cryptocurrency transfer – How to do it safely ?

The need to transfer cryptocurrency sooner or later arises in almost every user. For active traders, this is a routine transaction. Investors face sending coins less often. But both groups have a risk of losing funds, writes RBC Crypto. There may be many reasons – for example, an error when copying an address or an unspecified tag. There are several steps to avoid this.
The procedure for transferring cryptocurrency is quite simple. It assumes the following course of action:
The user chooses the cryptocurrency that he wants to transfer;
Then opens on the exchange, in the wallet or on any other site the address to which the funds will be received, and copies it;
Then he indicates the address on the exchange or wallet from which the funds will be sent;
Enters the amount;
The final step is to confirm the withdrawal. If coins are poisoned from the exchange, most likely, you will have to confirm the operation by e-mail and through two-factor identification (2FA).
During the sending of cryptocurrency, you need to check many data. If you miss something, you will have to say goodbye to the money.
It is important that coins and wallet, where funds will go, belong to the same cryptocurrency. If you try to transfer Ethereum to Bitcoin, the coins will be permanently lost. Now many exchanges already have a built-in function that does not allow such errors: a warning is highlighted that the wrong address is indicated.
Make sure the address is copied completely. Typically, users copy an address with a cursor. There is a risk that not all characters will be captured, for example, the first or last character will appear. Transferring cryptocurrency to the wrong address will lead to a complete loss of funds.
Be sure to check the addresses – both the one from which the funds will be transferred and the one where they will go. You can limit yourself to checking the first two and the last two signs – so faster. But it is more reliable to check the entire address, since there is a risk of becoming a victim of the virus. There are many malicious programs on the network that replace the addresses copied to the clipboard with fraudsters’ wallets. Antivirus helps protect yourself, preferably with a fresh updated database.
Don’t get caught on phishing sites. Fraudsters can assign your cryptocurrency in another way: create a fake page of an exchange, platform, wallet, exchanger or any other service. In such cases, the site of fraudsters is very difficult to distinguish from the present. If you indicate your data on it or transfer funds to the wallet indicated there, they will be lost.
Specify and verify the tag. When sending cryptocurrencies to exchanges, in some cases you need to specify a tag. You can find the tag in your stock account next to your wallet address. If you do not specify it, the funds will go to the exchange, but will not be credited to your balance.
The tag may be required when sending the following tokens:
Cosmos (ATOM)
EOS (EOS)
Ripple (XRP)
Stellar Lumens (XLM)
Binance Coin (BNB)
NEM (XEM)
Monero (XMR)
Use stablecoins. When sending cryptocurrency, you can lose part of the capital on exchange rate fluctuations. This can be avoided by transferring funds in stablecoins such as USDT, BUSD, USDC and others.
Check the fees. You can incur minor costs on commissions. Exchanges take them for withdrawal of funds. However, each coin, as a rule, has its own tariff for removal, which makes it possible to save money. For example, the output of BTC or ETH usually costs $3-5, while the cost of translating XRP and TRX tokens is several cents.
In 2020, DeFi platforms gained great popularity. Operations on them are carried out through smart contracts: the user buys coins from his local wallet and with the same transaction can send them to the exchange.
Not all exchanges support smart contracts. Typically, the appropriate warning is indicated by the platform next to the user’s wallet address. If you ignore it, the funds will reach the exchange, but will not be credited to the trader’s balance.
Start with a small amount. It is better to make the first transfer for a small amount. This will help not lose money if it turns out that the platform belongs to fraudsters or your wallet does not work on it.