01Why deposit speed matters for card top-ups
When you top up your card-program wallet, you are usually in one of three situations. You are about to run an ad campaign and need the budget now. You are processing a vendor payment that needs to clear before a deadline. You are pre-funding a future expense and have time to wait.
Each situation has a different ideal chain. Ad campaign today: Avalanche or Solana for 30-second funding. Vendor payment deadline: Ethereum or BNB Chain for 5-minute funding. Future expense pre-funding: Bitcoin or Litecoin for 30-minute funding.
The cost difference across chains is minor (typically $0.001 to $5 per transaction depending on the chain and congestion). The speed difference is 30x to 6000x. Choose based on your time pressure, not your cost.
02Bitcoin (BTC): 10-30 minutes
Bitcoin blocks confirm every ~10 minutes. Most wallets and exchanges require 1-3 confirmations before crediting the deposit, which means 10-30 minutes from your broadcast.
Use BTC for: large one-time conversions when you have time to wait, treasury moves, USD-denominated invoice payments where the card charges tomorrow not now.
Do not use BTC for: ad campaign top-ups that need to clear in the next 30 minutes, vendor payments with same-day deadlines, anything where you are racing a charge that has already started.
Cost: network fee of $1-15 depending on congestion. During high-activity periods (October 2024 saw fees over $90), the network fee can exceed the conversion fee.
03Ethereum (ETH): 1-5 minutes
Ethereum blocks confirm every 12 seconds, but the deposit typically requires 12-30 confirmations (~2.5-6 minutes) for safety. With EIP-1559, fees are predictable: base fee plus tip.
Use ETH for: USDT and USDC transfers, ERC-20 stablecoin funding, when you want faster than BTC but similar security.
Do not use ETH for: time-critical top-ups (still slower than Avalanche or Solana), or when gas is high (a $30 ETH top-up with $25 gas is bad math).
Cost: gas ranges from $0.10 to $20+ depending on congestion. Layer 2 (Arbitrum, Optimism, Base) reduces gas by 10-100x and confirmation time is similar.
04USDT and USDC: depends on the chain they live on
USDT exists on Ethereum (ERC-20), Tron (TRC-20), BNB Chain (BEP-20), Solana, Avalanche, Polygon, and others. Confirmation time and cost depend on the host chain, not the token.
ERC-20 USDT: 1-5 minutes, $0.50-15 gas.
TRC-20 USDT: 30-60 seconds, $1-3 fee.
BEP-20 USDT: 15-30 seconds, $0.10-1 fee.
Solana USDC: 5-15 seconds, $0.001 fee.
Avalanche USDC: 5-15 seconds, $0.01 fee.
Polygon USDC: 1-2 minutes, $0.01 fee.
For card top-ups, USDT/USDC on Solana or Avalanche is fastest. ERC-20 is most common but slower and costlier.
05BNB Chain (BNB): 15-30 seconds
BNB Chain blocks every 3 seconds. Most wallets and exchanges require 15-30 confirmations for safety (~1 minute), but some accept 5-10 confirmations for time-sensitive transfers.
Use BNB for: fast card top-ups, vendor payments with same-day deadlines, when you want near-instant confirmation without paying Solana's higher base fees.
Cost: gas is typically $0.10-1 per transaction. Cheaper than Ethereum mainnet by 50-100x.
Caveat: BNB Chain has a smaller DeFi ecosystem than Ethereum or Solana. Liquidity for USDT/USDC is good but not as deep as Ethereum.
06Solana (SOL): 5-15 seconds
Solana produces blocks every ~400 milliseconds. Most wallets consider a transaction final after 30-60 confirmations (~15-30 seconds).
Use SOL for: fastest possible card top-ups, real-time funding for live campaigns, vendor payments with hours-not-days deadlines.
Do not use SOL for: high-value transfers where security confirmation is critical (Solana's rapid finality is good but its network stability has been less consistent than Ethereum's).
Cost: typical transaction fee is $0.001-$0.01. Solana is by far the cheapest per-transaction chain.
07Litecoin (LTC): 5-15 minutes
Litecoin blocks every 2.5 minutes. Most wallets and exchanges require 6-12 confirmations for safety (~15-30 minutes).
Use LTC for: when you want faster than Bitcoin but similar security guarantees, low-value transfers where BTC fees would exceed the value.
Cost: typically $0.01-1 per transaction. Significantly cheaper than BTC for routine transfers.
LTC has limited smart contract support. It is primarily a payments-focused chain. For card top-ups that need USDT or USDC, LTC is not the right choice - send BTC instead or use a smart contract chain.
08Avalanche (AVAX): under 30 seconds
Avalanche C-Chain produces blocks every 1-2 seconds. Final confirmation is typically 1-2 seconds, but most wallets show a 15-30 second window before crediting.
Use AVAX for: fastest production-grade confirmation, time-critical card top-ups, vendor payments with minutes-not-hours deadlines, when you want the security of a non-Ethereum L1 with near-instant finality.
Cost: gas is typically $0.01-1 per transaction. Cheaper than Ethereum mainnet by 20-100x.
Caveat: AVAX ecosystem is smaller than Ethereum or Solana. Liquidity for USDT/USDC on Avalanche is good but not as deep.
09How to pick the right chain for the right situation
Time-critical top-ups (under 5 minutes): Avalanche, Solana, Polygon, BNB Chain.
Standard top-ups (under 30 minutes): Ethereum, USDT/USDC on Tron or BNB.
Large treasury moves (any time): Bitcoin, Ethereum mainnet.
Best value: Solana ($0.001 fees) and Polygon ($0.01 fees) for sub-minute confirmation.
Best security guarantees: Bitcoin and Ethereum mainnet, with longer confirmation windows.
BitPay accepts all eight of these chains. The choice is yours based on your time pressure and fee tolerance. The wallet credits your USD balance immediately after confirmation, regardless of which chain you used.
