So, you’ve bought some Bitcoin, Ethereum or Litecoin on Coinbase and now you’re wondering how to move the balances to your own personal wallet.
In this quick tutorial we’ll show you how to move your digital currency, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, from Coinbase to Exodus on your computer.
If you are not familiar with Exodus, we highly recommend you download and install Exodus as your preferred software wallet. It is by far one of the best hot wallets around, and currently supports 18 currencies, including all currencies supported by Coinbase.
Why should I move Bitcoin from Coinbase to Exodus?
In general, it is not a good idea to keep your cryptocurrency on an exchange or online wallet for any length of time. It is fine to move your coins in and out of exchanges for trading purposes, but allowing your digital currency to be controlled and managed by a third-party is never a good long-term strategy.
While we always recommend hardware wallets, also known as ‘cold wallets’, for long term storage of cryptocurrencies, sometimes you need to have some digital currency available within easy reach for day-to-day use. This is why software wallets, also known as ‘hot wallets’, are popular. They allow you to control your own private keys and funds, without worrying about an exchange being hacked or shut down.
For more information about hardware wallets, view Step 3 of our Beginner’s Guide to learn how they work, which ones we recommend and where to buy them.
Step-by-step Guide
In this example we will send Bitcoin from Coinbase to Exodus. The process is the same for Ethereum and Litecoin, but making sure you are sending/receiving to and from the correct addresses. In other words, make sure you are sending ETH to an Ethereum address (beginning with ‘0x’) and LTC to a Litecoin address.
To get started, sign in to your Coinbase account. Once your are logged in, click the ‘Accounts‘ tab in the main navigation.
Next, click the ‘Send‘ button under the currency you wish to send out. In this example we are sending Bitcoin, but the process is the same for Ethereum or Litecoin.
The next screen you will see is the ‘Send’ screen showing the transaction details fields you need to fill out, as shown below.
Recipient Address
In this case, you are sending your coins to Exodus, so you need to input your Exodus Bitcoin wallet address. To find this address, open the Exodus app on your computer, login, then click ‘Wallet’ on the left hand side and select ‘Bitcoin.’
In your Bitcoin wallet, you will see two large buttons—’Send’ and ‘Receive.’ Click the ‘Receive‘ button and you will see a pop-up showing your Bitcoin wallet address, along with a QR code for that address.
Click the Copy icon (the first icon) under the address. This will copy the Bitcoin address to your clipboard.
NOTE: It is extremely important that you backup your Exodus app. If you haven’t done this yet, click ‘Backup’ on the main menu and follow the steps presented.
Head back to your Coinbase account in your browser. Select the Recipient field in the Send box and paste in the address you just copied from Exodus.
Amount
Next, enter the amount you wish to send. If you want to send your full balance, click in either box—CAD or BTC—and then click the ‘Send Max’ button that appears. Otherwise you can enter an exact amount in either CAD or BTC.
Note
If you would like to attach message to this transaction you can do it here. This may be useful for external transactions–for example, ‘Happy Birthday Sarah!’ But because you are sending this transaction to yourself, you can leave this blank.
Network Fee
The network fee is the transaction fee paid to miners who process and confirm the transactions. This fee does not go to Coinbase, but directly to miners, and it cannot be changed. However, it does fluctuate, so if you feel the fees are too high you can wait and try another time when the network is not as busy.
TIP: Look out for the bonus tip at the end of this tutorial where you’ll learn how to send for free from Coinbase!
When you are ready click ‘Continue.’
This will take you to a confirmation screen, shown below, where you will have the opportunity to check over everything and make sure you are happy with the details before proceeding.
As you can see in the screen above, all the details we entered are shown again for us to check. At this point it is a good idea to quickly go back to your Exodus app and view the first and last 4 to 5 characters of your address, then do the same on the confirmation screen in Coinbase. This is just an easy way to make sure you haven’t dropped any characters at the beginning or end of the address if you manually copied or typed it in. If you used the ‘Copy’ button in Exodus then you should be fine, but it’s always good to get into the habit of visually checking addresses as mistakes cannot be rectified afterwards.
