Cheapest Crypto for Payouts: Network Fees Compared

Key takeaways

On October 22, 2026, a stablecoin transfer cost about $0.002 on BNB Smart Chain and Polygon and under one cent on Solana, while USDT on TRON cost about $2.20 to $4.40 when paid by burning TRX.
The fee you see when you withdraw from an exchange is set by the exchange, often a flat amount around $1 per stablecoin withdrawal, and can be far above the real network fee.
Always match the network on both sides, add any memo or tag the receiver asks for, and send a small test first, because a transfer on the wrong network is usually lost.

What is the cheapest crypto to receive payouts?

For stablecoin payouts, the cheapest networks we checked on October 22, 2026 were BNB Smart Chain and Polygon (about $0.002 per token transfer) and Solana (a fraction of a cent, plus a one-time deposit of about $0.15 if the receiving wallet has never held that token). Litecoin was the cheapest volatile coin to move, at well under one cent. USDT on TRON, often called the cheapest option, cost about $2.20 to $4.40 per transfer for a sender who pays by burning TRX, and Bitcoin cost roughly $0.20 to $0.60.

Two things matter more than the network table: an exchange withdrawal charges the exchange’s own fee, not the network fee, and if sender and receiver pick different networks, the money is often gone.

This guide is for publishers and rewards-site owners who receive crypto payouts or send small cashouts to users. If you are still choosing between crypto, PayPal and gift cards, start with rewards site payout methods compared.

How crypto network fees work

Every blockchain charges to include a transaction in a block, but each prices it differently, which decides when a fee stays flat and when it jumps.

Bitcoin and Litecoin: fee rate times size

You pay a fee rate in satoshis per virtual byte (sat/vB) multiplied by the size of the transaction. A simple payment with one input and two outputs is about 140 virtual bytes. When blocks fill, the rate needed to get in quickly rises. mempool.space shows live Bitcoin rates and litecoinspace.org does the same for Litecoin. A transaction that spends many small deposits at once is larger, so it costs more.

Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain and Polygon: gas

These networks measure work in gas. The ethereum.org gas documentation gives the fee as units of gas used times the base fee plus a priority fee, and says a plain ETH transfer uses 21,000 gas. A USDT or USDC transfer usually uses about 45,000 to 65,000. On Ethereum the base fee can rise by up to 12.5% per block while blocks stay full, so a busy hour can multiply the cost. BNB Smart Chain and Polygon work the same way, priced in BNB and POL.

TRON: Bandwidth and Energy

On TRON, Bandwidth covers transaction size and Energy covers smart contract work, including every USDT transfer. The TRON resource model docs say each activated account gets 600 free Bandwidth points a day, that Energy has no free quota, and that TRX is burned to cover whatever your staked or free resources do not. When we read the live chain parameters on October 22, 2026, Energy cost 100 sun (0.0001 TRX) per unit and Bandwidth 1,000 sun per byte.

Solana: base fee plus optional priority fee

The Solana fee docs set a base fee of 5,000 lamports (0.000005 SOL) per signature. Senders can add a priority fee to get in faster when the network is busy. One extra cost surprises people: tokens such as USDC live in a separate token account per wallet. Solana’s guide to creating a token account says the payer must fund a refundable storage deposit when that account is created. Senders usually pay it on the first send of a token to a wallet that never held it.

Crypto network fees compared

Fees below come from live fee trackers and chain data on October 22, 2026, at that day’s prices (roughly BTC $81,500, LTC $58.60, SOL $104, TRX $0.33, BNB $730, POL $0.09, ETH $2,390). They move with load and prices, so treat them as ranges. “Time to credit” uses the confirmations Kraken waits for, from its deposit processing times page.

Network	Fee paid in	Typical fee for one transfer	Stablecoins on it	Time to credit at Kraken	Watch out for
BNB Smart Chain (BEP-20)	BNB	About $0.002 per token transfer at 0.05 gwei, per BscScan’s gas tracker	USDT and USDC as Binance-pegged tokens, not issued by Tether or Circle	50 confirmations, about 4 minutes	Same 0x address format as Ethereum and Polygon
Polygon PoS	POL	About $0.002 per token transfer at the base fee and priority fee shown by the Polygon gas station	Native USDC, plus older bridged USDC.e and bridged USDT	250 confirmations, about 25 minutes	USDC and USDC.e are different tokens
Solana	SOL	About $0.0005 base fee, plus about 0.0015 SOL (about $0.15) once if the receiver has no account for that token	Native USDC and USDT	Under 1 minute	First transfer of a token to a new wallet costs more
Litecoin	LTC	Well under $0.01 at 1 sat/vB	None widely used	12 confirmations, about 30 minutes	You receive a coin whose price moves
TRON (TRC-20)	TRX (Energy, Bandwidth)	USDT: about 6.8 TRX ($2.20) to an address that holds USDT, about 13.4 TRX ($4.40) to one that does not, if TRX is burned. Plain TRX sends: often covered by free Bandwidth	Native USDT; Circle stopped issuing USDC on TRON in 2024	20 confirmations, about 1 minute	Cost depends on staked Energy; first USDT to an empty address costs double
Bitcoin	BTC	About $0.20 to $0.60 at 2 to 5 sat/vB	None in practical use	3 confirmations, about 45 minutes	Fees can climb fast when blocks fill
Ethereum (ERC-20)	ETH	About $0.02 to $0.03 for an ETH send, about $0.05 to $0.10 for a token transfer, per Etherscan’s gas tracker (about 0.43 gwei)	Native USDT and USDC	Finalization, about 20 minutes	Was cheap on the day we checked; the base fee rises with demand

