Sent Crypto to the Wrong Network? What Can and Cannot Be Recovered

By Gurjeet Singh, developer of CoinPriceAlert · Published 13 August 2026 · 3 min read

The recoverable case

If you sent to an address you control on a different network — the same address existing across EVM chains is the common version — the funds are usually recoverable. Add the correct network to your wallet, and the balance appears. Nothing was lost; you were simply looking at the wrong chain.

If you sent to an exchange on the wrong network, recovery depends entirely on that exchange. Some support recovery for a fee; others state plainly that they cannot. Contact support with the transaction hash before doing anything else, and be aware it may take weeks.

The unrecoverable cases

Sending to an address nobody controls means the funds are gone permanently. There is no authority that can reverse a confirmed transaction, and no service that can retrieve it. This is the direct cost of a system with no intermediary.

Be especially wary of the aftermath: anyone offering recovery services for lost crypto is running a scam. There is no technical route to reversal, so every offer to perform one is a way to extract a second payment from someone who has already lost money.

Preventing the next one

Send a small test transaction first for any new address or network. The fee on a test transfer is trivial compared to the amount at risk, and it catches essentially every version of this mistake.

Check the network selector explicitly before confirming — wallets often default to the last one used. And never send from an exchange without confirming the receiving network matches, since exchange withdrawal screens and wallet deposit screens use different names for the same networks.

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