If the first and last few characters match, that’s a good indication that the addresses match and you haven’t lost any characters along the way!
Finally, you will need to enter a 2-step verification code in the box provided. Open the Google Authenticator app on your phone and find the Coinbase code.
NOTE: If you haven’t already done so, it is very important that you enable Two-factor Authentication on your Coinbase account. See Step 1 of our Beginner’s Guide to learn how to do this.
With your 2-step verification code entered, click ‘Confirm‘ to process the transaction. This will show you a confirmation screen with details of the transaction.
You should also receive an email notification once the transaction has fully sent. This may not be immediate, as sometimes congestion in the Bitcoin network can cause delays. Ethereum and Litecoin transactions are usually very quick—however Bitcoin can sometimes take up to an hour or more to be sent out.
You can click ‘View this transaction’ to see the details in your account.
Alternatively you can view your account page where the transaction will show up as ‘Pending.’ This means it has been added to the memory pool on the network and is waiting to be mined.
Clicking the transaction in your account history will allow you to view the details again, and will display a link where you can ‘View Transaction.’ This will take you to a blockchain explorer website where you can view the current status of your transaction on the Bitcoin ledger, such as the amount of confirmations as well as other details connected to the transaction.
Once the transaction has been fully mined and has received enough confirmations it will appear in your Exodus wallet and you will see your balance increase.
That’s it! You can now repeat the process for your Ethereum and Litecoin balances if you wish.
Don’t forget to read Step 3 of our Beginner’s Guide for a review of hardware wallets and a tutorial on how to store your cryptocurrencies offline.
Bonus Tip!
Want to know how you can send from Coinbase without paying fees? Of course you do! Here’s how…
Deposit Bitcoin To GDAX
Instead of sending your Bitcoin directly to your Exodus wallet, you can first send them to GDAX. GDAX is the trading exchange owned and operated by Coinbase, so they facilitate free transfers of your balances between the two platforms.
You can use your existing Coinbase account to login to GDAX, at https://www.gdax.com. Once you have opened the trading platform, you will see a notice that says: “VIEW ONLY. BTC/USD trading is not yet available in your region.” Instead, select ETH/BTC from the dropdown menu. Now you’ll see two buttons, ‘Deposit’ and ‘Withdraw’, shown in the screen below.
Click the Deposit button and you will see the Deposit Funds pop-up. Make sure you are on the ‘Coinbase Account‘ tab—then, under Sources, select BTC Wallet. Type in the Amount you wish to transfer, and when ready, click the ‘Deposit funds‘ button. After a few seconds you should see your Bitcoin balance update in the upper left of the screen.
Withdraw Bitcoin From GDAX
Once your balance has updated, you can now click the Withdraw button to reveal the Withdraw Funds pop-up.
This time you will use the BTC Address tab. Type in the amount of Bitcoin you would like to withdraw, or click (Max) to select your full Bitcoin balance.
Next, enter your Exodus Bitcoin wallet address in the Destination box. This is the same Exodus address we copied in the first part of the tutorial near the top of this page. Finally, enter your Two Factor Authentication code from the Google Authenticator app on your phone.
Remember, always visually double-check the destination address! Once you are happy that you have entered all the details correctly, click the Withdraw funds button to complete the transaction. As this is an external transaction, it will not be as quick as the deposit transaction, and will take longer to confirm. Your Bitcoin should arrive in your Exodus wallet in 30-60 minutes.
These transactions can be seen in your Account history in Coinbase, as shown below.
We hope you enjoyed this quick bonus tip on how to save on network fees in Coinbase. If you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to read Step 3 of our Beginner’s Guide for a review of hardware wallets and a tutorial on how to store your cryptocurrencies offline.