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A Bitcoin transfer is a bit different from a normal banking transfer. While they might tackle a similar action, sending money from one place to another, the mechanics behind each technology differs quite a bit.
As such, answering the question, “how long does a Bitcoin transfer take?” is going to require a bit of explanation.
But that’s what we’re here for.
Read on to learn more about how long Bitcoin transfers take.
Before we dive into how long a transfer might take, let’s talk about how they work.
Remember, Bitcoin transfers are much different than your average banking transfer. Here are the basic components of each transfer:
Here’s how the process works:
That’s the basics of Bitcoin transfer. But what affects the timing of this process?
Several factors can impact the transfer speed on the Bitcoin network. Let’s take a look at a few.
Bitcoin is, by and large, the most popular cryptocurrency in the world. What does this mean for transfers? Well, with more people on the network, the chance of things getting congested is higher.
It’s just like a traffic jam. The network is built to handle around 7 transfers per second* (as mentioned on bitdegree.org). For context, Mastercard, yes, that Mastercard, can handle around 5,000 transfers per second (information from cointelegraph.com).
While this seems like a pretty stark difference, it’s worth noting that Bitcoin already has some solutions to transfer speed bottlenecks. For example, Bitcoin’s layer-2 Lightning Network aims to drastically cut down on fees and transfer times.
Bitcoin holders who choose to use the Lightning Network can avoid paying high fees by performing their transfers off-chain. These are done through direct digital payment vendors, which not only helps users avoid hefty fees but also reduces the load on the Bitcoin network.
But this technology is not without issues. Users have reported all kinds of problems with the current state of the Lighting network:
For those reasons, the Lighting network never really caught on in the way developers envisioned. Most users still rely on the standard Bitcoin network for daily transfers.
As we learned, miners prioritize transfers with higher fees, delaying those lower fee transfers. During peak trading hours, the mempool becomes congested. As a result, you get a congested network with longer confirmation times.
Another critical item to consider when thinking about how long Bitcoin transfers take is scalability. Unfortunately, Bitcoin is well-known for its limited scalability, hindering its ability to support more users or handle larger network loads.
In theory, one block in the Bitcoin blockchain has a capacity of roughly 4MB.
The reality is that the majority of Bitcoin blocks are capable of handling a little less than half of that. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stack up well when compared with other well-known crypto networks.
What does that mean in practice? Well, the average block on the Bitcoin network can support 1,500-2,500 BTC transfers.
By comparison, some blockchains have block sizes 8x larger than Bitcoin’s, which means they can handle more transfers. As a result, the amount of time a transfer takes to complete is significantly lower, as are the fees for each transfer.
Because of its lack of scalability, huge numbers of Bitcoin transfers get stuck in the Bitcoin mempool. When this happens, there are thousands of transfers in front of you, so your transfer will sit in the mempool, causing a possible delay.
In addition to scalability problems and network congestion, Bitcoin transfers also have the challenge of fees.
Miners are responsible for verifying and confirming blocks on the blockchain. When they do so, they earn rewards in the form of transfer fees. As we now know, miners are usually only interested in transfers with the highest fees. Ultimately, they run mining infrastructure as a business, so those who pay get to the front of the line.
That means if you want your transfer confirmed quickly, you’ll have to pay more in fees. If you’re in a hurry, you’re going to pay a premium. When you do, a miner will snatch it up and verify it as quickly as possible.
Otherwise, you might wind up waiting an hour or more.
Many within the Bitcoin world don’t think it’s fair to pay more in fees for faster transfers. However, others are quick to point out that miners need a significant amount of electricity to power the computers that verify transfers. Doing so keeps the Bitcoin network decentralized and safe.
That’s the whole idea behind Bitcoin’s consensus mechanism, proof of work.
So, how long does a Bitcoin transfer take? Well, it depends on factors like network congestion and the fee attached to each transfer. On average, though, it takes around 10 minutes for a transfer to confirm on the blockchain. But, again, this can vary.
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Note: This blog was updated on 3/27/25, original post date 2/13/23