Guide — three costs, one number
Wallet and network fees, layer by layer
A wallet that advertises no fees usually means no fee on transfers, while earning a spread on swaps that is invisible because it is inside the exchange rate. Here are the three layers, with real figures, and when each one is worth avoiding.
- 0.85% Phantom in-app swap fee
- 0.875% MetaMask in-app swap fee
- 1–4% Exodus built-in exchange spread range
- $0 What every wallet charges to send
On this page
The three layers
Every crypto transaction has up to three costs stacked on top of each other, and the confusion in this area comes almost entirely from them being presented as one number. Separating them is the whole exercise, because only one of the three is genuinely avoidable.
The network fee goes to the blockchain — miners on Bitcoin, validators on proof-of-stake chains. No wallet controls it, no wallet keeps it, and you cannot avoid it. It varies enormously by chain and by congestion.
The route cost applies when you swap one asset for another. It is the slippage and liquidity cost of the actual trade, paid to whoever provided the liquidity. It varies with the size of your trade relative to available depth.
The wallet's spread is what the wallet company takes, and it is normally embedded in the exchange rate you are shown rather than displayed as a fee. This is the layer worth understanding, because it is the one you can eliminate entirely by doing the trade somewhere else.
When a wallet says "no fees", it almost always means no wallet fee on transfers — which is true of every wallet we review — while still earning a spread on swaps. That is not dishonest, but it is not the whole picture either.
Layer one: the network fee
This is the one people find most counterintuitive, because it is not a percentage.
A Bitcoin transaction's fee is based on how much block space it occupies, measured in satoshis per virtual byte, not on how much value it moves. Sending NZ$100 and sending NZ$100,000 cost the same, because they take the same space. During quiet periods that might be a dollar or two; during a genuine demand spike it can be considerably more. Ethereum works similarly, with gas priced by computational cost. Solana fees are fractions of a cent.
Two practical consequences. First, moving a large amount to cold storage is cheap relative to the amount, which is an argument for consolidating rather than dribbling funds across. Second, most wallets let you choose a lower fee rate and wait longer for confirmation — and for a transfer to your own hardware wallet, waiting an hour costs you nothing. Use the economy setting for savings transfers and the fast setting only when timing matters.
One thing to watch: exchange withdrawal fees. Separate from the network fee, some platforms charge a flat withdrawal amount regardless of size. If that is the case, one large withdrawal is markedly cheaper than four small ones, which is worth knowing before you decide to move funds in stages.
Layer two: the route
When you swap inside a wallet, the wallet finds liquidity somewhere — an aggregator, a decentralised exchange, a market maker — and that source charges for the trade. On a liquid pair with a modest size, this cost is small. On an illiquid token, or a large trade relative to available depth, it can be substantial through slippage.
This layer is real, unavoidable in principle, and highly variable. It is also where the distinction between wallets partly lies: a wallet with good routing finds you a better price than one with poor routing, independent of what either charges as a spread. That is difficult to evaluate from the outside, which is why the practical advice below is to compare the final quoted rate against a market price rather than trying to decompose it.
Layer three: the wallet spread
Here are the actual figures, as at our last check in September 2026.
| Wallet | Swap fee | On NZ$1,000 | On NZ$10,000 | Send fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trust WalletLowest of the full-featured apps | Lowest profile | — | — | Network only |
| PhantomSolana, Ethereum, Base, Bitcoin | ≈0.85% | NZ$8.50 | NZ$85 | Network only |
| MetaMaskEVM chains plus Solana | ≈0.875% | NZ$8.75 | NZ$87.50 | Network only |
| ExodusBuilt-in exchange, spread varies by pair | ≈1–4% | NZ$10–40 | NZ$100–400 | Network only |
| BlueWalletBitcoin and Lightning only | None | NZ$0 | NZ$0 | Network only |
The pattern is clear. On a NZ$500 swap, the difference between the best and worst option here is a few dollars and nobody should reorganise their life over it. On a NZ$10,000 swap, the range is from nothing to NZ$400, and at the top of that range you are paying four hardware wallets' worth of convenience premium.
The reason people pay it is that the spread lives inside the quoted exchange rate. You see a rate, you accept it, and there is no line item saying "fee". The single habit that fixes this: before accepting any in-wallet swap, look up the pair's market price and compare. If the gap is meaningful, do the trade on an exchange and withdraw.
Staking fees, which have their own three layers
Staking has the same structure and the middle layer is even less visible.
Network fee to submit the delegation transaction. Small, one-off, unavoidable.
Validator commission is the big one and the one wallets are vaguest about. Validators set their own rate, typically between 2% and 10% of rewards, and many wallet interfaces pre-select a validator without making the commission obvious. On a nominal 8% yield, a 10% commission takes you to 7.2%. Phantom's validator picker actually displays commission rates, which is the clearest implementation we have used and is a small honesty worth rewarding.
