Cross-chain guides

Each guide answers one practical question about moving assets between chains. Figures from our own measurements always name the snapshot run and its UTC time.

• Address poisoning: how it works and how to verify an address before you send

  How address-poisoning scams plant lookalike addresses in your history, how addresses differ on Ethereum, Tron and Solana, and a pre-send checklist that stops them.

• Exchange withdrawal vs cross-chain bridge: break-even formula and decision matrix

  When is it cheaper to move funds through an exchange such as Binance than through a bridge? A break-even formula, worked examples with measured bridge costs, and the non-fee trade-offs.

• The cross-chain fee stack: five layers of cost in a bridge transfer

  What you actually pay when you bridge or swap across chains — source gas, protocol fee, integrator fee, price impact and destination costs — with measured numbers from upswap run #62.

• Hardware wallet workflow for cross-chain transfers: a step-by-step checklist

  How to bridge or swap across chains with a Ledger, Trezor or other hardware wallet — checking the network, approvals, typed-data signatures, destination and refund addresses on the device screen.

• Intent-based bridges vs classic bridges: how cross-chain transfers actually work

  The four ways assets move between blockchains — intents and solvers, lock-and-mint, burn-and-mint and canonical rollup bridges — with speed, cost and trust trade-offs and measured examples.

• Custodial vs non-custodial cross-chain swaps: where your funds are when something fails

  Who holds your funds at each step of a cross-chain transfer — exchange, escrow contract, burn-and-mint or key-holder bridge — and what that means when a transfer fails or a protocol is paused.

• Cross-chain transfer stuck or pending? Troubleshooting by chain

  Find out which leg of a cross-chain transfer is stuck, what normal waiting times look like, and what to do on Ethereum and L2s, Solana and Tron, or when a bridge has not filled.

• USDT networks explained: ERC-20, TRC-20, BEP-20, SPL — and how to move between them

  Which USDT network to use, why ERC-20 and TRC-20 USDT are not interchangeable, and three ways to move USDT between Ethereum and Tron, with fees and risks.

• USDT vs USDC in 2026: issuers, reserves, regulation, networks and transfer costs

  How USDT and USDC differ in 2026 — issuer, reserve reporting, MiCA and the US GENIUS Act, supported networks, and measured cross-chain transfer costs from upswap run #62.

• How to verify a cross-chain transfer on block explorers

  A step-by-step way to confirm a bridge or cross-chain swap really arrived — source transaction, bridge tracker, destination transaction, token contract and amount.

• Where do cross-chain refunds go? Source address, refund address and wallet types

  When a bridge or cross-chain swap fails, the refund goes to a refund address on a specific chain. How Across, NEAR Intents and deBridge handle it, and which wallet types are safe.

• Sent crypto on the wrong network? A recovery matrix for 2026

  What happens when you send tokens on the wrong network, which cases you can fix yourself, which need an exchange or wallet team, and which are usually permanent.