I’ve added the Binance Smart Chain network in Metamask and I have some BNB there which I want to send to an exchange, but I’m a bit confused because as regardless of whether I select the ETH network or the BSC network, Metamask shows the same ETH address at the top (it’s the address generated by my Ledger).
My exchange has deposit options of BNB (BEP2) which uses an address and a memo, or BSC (BEP20) which just uses an address. So can I send my BNB from Metamask, which is using an ETH address, to my exchange’s BSC (BEP20) address?
Your address is generated from a seed (the seed is determined by the ledger’s seed phrase). So this address can receive coins from all chains supported by MM.
BNB (BEP2) and BSC (BEP20) are completely different networks. MM does not support BNB (BEP2). The address of BEP2 generated by the seed of your ledger is also not the address on the MM.
So don’t use the BEP2 network.
If you are going to sent BNB and you have the option to select BEP20, that is the one I would use. If you are not feeling safe, then try to sent just a little amount of BNB first, and if it goes well, then sent the rest.
Remember to check that the address you copy is the same your paste into your exchange.
Thanks. It’s confusing that the coin is called BNB but it’s on the BSC network and the wallet address in Metamask is an ETH address, not a BSC address, but as long as it works if I send it to a BSC (BEP20) deposit address at the exchange, that’s all that matters.
I don’t really have much on there and it will cost gas to send a little amount (I’m not sure how much, it defaults to a gas price of 5 but that seems too low), so I’ll just have to send it all at once and hope it works.
You didn’t understand the relationship between addresses and networks.
If you have a sequence A of 12 seed phrases, the first address generated is a.
There is a wallet that only supports eth, you import A into this wallet, and you will get address a as your eth receiving address.
There is a wallet that only supports the bsc network and nothing else. Only tokens on bnb and bsc can be stored. You import A into this wallet, and you still get the address a as your bnb receiving address.
There is a wallet that only supports the Polygon chain, and only supports tokens on MATIC and Polygon. You import A, you still get the address a as the receiving address of your MATIC.
If it helps at all, here is an article sharing how you can add BSC network to MetaMask. Your wallet auto defaults originally to Ethereum Mainnet. You’ll see if you add it your wallet address is the same on both networks. Just remember, they’re separate networks!
I understand that it can be confusing. But your address is the same no matter what network you use. If you sent BNB using the Binance smartchain network, which you should do, you will be able to see it in your wallet selecting the binance smart chain network.
In Ledger Live for example, I have an ETH address generated from my seed phrase (stored on the Ledger) and a completely different BSC address generated from that seed phrase, because those two addresses are for different blockchains, so they should be different.
In MM however, when I add my Ledger account it doesn’t matter whether I select the ETH network or the BSC network, it still shows the ETH address at the top and that’s what makes me nervous, because I know normally you can’t send/receive coins via the wrong blockchain.
The ledger is just for users to distinguish between wallets of two different coins.
First of all, you must understand that the wallet of the HD protocol, the address generated by the seed phrase is not one.
When you initially connect to MM with a hardware wallet, MM also lets you choose one of many addresses as the wallet address.
Ledger Live just automatically selected two of those addresses to assign to the eth wallet and the bsc wallet.
All you need to pay attention to are the following:
Do you have the private key (or seed phrase) for your address (if you use a passphrase, the passphrase is also an integral part of the seed);
Whether the chain your address is using is the same as the chain used by the recipient’s address.
If both are satisfied, you can rest assured.
Even if you send yourself coins using the wrong chain. Coins can also be recovered.
In fact, the wrong chain was sent to the exchange for recharging. In the past, the exchange could pay for it to retrieve it. Only now they want to take it all.