Ethereum to AVAX Bridge – How To Transfer Coins From ETH To Avalanche Blockchain

March 10, 2022

Avalanche blockchain is another one of those Ethereum killers that aim to solve what the Ethereum network is struggling with — scalability, transaction fees, and interoperability. Avalanche is taking a different approach by using three separate chains and claims to be “the fastest smart contracts platform in the blockchain industry, as measured by time-to-finality”.

Avalanche is growing rapidly and new dApps are constantly being launched on the network. In order to access those dApps, you need tokens on the Avalanche network. In this article, we’ll be looking at ways to send tokens to the Avalanche chain.

What you'll learn 👉

How to send coins from Ethereum to AVAX?

Broadly speaking, there are two methods for sending coins from Ethereum to AVAX:

Avax network bridge

Avax network bridge is a fast, secure, and cost-effective Multi-chain bridge for the Avax network that offers an intuitive way of bridging assets between the Ethereum and Avax networks.

The bridge is currently in beta and supports the transfer of Ethereum ERC20s to the Avalanche C-Chain and vice versa, however, there are plans to support the transfer of ERC20s created on the Avalanche C-Chain. Support for networks other than Avalanche and Ethereum are also in the plans.

This is a completely decentralized way of sending coins from Ethereum to the Avalanche network.

Steps on sending coins from Ethereum to Avalanche via Avax network bridge

First, decide which wallet you are going to use. The Avax network bridge supports MetaMask and Coinbase wallets.

Note that there is currently a bug in the Metamask Mobile app that affects bridge transactions (only on mobile). Until this is resolved, use only the Coinbase wallet on mobile.

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If you are on a desktop, log in to your MetaMask wallet then go to the Avax bridge https://bridge.avax.network and connect your wallet. Make sure you are on the correct network.

If you are using the Coinbase wallet, go to the Avax bridge using the dApps browser of the wallet and connect your wallet. Again make sure you are on the correct network.

Make sure you have enough coins for the gas fees. You need AVAX to pay for transaction fees on Avalanche.

Users will currently receive an airdrop of up to 0.1 AVAX upon transferring more than $75 worth of tokens from Ethereum to Avalanche.

Select the token you want to bridge from the dropdown. Make sure the network in the “From” is the same as your original tokens — Ethereum in this case. You can use the “Switch” button to switch to the other network.

Put in the number of tokens you want to bridge onto the other network.

Click on transfer and wait for the transaction to complete. The Ethereum transaction should take 10 – 15 minutes, and the Avalanche transaction takes a few seconds.

Once the transaction is complete, you will have the tokens on the Avax chain. You can now use these on any of the Avalanche dApps.

CEX like Binance, KuCoin or Gate.io

Another method of sending coins to the Avalanche network is using centralized exchanges.

Old fashioned way of bridging blockchains

Using centralized exchanges that support AVAX like Binance, KuCoin or Gate.io you can trade your coins for AVAX, take the AVAX to a DEX like Pangolin, and convert the AVAX to other tokens on the Avalanche blockchain.

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FAQs

Here are answers to some of the frequently asked questions:

What is a blockchain bridge❓

A blockchain bridge bridges two blockchains.

While the transactions and other on-chain data are publicly visible, the different blockchains are largely isolated from each other. You can’t simply send Bitcoin to an Ethereum wallet for example. This isolation limits decentralization and hinders advancements.

Blockchain bridges solve this by enabling interoperability between different chains. The chains can be vastly different or be parent and child chains, doesn’t matter, bridges provide a compatible way to securely transfer tokens or data from one chain to another.

What is Avax bridging❓

Avax bridging is means bridging the Avalanche and other blockchains. Tokens on other networks can be moved on the Avalanche network using Avax bridging. Once on the Avalanche chain, those tokens can be used to participate in the Avax based dApps. Bridging allows you to have exposure to the original blockchain as well as the new chain.

Can I send ETH to Avalanche wallet❓

No, you should not send your funds from the Ethereum network to Avalanche wallet. The addresses may look the same and the transaction will be accepted but funds won’t arrive in the wallet on another network.

If you send funds to an address on another network, only the person who has the private keys that control the destination address can ever access them.
If you want ETH on the Avalanche network, you need to use a bridge to move the ETH to Avax.

Whenever you are unsure or doing something for the first time, it’s best to transact a very small amount (dust) to make sure the result is what you expect.

How do you convert ETH to AVAX❓

One of the easiest ways of converting ETH to AVAX is by trading your ETH for AVAX on exchanges like Kucoin, Coinbase, or Binance.

Alternatively, you can use the Avax bridge to bridge ETH to WETH.e on the Avalanche network and use Avalanche DEXes like Pangolin to convert the WETH.e to AVAX.
The transaction fee on a centralized exchange route could be less than the Ethereum gas fee on the bridge route if you already have your ETH on the exchange.

How to bridge tokens onto Avalanche❓

You can use a bridge like the Avax network bridge to easily bridge ERC20 tokens onto Avalanche.
There are also other third-party cross-chain platforms like Relaychain that offer bridging from other blockchains.