Wallet Technology

Withdrawal Fee Sources

Overview

When you initiate a withdrawal, the blockchain fee (gas) is deducted from one of these sources, depending on your asset and wallet type:

  • Base address — The root address of your wallet, where your spendable balance is held. For MPC wallets and most non-EVM account-based assets, the fee is deducted from the native-coin balance at your base address.
  • Gas tank — The enterprise-level fee address that BitGo funds separately from your wallet balance. For EVM multisignature wallets, your gas tank pays gas for withdrawals, for consolidating balances in the receive addresses, and deploying forwarder smart contract address on chain. Some non-EVM networks also use a gas tank to pay all transaction fees.
  • Input UTXOs — For UTXO assets, the fee is taken from the value of your transaction's input UTXOs.

For EVM networks, your wallet type (multisignature vs. MPC) is the primary factor that determines the withdrawal fee source. For non-EVM networks, the asset and underlying protocol determine the fee source.

Note

This page covers withdrawal transaction fees. For consolidation (sweeping from a receive address to the base address) fees, see Consolidations.

EVM Assets

On EVM-compatible blockchains (such as Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Base), your withdrawal fee source depends on your wallet type:

  • MPC wallets — Gas is paid from the native-coin balance held at your wallet's own addresses (your base address, and any forwarder receive addresses), not from the enterprise gas tank. Keep enough native coin (for example, ETH) at your base address to cover gas, even when you send a token such as an ERC-20.
  • Multisignature smart-contract wallets — Your gas tank is the transaction initiator, so gas is paid from your gas tank.

Your gas tank also funds receive-address consolidation and forwarder deployment, but those operations are separate from withdrawals — see Consolidations.

Note

The native coin in your gas tank isn't part of your spendable balance and can't be withdrawn. For MPC wallets, withdrawal gas comes from your wallet's own native-coin balance, not your gas tank — keep enough native coin at your base address to avoid failed withdrawals.

Non-EVM Assets

For non-EVM assets, the asset and underlying blockchain protocol determine the fee source.

Fee Paid from the Base Address (Sender Pays)

For most non-EVM assets, the transaction fee is deducted directly from your sending address — typically your base address for outgoing withdrawals.

Blockchain Fee Asset Fee Source
Algorand ALGO Account balance in base address
Bitcoin BTC UTXO inputs from base address
Bitcoin Cash BCH UTXO inputs from base address
Bitcoin Gold BTG UTXO inputs from base address
Bittensor TAO Account balance in base address
Casper CSPR Account balance in base address
Celestia TIA Account balance in base address
Celo CELO Account balance in base address
Dash DASH UTXO inputs from base address
Dogecoin DOGE UTXO inputs from base address
Litecoin LTC UTXO inputs from base address
Near Protocol NEAR Account balance in base address
Polkadot DOT Account balance in base address
Solana SOL Account balance in base address
Tezos XTZ Account balance in base address
Tron TRX Energy/bandwidth from base address; network burns TRX if insufficient (see TRON)
Zcash ZEC UTXO inputs from base address

For the definitive fee behavior of a specific asset, see that asset's page under Blockchain References.

Fee Paid from the Gas Tank (Fee Sponsorship)

Some non-EVM networks use gas-tank fee sponsorship: the enterprise gas tank is the designated fee payer for both withdrawals and consolidations. Your sending wallet only needs to hold the amount being sent, not the fee.

Blockchain Fee Asset Fee Source
Aptos APT Gas tank
Cardano ADA Gas tank (also covers the minimum ADA that must accompany token transfers)
Sui SUI Gas tank
VeChain VTHO Gas tank

Memo/Tag Networks

For blockchains that use memo IDs or destination tags (instead of forwarder smart contracts), deposits land directly in a single shared root address, distinguished by the memo or tag. Because there are no separate receive addresses to sweep, these wallets don't require consolidation, and the withdrawal fee is deducted from that account's balance.

Blockchain Identifier Fee Asset
Agoric Memo ID BLD
Babylon Memo ID BABY
Coreum Memo ID COREUM
Cosmos Memo ID ATOM
Cronos POS Memo ID CRONOS
EOS Memo ID EOS
Hedera Memo ID HBAR
Initia Memo ID INIT
Injective Memo ID INJ
Internet Computer Memo ID ICP
Osmosis Memo ID OSMO
Polymesh Memo ID POLYX
Provenance Memo ID HASH
Rune Memo ID RUNE
SEI Memo ID SEI
Stacks Memo ID STX
Stellar Memo ID XLM
Toncoin Memo ID TON
Vaulta Memo ID VAULT
XRP Destination Tag XRP
Zetachain Memo ID ZETA

UTXO Assets

Bitcoin and other UTXO-based assets don't use an account-and-balance model. Instead, each withdrawal consumes one or more unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs). The transaction fee is drawn from the value of the selected input UTXOs and is never a separate on-chain charge. No gas tank is involved.

Fee rate selection (satoshis per byte, or equivalent) is made at transaction build time. You can estimate fees using the Get Fee Estimate endpoint.

Summary Table

Network Type Withdrawal Fee Source Funded By
EVM — MPC wallets Base address Native coin at the base address
EVM — multisignature wallets Gas tank Native coin in the gas tank
UTXO (Bitcoin, Litecoin, etc.) Input UTXOs Wallet balance
Memo/Tag (Cosmos, XRP, etc.) Base (root) address Wallet balance
Non-EVM, gas-tank-sponsored (Aptos, Cardano, Sui, VeChain) Gas tank Native coin in the gas tank
Other non-EVM account-based (Solana, Algorand, etc.) Base address Wallet balance

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my EVM MPC withdrawal fail when my wallet has a balance?

For EVM MPC wallets, gas is paid from the native-coin balance at your wallet's own addresses, so your base address must hold enough of the chain's native asset (such as ETH) to cover the gas fee — even when you withdraw a token such as an ERC-20. If the native-asset balance at your base address is too low to pay gas, the withdrawal fails, even when your gas tank is funded. Keep a small amount of native asset at your base address to cover fees.

For MPC wallets, where does the withdrawal fee come from?

Your base address, the same across all EVM MPC wallets. Consolidation behavior can differ between MPC wallets, but that difference doesn't change your withdrawal fee source — see Consolidations.

Does enabling flushForwardersManually affect withdrawal fees?

No. The flag controls only how EVM token consolidation happens; the flag has no effect on withdrawal fees, which are determined by your wallet type. See Consolidations.

See Also