Fees and confirmation counts checked on October 22, 2026. Our TRON Energy figures come from simulating a 1 USDT transfer against the live network: about 64,000 Energy to an address that already held USDT and about 130,000 to an empty one, plus about 345 bytes of Bandwidth.

USDT TRC-20 vs BEP-20 fees

At the prices above, sending USDT on BNB Smart Chain costs about a thousandth of what it costs on TRON when the sender burns TRX. TRON only gets close if the sender has staked enough TRX to cover the Energy, or rents Energy from a third party, which moves the cost into locked funds or rental fees. TRON still has strengths: wide support for USDT deposits, quick crediting, and Tether issues USDT there directly, while Tether’s supported protocols page does not list BNB Smart Chain for USDT. If the sender pays, TRON’s cost is mostly the sender’s problem.

Illustrative example: 1,000 stablecoin cashouts of $5

A rewards site sends 1,000 cashouts of $5 in one month, $5,000 in total, all to users who already hold the token. Using the October 22, 2026 rates above: on TRON, burning TRX at about $2.24 each, the network fees come to about $2,240, or 45% of what was paid out. On BNB Smart Chain or Polygon at about $0.002 each, they come to about $2. On Solana, base fees are about $0.50, plus about $0.15 for each user receiving that token for the first time. The volumes are invented and rates will move, so run your own numbers.

Why exchange withdrawal fees differ from network fees

When you withdraw from an exchange or custodial wallet, the service sends the transaction and charges its own withdrawal fee. That fee is a business decision, often a flat amount that ignores how cheap the network is. Kraken’s withdrawal fees and minimums page, checked on October 22, 2026, listed:

1.00 USDT to withdraw USDT on TRON, Polygon or Optimism, about 1.02 USDT on Ethereum and about 1.07 USDT on Solana.
About 1.07 USDC to withdraw USDC on Solana and 1.00 USDC on Polygon.
0.002 LTC (about $0.12), 0.005 SOL (about $0.52), 3 TRX (about $0.99) and 0.000015 BTC (about $1.22) for the native coins.

So a Solana USDC withdrawal that costs the network a fraction of a cent costs the customer about a dollar, and a Bitcoin withdrawal costs two to five times the network fee we measured that day. Other exchanges set different fees and change them without notice. Two lessons follow:

For receivers: moving your payout onward usually costs the exchange’s withdrawal fee, so compare that, not the network table.
For senders: a flat $1 exchange fee on a $2 cashout is 50%. Sending from your own wallet, or a provider that charges close to network cost, changes the math.

Withdrawal minimums matter too. The same Kraken page listed a 6 USDT minimum for USDT on TRON, so very small balances cannot leave at all.

Stablecoins vs volatile coins for payouts

A payout in BTC, LTC or SOL is worth whatever the market says on the day you sell it, which can differ from the day it was calculated. Stablecoins such as USDT and USDC track the US dollar, so you receive the amount you expected. For most publishers that is the main reason to prefer them.

Stablecoins bring their own checks:

Who issues the token on that network. Circle’s multi-chain USDC page lists Ethereum, Solana and Polygon PoS among the networks with native USDC. It does not list BNB Smart Chain, where USDC exists as a pegged token, or TRON, where Circle stopped minting USDC in February 2024. Pegged and bridged tokens depend on whoever runs the peg or bridge.
Similar names on one network. Polygon has both native USDC and the older bridged USDC.e, and exchanges list them separately. Sending one where the other is expected can mean a manual recovery or a loss.
Freezes. Tether’s terms of service allow it to freeze USDT and blacklist addresses, for example when it suspects a prohibited use. Stablecoin issuers can act on a token in ways that do not apply to BTC or LTC.

Address and network mismatches, memos and tags

Most lost payouts are not hacks but a correct address on the wrong network, or a missing memo. Check these before any first payout:

Same address, different network. Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain and Polygon all use addresses that start with 0x, so the same address is valid on all three. USDT sent on BNB Smart Chain to an exchange address that only watches Ethereum may never be credited.
Name the network, not just the coin. Write “USDT on TRON (TRC-20)” or “USDC on Solana”, the same way on your payout form and emails.
Address formats help catch mistakes. TRON addresses start with T, Bitcoin addresses usually with bc1, 1 or 3, and Litecoin with ltc1, L or M. Validate the format for the selected network before you accept a withdrawal request.
Memos and destination tags. Some networks use one shared exchange address for many customers and tell them apart with a tag. The XRP Ledger docs on destination tags explain that a payment without the tag leaves the receiver unsure which customer to credit, which can take manual work to fix. Kraken labels its Stellar USDC deposit as “Memo Required”. If a deposit screen shows a memo, tag or comment field, it is not optional.

