from the right address on the wrong network. This guide shows what addresses look like, where to find yours, how to check one before you send, and what you can still do if a transfer went somewhere you didn't mean it to.
What is a wallet address?
A wallet address is the public destination for crypto: you give it out so others can pay you, the way you'd give out an account number. It belongs to one network, and nobody can move funds with it alone.
Under the hood, an address comes from a chain of keys. Your private key produces a public key, and the address is made from the public key. On Ethereum, according to ethereum.org, you take "the last 20 bytes of the Keccak-256 hash of the public key" and add 0x to the front. So a public key and an address are related, but they aren't the same thing.
Your seed phrase can recreate all of those keys. Our guide on how a seed phrase rebuilds your keys covers that part.
How do you create a wallet address? You don't register one anywhere. Your wallet generates addresses when you set it up, and many wallets can generate more on request.
What does a wallet address look like?
You can usually tell the network from the first few characters and the length. The examples below come from the networks' own specifications, so they're real formats but not anyone's wallet. Never send funds to them.
Sources: BIP-173 and BIP-350 for bc1 addresses, ethereum.org and EIP-55 for 0x addresses, the Solana and Tron developer docs for the last two rows. The legacy Bitcoin prefixes and lengths come from the Bitcoin Wiki.
BIP-173 also builds error detection into bc1 addresses: its checksum catches any mistake affecting up to four characters.
Capital letters in Ethereum addresses
Those mixed capitals aren't typos. Under EIP-55, the pattern of upper and lower case is a checksum. If you mistype a checksummed address, the standard puts the chance it still passes the check at 0.0247%, which is why most wallets refuse an address with one wrong character.
One address, many networks
The same 0x address works on Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon and other EVM networks, because they all derive addresses the same way. But each network keeps its own separate ledger. USDC on Base and USDC on Ethereum are different tokens on different networks, even when they sit at the identical address.
That's why choosing the network matters as much as copying the address. Send USDC on Base to an address that the recipient only watches on Ethereum, and the transfer confirms, but it lands on a network they aren't watching.
Other networks use other formats, so a wallet will usually catch the mismatch. A Bitcoin address doesn't look like a Solana or Tron one, and most apps refuse to send between them. Tron is the interesting case: its developer docs say the 20 bytes inside a Tron address are identical to the Ethereum address made from the same key, yet the two networks still don't share balances.
Stablecoins are where people meet this choice most often. USDT exists on Tron, with an address starting with T, and on Ethereum, with a 0x address. The coin is the same, but the address format, fees and speed differ. Our USDT and USDC guide includes dated fee examples for each network.
Can you send USDT to a Bitcoin address? No. USDT doesn't run on the Bitcoin network. If you want bitcoin, swap USDT for BTC instead, where swaps are available.
How to find your wallet address
Your wallet address is on the Receive screen of a wallet, or the Deposit screen of an exchange. Pick the asset and the network first, because the address can change with the network.
In a self-custodial wallet:
- Open the wallet and tap Receive.
- Choose the asset you want to receive.
- Choose the network.
- Copy the address, or show the QR code to the sender.
On an exchange:
- Go to Deposit.
- Choose the asset.
- Choose the network.
- Copy the address, plus any memo or tag shown next to it.
Sharing it with someone? Send the address as text rather than a screenshot, so they can paste it instead of retyping it. If they read it back to you over the phone, compare it with your Receive screen before anything is sent.
Ramp Network Wallet's receive screen shows a QR code and your Ramp Network Username, which the app describes as "a simple name that replaces long wallet addresses." See Ramp Network Wallet's receive screen on the wallet page.
Memos and destination tags
Some exchanges hold many customers' funds at one shared address, so they need an extra number to know who to credit. On the XRP Ledger this is a destination tag. The XRPL documentation says a payment to an exchange "can use a destination tag to indicate which customer to credit", and one that arrives without it can need "a manual intervention and a discussion with the sender."
Stellar has memos, an optional field for identifying information. Its docs note that pooled accounts now use muxed accounts for this instead. Whatever the network, if a deposit screen shows a memo or tag, include it.
How to check an address before you send
Copy the address from the source, match the network, and check the start, middle and end before sending. For a new address, send a small test first.
