Wallet Address
Crypto address · Public address · Deposit address · Receiving address · Withdrawal address
A string that receives coins on a blockchain, like an account number. It comes from a private key, and its format differs by coin and network.
Simple explanation
Background: Korean exchanges show it on their deposit screens as 입금 주소 ("deposit address"). Sending coins out of a Korean exchange also means registering the receiving address first, because of the Travel Rule.
A wallet address is where coins arrive on a blockchain. Like a bank account number, anyone who knows it can send you coins, but knowing it does not let anyone take them out; that needs the private key paired with the address. The address is made by deriving a public key from the private key and then compressing (hashing) the public key by a fixed rule. The calculation only runs one way, so nobody can work back from an address or public key to the private key. The string on an exchange's deposit screen and the one on a wallet app's "receive" screen are both wallet addresses.
Formats differ by coin and network. Bitcoin addresses come in several forms in use side by side: older ones starting with 1, ones starting with 3, SegWit addresses starting with bc1q, and Taproot addresses starting with bc1p. Ethereum addresses are 0x followed by 40 hexadecimal characters (0-9 and a-f). Tron addresses start with a capital T, XRP addresses with a lower-case r, and Solana addresses are strings of 32 to 44 mixed digits and letters. So the look of an address usually hints at its chain.
Ethereum-compatible (EVM) chains, however, share one format. On Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Arbitrum, Polygon, Base and others, the same private key gives exactly the same 0x address. The address alone does not tell you the network, and a withdrawal screen will happily send on the wrong network because "the address format is valid". In your own wallet you can often find the coins by adding that network to the same address, but if you sent to an exchange over a network it does not support, nothing reaches your balance unless the exchange recovers it. Always check an address together with its network.
Some addresses carry a built-in typo check (a checksum). Most wallets reject a bitcoin address with even one wrong character, and Ethereum addresses catch typos through a mix of upper- and lower-case letters (EIP-55). But a checksum only tells you the address is well formed, not that it belongs to the person you meant to pay. Send to someone else's valid address and the blockchain simply executes it; a sent transfer cannot be cancelled.
Addresses are a target for fraud. Malware can swap an address you copied for the attacker's at the moment you paste it. In "address poisoning", a scammer creates a look-alike address whose first and last few characters match one you use often, then sends you a zero or tiny transfer from it so it sits in your history, hoping you will later copy it from there after glancing only at the ends. After pasting, compare the middle of the address too, and copy regular addresses from a place you have checked yourself rather than from your transaction history.
Addresses are also public. Anyone can read a blockchain, so anyone who knows an address can see its balance and full history. The address carries no name, but once it is linked to exchange deposit records or a social-media post, its owner can be identified. Posting your address publicly also publishes your holdings and habits.
An exchange deposit address belongs to a wallet whose private key the exchange holds. Exchanges either give each customer a separate deposit address or, for coins like XRP, share one address and tell customers apart by a memo or tag. When an exchange changes wallets, its addresses change too: after its November 2025 hack, Upbit replaced its wallets, deleted the old deposit addresses and told customers to issue new ones before depositing. So copy the address fresh from the receiving side's deposit screen every time rather than reusing a saved one. To send out of a Korean exchange, you register the receiving address in advance as a withdrawal address, and under the Travel Rule the exchange checks which exchange receives it or that the wallet is yours.
Kimchi premium arbitrage is, in the end, moving coins from one exchange's wallet address to another's. Get the address, the network or the memo wrong and the coins are stuck while the premium keeps moving. With a new address, many people send a small amount first and wait for it to arrive before sending the rest. CoinGaja does not handle addresses, but before sending you can check on the deposit and withdrawal suspension page whether the receiving exchange's deposits for that coin are open, and look for wallet-change or network-change notices in Exchange notices. The Kimchi Premium Calculator takes withdrawal fees off and shows what is actually left.
Example
Ethereum address: 0x + 40 hex characters = 160 bits → 2^160, about 1.46 × 10^48 possible addresses
An address you use often starts 7a3f and ends 91ce → a fake address matching those 8 characters turns up about once in 16^8 = 4,294,967,296 (about 4.3 billion) tries, which a computer can do in a short time
Check only the first and last 4 characters → you may not catch a look-alike address planted by address poisoning
Before sending 1,000 USDT to a new address you send 10 first; with a withdrawal fee assumed at 1 USDT a time → the check costs 1 USDT more (₩1,400, about $1, with Tether at ₩1,400)
Get the address wrong without that check → 1,000 USDT (₩1,400,000, about $1,000, with Tether at ₩1,400) may never come back
※ Example numbers, for illustration only
See it on CoinGaja
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