How to remove your bitcoin from an exchange

One of your friends convinced you to buy some bitcoin. Good! You finally bought some bitcoin, but it's stuck on an exchange and you want to get it out.

Have no fear! This post will provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to withdraw your bitcoin from an exchange and to a wallet only you control. 

Step 1: Buy a hardware wallet:

Hardware wallets offer the most security for your bitcoin. Think of a bitcoin wallet as a safe and your seed phrase is the combination of that safe. A hardware wallets protect your bitcoin’s seed phrase from hackers and thieves, so no one can access your bitcoin but you. Order your hardware wallet online directly from the manufacturer or a licensed reseller to ensure your product is safe and secure. At Bitcoin Well, we recommend wallets such as Ledger (easy to use, secure) and Coldcard (harder to use, more secure). 

If you're still new to the Bitcoin world and don't yet have the budget for a hardware device or just want to get a feel for self-custody, then you should download a software wallet on your phone, like BlueWallet, or for your computer, like Electrum.

Step 2: Set up your hardware wallet. 

Both wallets will have an accompanying start-up guide or instructions. Follow these to set up your hardware wallet. Setting up your wallet will show you your seed phrase, which is a string of words in a particular order—keep these words safe and off the internet. 

If you need help with your wallet setup, check out these tutorials for Ledger and Coldcard. 

Step 3: Access your bitcoin receiving address

Once you’ve confirmed your seed phrase in your wallet setup you should be ready to access your bitcoin receiving address. Going back to the safe analogy, think of a receiving address as a mailbox slot on your safe. Anyone can deposit funds into your wallet via your receiving address, but funds cannot exit your wallet via a receiving address, funds can only exit your wallet via a seed phrase. 

To access your bitcoin receiving address, open you bitcoin wallet and select ‘receive’, you can expect to find a string of letters and numbers randomly mixed together – this is your receiving address.

If you need help finding your receiving address, here are tutorials for both Ledger Wallet and Coldcard Wallet. 

Once you’ve got your receiving address ready, you are ready to withdraw your bitcoin. 

Step 4: Withdraw your bitcoin from your exchange 

Log in to your exchange and access your bitcoin balance, you may have to tap on bitcoin within a list of assets. Next, select “send” or “withdraw” and you should see a text field - enter your bitcoin receiving address here to send bitcoin to your hardware wallet. Double check your receiving address to ensure it matches. Select “Send” or “confirm” to send the bitcoin. 

Step 5: Receive your bitcoin

Receiving bitcoin can take some time as pending transactions need to be approved onto the blockchain to be sent. Once your bitcoin arrives, you may see a notification informing you of your deposit, otherwise, check in on your balance to see the bitcoin arrive. 

Step 6: Buy bitcoin straight to your hardware wallet

With Bitcoin Well, you can buy bitcoin directly to your hardware wallet, meaning you can ignore the exchange as well as step 4 from this blog going forward. Simply sign up for Bitcoin Well and enter your hardware wallet receiving address to your Bitcoin Well account. Once having done so, whenever you buy bitcoin it’ll be sent straight to your hardware wallet for free. 

By regularly buying bitcoin to hardware wallet you are preparing your finances for the future while enabling independence. 

Haven't sign up for Bitcoin Well yet? Sign up now and secure your independence: https://bitcoinwell.com/app/

About Bitcoin Well

Bitcoin Well exists to enable independence. We do this by coupling the convenience of modern banking, with the benefits of bitcoin. In other words, we want to make it easy to use bitcoin in self-custody.  ⁠ ⁠

We are publicly traded (and love it when our customers become shareholders!) and hold ourselves to a high standard of enabling life on a Bitcoin standard. If you want to learn more about Bitcoin Well, please visit our website or reach out!