- Copy it from the recipient's Receive or Deposit screen, never from your transaction history.
- Confirm the network matches on both sides.
- Check the start, the middle and the end of the address against the original.
- Add the memo or tag if the recipient showed one.
- Send a small test amount to any address you haven't used before.
- Save trusted addresses in your wallet's address book.
Human-readable names help too. ENS names such as alice.eth point to an address, and wallet usernames do the same inside one app. Some apps let you send USDC with a payment link instead of an address. Check that a name resolves to the address you expect.
Address poisoning
Address poisoning targets people who copy from history. An attacker sends you a tiny or zero-value transfer from an address that looks like one you use, matching the first and last characters. Later, you copy the fake from your history by mistake.
MetaMask's guidance is to "pay close attention to the middle characters, not just the start and end," avoid copying from history, and use an address book. The scale is real: a 2024 study presented at ACM CCS found over 14 million phishing transfers targeting more than 1.44 million Ethereum addresses between November 2022 and February 2024, with about $90 million in confirmed losses. USDC and USDT made up over 95% of those transfers.
Sent crypto to the wrong address or network?
What you can do depends on where the crypto went. Some mistakes are fixable by you, some only by an exchange, and one isn't fixable at all.
The outcome in the third case depends entirely on the exchange. The fourth case is final: the FTC notes that "cryptocurrency payments typically are not reversible."
Anyone who offers to "recover" crypto for an upfront fee is almost always running a scam. Don't pay them.
On Ramp Network, you can change the address only before the payment is confirmed. After that, a transfer to a wrong address can't be reversed or refunded. Here's what Ramp Network can and cannot change after checkout.
Is it safe to share your wallet address?
Yes. Nobody can take funds using your address alone. But the address is public on the blockchain, so anyone who has it can look up its balance and history.
That's a privacy question, not a security one. Many Bitcoin wallets show a new receive address after each use, and the old ones keep working, so your payments aren't all tied to one address. Ethereum-style accounts keep the same address, so everything you receive there is visible in one place.
One habit worth having: if you post an address publicly, for donations or a public invoice, anyone can link your name to everything that address has received. A separate address for public use keeps that history apart from your own.
Buying crypto straight to your own address
When you buy on an on-ramp, you give it your own wallet address and pick the network, and the crypto goes straight there. On Ramp Network, you can connect a wallet, paste an address manually, or buy crypto to your own wallet in the Ramp Network app. Ramp Network says "your crypto is sent directly to the wallet address you provide and is never held by Ramp Network."
Before you pay, check that the network shown at checkout matches the network your wallet uses for that asset.
Buy crypto straight to your wallet address
Paste your address, pick the network, and see the total before you confirm. Buy crypto
Frequently asked questions
Can I send USDT to a Bitcoin address?
No. USDT doesn't run on the Bitcoin network, so a Bitcoin address can't receive it, and most wallets will refuse the transfer. If you hold USDT and want to end up with BTC, swap USDT for bitcoin first, then send the BTC to your Bitcoin address. Swap availability depends on your region.
What is a wallet address on Cash App?
On Cash App, your wallet address is the bitcoin address the app shows when you choose to receive bitcoin from another wallet. It's a Bitcoin address, so only send BTC to it, on the Bitcoin network. Cash App's own help center explains where to find it in the app, so check there for the current steps.
Does my wallet address change?
It depends on the network. Many Bitcoin wallets show a fresh receive address after each payment for privacy, and every older address keeps working. Ethereum and other EVM accounts keep the same 0x address for good. On any network, always copy the address shown on the Receive screen at the time you need it.
Are wallet addresses case-sensitive?
Some are. Legacy Bitcoin addresses starting with 1 or 3 are case-sensitive. Bitcoin addresses starting with bc1 aren't, but they must not mix upper and lower case. Ethereum's capitals are a checksum under EIP-55, not part of the identity. The safe habit is the same everywhere: copy and paste, don't type.
Can I have more than one wallet address?
Yes. One wallet usually holds many addresses across different networks and accounts, and all of them are controlled by the same seed phrase. That's why backing up the phrase protects every address at once, and why a leaked phrase exposes all of them together.
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