How to Convert BTC to ETH: Mainnet or Layer 2 Payout

To convert BTC to ETH, open the BTC to ETH page, choose where you want the ETH — Ethereum mainnet or a layer 2 such as Arbitrum or Base — paste your 0x address and send bitcoin. The provider credits BTC after one confirmation. On 21 October 2026 the ETH payout fee was 0.0003 ETH (about $0.73) on mainnet and Base and only 0.00004 ETH (about $0.10) on Arbitrum. With BTC near $82,600 and ETH near $2,444, 0.01 BTC is about 0.338 ETH before fees.

Mainnet or layer 2: what changes

ETH on an L2 is the same asset economically — it can be withdrawn to mainnet through the L2's bridge — but in practice it lives on a different network. Wallets show it only when you switch to that network, and apps or exchanges accept it only if they support that L2. The right choice depends on what you do next.

• Holding in a hardware wallet, using mainnet DeFi, or paying someone who asked for 'ETH on Ethereum': mainnet.
• Using apps on Arbitrum or Base, or making many small transactions: the L2, where each transfer costs a fraction of a cent instead of tens of cents or more.
• Depositing to an exchange: whichever network its ETH deposit page lists. Many list Arbitrum and Base as well as mainnet; some do not.

Bridging ETH from an L2 back to mainnet later through the official rollup bridge takes about seven days on optimistic rollups like Arbitrum and Base, because of the challenge period. Third-party bridges or another swap are faster but cost a fee. So pick the payout network you actually need rather than planning to move it later.

Minimums and fees by payout network

The widget minimum is very low in BTC terms, but your own Bitcoin network fee sets the practical floor: a typical one-input SegWit payment of about 141 vB costs roughly $0.60 at 5 sat/vB and $3.50 at 30 sat/vB. Sending $5 of bitcoin to buy ETH is technically possible and economically pointless.

Step by step

1. Open the pair page, enter the BTC amount and choose the ETH payout network.
2. Paste your 0x address from MetaMask, Rabby, Trust Wallet, Ledger or Trezor. The same address works on mainnet and L2s.
3. Pick float (1%) or fixed (1.5%) and create the order.
4. Send BTC to the deposit address from your Bitcoin wallet. Choose a fee rate that confirms in the next few blocks.
5. After one confirmation, the provider processes the swap — typically 14–16 minutes for BTC routes — and sends ETH.
6. Switch your wallet to the payout network to see the ETH.

Checks on the Ethereum address

Ethereum addresses are 0x plus 40 hexadecimal characters. Mixed upper and lower case is an EIP-55 checksum: a single mistyped character makes it invalid, which the widget catches. What no validator catches is a valid address that is not yours — for example one swapped by clipboard malware, or one copied from your transaction history after an address-poisoning transfer. Copy the address from your wallet's Receive screen and compare at least the first six and last six characters.

If you plan to receive to an exchange, make sure the deposit address is for ETH on the network you chose. Some exchanges show the same address for every ERC20 token and for ETH; that is fine. A deposit address for a different chain, such as a TRON T… address, will be rejected by validation.

When the payout arrives

On Arbitrum the payout is final on the L2 within seconds; on Base in a couple of seconds; on mainnet after a block of 12 seconds, with full finality in about 13 minutes. Your wallet shows the ETH at the first block. If the order page shows a payout hash but your wallet does not show the balance, open the hash in the explorer of that network — Etherscan, Arbiscan or Basescan — to confirm.

A useful habit: after the first swap to a new address, save it in your wallet's address book with a clear label. Next time, paste it from there rather than from history.

Fixed rate when Bitcoin is slow

The float rate is set when your BTC deposit confirms. If the mempool is busy and your transaction waits for an hour, the ETH you get reflects the price an hour later. The fixed rate locks the ETH amount for the payment window at 1.5% instead of 1%, which suits sends from exchanges or low-fee wallets where the confirmation time is unpredictable. If the deposit arrives after the window, the order falls back to manual handling, so a fee rate that confirms quickly matters either way.