Wallet platform fee is a cut some wallets take on top. Trust Wallet and Exodus both advertise zero here, which is genuinely good. Others take a percentage of rewards, and a few are not transparent about it. If a wallet will not tell you plainly what it charges on staking, treat that as information about the wallet.
The advertised APY is always gross. Our staking wallets page works through the arithmetic, and note that staking rewards are likely taxable income on receipt in New Zealand — see the tax guide. General information, not tax advice.
New Zealand costs: deposits, cards and GST
Three costs specific to doing this from here, all covered in more detail elsewhere but worth putting alongside the wallet fees.
Deposit method. NZD bank transfer is free at Swyftx, as are NZD withdrawals. NZD card deposits via Stripe carry a 2.734% fee there, and where a third-party provider such as Banxa is involved the reported cost has been around 1.99% plus a spread of up to 4%. That single choice can cost more than every wallet fee you will pay in a year. Bank transfer, always, unless you are in a hurry.
Crypto ATMs. Over 220 machines operate nationally, mainly CoinFlip and Localcoin. Convenient, and the rates are consistently several percent worse than an exchange.
GST on hardware. A wallet device is a physical good, so 15% GST applies — normally collected at checkout by overseas suppliers with more than NZ$60,000 in annual New Zealand sales. From 1 April 2026, New Zealand Customs also applies a Low-Value Goods levy of NZ$2.21 for air freight or NZ$2.09 for sea, plus GST, per consignment valued at NZ$1,000 or less. Detail in our GST and customs guide.
Five ways to pay less
Deposit by bank transfer, not card. This is the single largest saving available to a New Zealand buyer and it is free.
Do large swaps on an exchange, not in a wallet. Ten extra minutes to avoid a percentage-based spread on a four-figure trade.
Use the economy network fee for transfers to your own cold storage. There is no deadline on moving your savings, and the difference between fast and slow confirmation is real money on Bitcoin during busy periods.
Batch withdrawals where the exchange charges a flat fee. One consolidated transfer instead of four.
Check the validator commission before staking. A pre-selected validator taking 10% costs you a fifth of your yield relative to one taking 2%.
From our testing notes
We priced the same NZ$5,000 swap in four wallets and on an exchange within the same ten minutes. The spread between the best and worst outcome was over NZ$180 — and every interface presented its number as simply "the rate". None of them was lying. The cost was real and none of it was labelled as a fee, which is the entire reason this page exists.
Frequently asked
Questions on this topic
Do crypto wallets charge fees?
Not for holding or receiving, and not for sending — every wallet we review is free to install and takes nothing when you send, where you pay only the blockchain's own network fee. Wallets make money on in-app swaps, where a spread is built into the quoted exchange rate: roughly 0.85% at Phantom, 0.875% at MetaMask, and between about 1% and 4% at Exodus depending on the pair. Trust Wallet has the lowest overall profile of the full-featured apps.
What crypto wallet has the lowest fees?
For sending, every non-custodial wallet is identical — you pay the network, not the wallet. For swapping, Trust Wallet has the lowest overall fee profile among full-featured mobile wallets. For Bitcoin only, BlueWallet charges nothing at all because there is nothing to swap. The genuinely cheapest approach for any large swap is not a wallet: do the trade on an exchange and withdraw.
Why are Bitcoin network fees so high sometimes?
Because you are bidding for limited space. Each Bitcoin block has a finite capacity, and transactions compete on fee rate for inclusion — measured in satoshis per virtual byte rather than as a percentage of the amount you are sending. When demand spikes, the fee to get confirmed quickly rises sharply, and it is the same whether you are moving NZ$100 or NZ$100,000. Most wallets let you choose a lower rate and wait longer, which is usually the right call for a transfer to your own cold storage.
Do I pay a fee to move crypto to a hardware wallet?
You pay the blockchain network fee, and possibly a withdrawal fee charged by the exchange you are sending from. The hardware wallet itself never charges anything — it is a device, not a service, and there is no subscription on any device we review. Exchange withdrawal fees are sometimes flat regardless of amount, which is worth checking before you split a withdrawal into several smaller ones.
Do crypto wallets cost money to set up?
Software wallets are free. Hardware wallets cost from about NZ$99 for a Ledger Nano S Plus delivered inside New Zealand up to around NZ$780 for the top of the range, as a one-time purchase with no ongoing cost. Overseas purchases attract 15% GST, usually collected at checkout, plus a Customs Low-Value Goods levy of NZ$2.21 for air freight from 1 April 2026. See our GST and customs guide.
Next in this cluster