Guides

Send USDC or USDT on Avalanche without AVAX

Your USDC or USDT arrived on Avalanche, often after a withdrawal from an exchange, but the wallet holds no AVAX. You can send it without getting AVAX first.

Send on Avalanche How fees work

Why your wallet refuses

Avalanche C-Chain charges gas in AVAX, held on the C-Chain itself. AVAX on the X-Chain or P-Chain, or on an exchange, does not count. A transfer costs less than a cent, but with exactly 0 AVAX the wallet cannot pay even that, and USDC or USDT cannot pay it in a normal transfer.

Your options

Withdraw a little AVAX from an exchange directly to the Avalanche C-Chain. If you can do this, it is the cheapest route.
If you use the Core wallet, look for its gasless option on the confirmation screen.
Use gasrescue when you have only the stablecoin and want it moved now, or swap a few dollars into AVAX.

How to send it with gasrescue

Open gasrescue and connect a wallet such as MetaMask, Rabby, Phantom or Trust Wallet. Avalanche is already selected, and the token list shows what you hold.
Enter the amount, or press Max to send everything, and the recipient. The quote lists the network fee, the service fee and what the recipient gets.
Sign in your wallet: once for USDC, twice for USDT (first a permit, then the transfer). We send the transaction and pay the gas.
You get a link to the transaction in the block explorer.

What it costs

You send100 USDC

Service fee− 0.50 USDC

Network feeusually about a cent

The service fee is 0.5% of the amount, at least $0.25 and at most $2.00. Both fees are deducted from the amount you send, and the quote shows the exact figures before you sign. Gas on Avalanche is so cheap that almost all of the cost is the service fee.

What you sign

For USDC you sign one typed message, not a transaction, so you need no gas for it. Your wallet shows the amount and our contract; recipient and fee are bound into a hash, so check those two in the quote on gasrescue.io. For USDT you sign two typed messages: a permit that lets our contract take exactly this amount, and the transfer itself with recipient, amount and fee in readable form. The contract uses the permit only together with that second signature. Transfer and fee run in one transaction: if it fails, nothing moves.

Need AVAX instead?

You can also swap a few dollars of your stablecoins into AVAX without holding any. It lands in your own wallet, so you can pay your own gas from then on. How a swap without gas works.

Common questions

Which tokens work?

Native USDC and USDT, which Tether issues on Avalanche itself and which wallets often show as USDt. The older bridged USDC.e and USDT.e do not work: they have no signed transfers.

Does this work on the X-Chain or P-Chain?

No. gasrescue moves tokens on the C-Chain, the EVM chain of Avalanche where USDC and USDT live. Wallets usually just call it Avalanche.

Which wallets work?

Wallets that support typed-data signatures, such as MetaMask, Rabby or Phantom. Smart contract wallets, such as a Coinbase Smart Wallet, do not work yet.

Before you start

Transfers are final, so check the recipient address carefully. Only sign on gasrescue.io. gasrescue is in early access and independent of every chain and wallet named here, so please start with a small amount.

Send on Avalanche