Payout habits that lose money

Sending the full amount to a new address without a small test transfer first.
Letting users type a network name freely instead of choosing from a list you support.
Dropping the memo or tag because the network “does not need one”: the receiving exchange may.
Sending stablecoins to a fresh wallet without telling the user they also need some SOL, TRX, BNB or POL to move them later.

Confirmations and speed

Services wait for a set number of confirmations, the blocks built on top of a transaction, before they credit a deposit. Kraken’s deposit page, checked on October 22, 2026, gave these waits: Solana under 1 minute; TRON 20 confirmations, about 1 minute; BNB Chain 50, about 4 minutes; Ethereum finalization, about 20 minutes; Polygon 250, about 25 minutes; Litecoin 12, about 30 minutes; and Bitcoin 3, about 45 minutes. Other services choose their own thresholds.

Speed matters most for user cashouts: a user waiting 45 minutes for Bitcoin is more likely to open a support ticket than one who sees USDT in a minute. For monthly partner payouts, fee and acceptance matter more.

How to choose a payout coin and network

If you are receiving payouts

Pick a token and network that the place you will sell or spend it accepts, and check its withdrawal fee.
Prefer a stablecoin if you want a known dollar amount.
Copy the address, network and any memo from the receiving service, confirm all three with the sender in writing, and ask for a small test payment first.
Keep a little of the network’s gas coin in a self-custody wallet so you can move tokens later.

If you are sending cashouts to your users

Offer two or three networks with low fees and wide wallet support, such as a BNB Smart Chain or Polygon stablecoin, Solana USDC, and Litecoin, then add TRON USDT if your users ask for it and you can cover its cost.
Set the minimum per network from the fee. A fee under 2% of your smallest cashout is a sensible target. The virtual currency calculator helps you set the coin value behind each cashout.
Hold earnings until the offers behind them can no longer be reversed, because a crypto transfer cannot be pulled back. Reward hold periods shows how to set the length.
Flag wallet addresses shared across accounts. It is one of the strongest signals in stopping multi-accounting and VPN abuse.
Check the rules for paying users in crypto where you operate. The crypto faucet and PTC site guide covers the legal basics. This guide is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.

To see what your cashout volume might look like in the first place, read how much an offerwall can earn. If you are checking whether a network that pays you is trustworthy, Is Sharklio legit? shows the kind of evidence to ask any partner for.

Timing crypto cashouts around Sharklio postbacks

Sharklio is a pay-per-result affiliate network: users earn your own currency on the Sharklio offerwall, and every credit and every reversal reaches your server as a signed server-to-server postback. That lets you hold a user’s balance until results are final and only then send the crypto cashout, so a reversed reward never leaves as a transfer you cannot pull back. Your dashboard and reports show clicks, conversions and reversals by country, offer and sub ID, and publisher earnings and reversals explains how a reversal reaches your balance. See how the wall works, or get in touch with questions.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest crypto to send?

For stablecoins, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon and Solana transfers cost well under one cent on October 22, 2026, before any exchange withdrawal fee. Among volatile coins, Litecoin was the cheapest at a fraction of a cent.

Is USDT on TRC-20 or BEP-20 cheaper?

BEP-20 on BNB Smart Chain was much cheaper for a sender who pays the network directly: about $0.002 against about $2.20 to $4.40 on TRON when TRX is burned for Energy. Exchanges often charge a flat 1 USDT or so on either.

What is the cheapest network for USDC?

Among networks where Circle issues USDC natively, Solana and Polygon PoS were the cheapest we checked. USDC on BNB Smart Chain is a pegged token, and Circle no longer issues USDC on TRON.

Why is my exchange withdrawal fee higher than the network fee?

The exchange sets its own withdrawal fee, often a flat amount per network that covers its costs and margin. The network fee is only part of it.

What happens if I send crypto on the wrong network?

The transaction usually completes, but the receiving exchange may not see it. Some exchanges can recover such funds for a fee and many cannot, so treat it as a likely loss.

Do I need a memo or tag to receive crypto?

Only if the receiving address asks for one. Exchanges often use a shared address with a memo or destination tag for some networks, such as XRP Ledger and Stellar, and a deposit without it may not be credited automatically.

Why does my first USDT or USDC deposit cost more?

On TRON, a USDT transfer to an address that has never held USDT uses about twice the Energy. On Solana, the sender must fund a token account for a wallet that has never held that token, which cost about 0.0015 SOL on October 22, 2026.