What Do ERC20, BEP20, TRC20 and the Other Network Names Mean?

1. What does the network field on a deposit or withdrawal form mean?

It is the blockchain the coins will travel on. One token can exist on many of them: Kraken lists Tether (USDT) on eleven networks (Arbitrum One, Avalanche C-Chain, Ethereum, Flare, Ink, Optimism, Polygon, Solana, The Open Network, Tron and Unichain) and USD Coin on nine, and it only lets you deposit or withdraw through the networks it supports. Each network is a separate ledger with its own fees, confirmation times and, for some of them, its own address format.

The names are inconsistent because exchanges borrow them from three places. Some use the chain's token standard (ERC20, BEP20, TRC20), some the chain's name (Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Tron, Base) and some the product name of one specific network (Arbitrum One, OP Mainnet, Polygon PoS, Avalanche C-Chain). "Ethereum (ERC20)" and "ERC20" are the same menu entry written two ways.

The exchanges say so themselves. Kraken's page on multiple networks explains that assets such as ETH, USDC and USDT are offered on several networks, that the withdrawal fee depends on the network selected on the withdrawal page, and that a deposit sent on the wrong network is not credited. Binance's withdrawal guide is blunter: "sending funds to the wrong network will result in permanent loss".

The common labels and what they stand for

The chain IDs come from the EVM chain ID list, which is checked against the ethereum-lists registry behind Chainlist and chainid.network. The sections below take the labels one by one.

2. What is the ERC20 network?

ERC-20 is a token standard on Ethereum. The ethereum.org documentation calls it "a Token Standard that implements an API for tokens within Smart Contracts" and traces it to a proposal by Fabian Vogelsteller in November 2015. USDT, USDC, LINK and most other tokens on Ethereum follow it, which is why exchanges adopted the name for the network itself. On a form, "ERC20" or "Ethereum (ERC20)" means Ethereum mainnet, the chain with chain ID 1.

ETH is not an ERC-20 token; it is the native coin that pays gas. Exchanges still file ETH withdrawals under the same label, which is where the "Ethereum (ERC-20) vs Ethereum (ETH)" threads on forums come from. Both mean the Ethereum network. Kraken's address-format table lists Tether (USDT) on ERC-20 and "Ethereum (ERC-20)" side by side, both with addresses starting with 0x.

What differs between the two is the fee: a token transfer uses more gas than a plain ETH transfer. The gas fees guide explains why, and the live table further down shows what an Ethereum transfer costs right now.

3. What is the BEP20 network?

BEP-20 is "the token standard for fungible tokens on BNB Smart Chain", "designed to mirror the ERC-20 standard on Ethereum", in the words of the Binance Academy glossary. The label therefore means BNB Smart Chain, chain ID 56. BSC, Binance Smart Chain (its former name), BNB Chain and "BNB Smart Chain (BEP20)" all point at this one network. Addresses start with 0x and gas is paid in BNB.

BEP2 is a different thing. It was the standard of BNB Beacon Chain, a separate chain that BNB Chain retired in the BNB Chain Fusion: sunset forks on 15 April, 14 July and 19 November 2024, a "post fusion" date of 3 December 2024, and a recovery process for assets still bound to BEP2. BNB Chain lists the Beacon Chain as "Sunset Complete", so BEP20 is the live BNB network a form can offer.

opBNB, chain ID 204, is a third member of the family: a separate network that also pays gas in BNB. The EVM chain ID list keeps the three apart.

4. What is the TRC20 network?

The definition comes from TRON's developer documentation: TRC-20 is "the fungible token standard on TRON, fully compatible with Ethereum's ERC-20 at the interface level". On a form, TRC20 or "Tron (TRC20)" means the Tron network. It is not an EVM chain: Tron addresses are 34 characters starting with T (Kraken's table lists "T or 41", 41 being the hexadecimal form of the same address), and a 0x address cannot receive a TRC20 transfer. Fees are paid in TRX.

USDT on Tron and USDT on Ethereum are worth the same dollar, but they are two contracts on two ledgers, and a TRC20 withdrawal can only land in a Tron address. The contract address guide lists the official USDT contract on each network.

5. Is Arbitrum the same as Arbitrum One?

For a deposit or withdrawal, yes. Arbitrum is the family of networks built by Offchain Labs; Arbitrum One is the main network, chain ID 42161, and the one wallets and exchanges mean when they write Arbitrum. Kraken labels it Arbitrum One and lists ARB, DAI, ETH, GMX, USDT and USDC on it. The Arbitrum documentation describes it as the chain that "implements the purely Trustless Rollup protocol", settling to Ethereum.

Arbitrum Nova, chain ID 42170, is a separate chain of the same family that "implements the mostly trustless AnyTrust protocol" with a Data Availability Committee. A token on Nova is not on Arbitrum One, even though the address looks identical. ARB is the governance token, which exchanges list as an asset you can hold; it is not a network and it does not pay gas. Gas on Arbitrum One is paid in ETH.

Kraken's unified EVM deposit methods show how an exchange treats the family: one deposit address serves Ethereum, Arbitrum One, Arbitrum Nova, Optimism and Polygon, and the network you select decides where the funds are credited. The Arbitrum gas tracker shows what a transfer costs there right now.

6. OP Mainnet, Optimism and Base: which is which?

OP Mainnet is the network most people still call Optimism. The Optimism documentation names it OP Mainnet, chain ID 10, with OP Sepolia (11155420) as its testnet. OP is also the name of a token, and the network's gas is paid in ETH, not OP. An exchange that offers "Optimism" as a network for USDT is offering OP Mainnet.

Base is a separate network, chain ID 8453, with its own RPC endpoint at mainnet.base.org and its own explorer at basescan.org. The Base documentation describes it as "a standard EVM chain, so any Ethereum tool, wallet, or library works unchanged". Same 0x address, gas in ETH, but USDC on Base and USDC on OP Mainnet are different contracts, and an exchange that supports one does not automatically support the other: Kraken, for example, lists Base for USDC and not for USDT.

7. Polygon, Polygon PoS, MATIC and POL

Polygon PoS is, in the words of the Polygon documentation, "an EVM-compatible Proof-of-Stake sidechain for Ethereum", chain ID 137. Forms label it Polygon, Polygon PoS or, on older screens, MATIC. Since 4 September 2024 every transaction on it has paid gas in POL, which replaced MATIC one for one according to Polygon's migration announcement; the ChainGate gas tracker feed reports POL as its gas token today.

Polygon zkEVM, chain ID 1101, is a different chain, so "Polygon" on a form means PoS unless it says zkEVM. The Polygon gas tracker follows the PoS chain.

8. Avalanche C-Chain, X-Chain and P-Chain

Avalanche's Primary Network is three chains, and only one of them is what a withdrawal form means. The Avalanche documentation describes the X-Chain as the chain for Avalanche Native Tokens with fees in AVAX, the P-Chain as the one for validators and Avalanche L1s, and the C-Chain as "an implementation of the Ethereum Virtual Machine", chain ID 43114 (Fuji testnet 43113). Exchanges use the C-Chain: Kraken calls USDT's network Avalanche C-Chain and lists "AVAX (C-chain)" addresses starting with 0x.

The X-Chain and P-Chain use their own address formats, so an Avalanche withdrawal to a 0x address is a C-Chain transfer by definition, paid in AVAX. The Avalanche gas tracker shows the current cost.

9. Solana (SPL), TON and other non-EVM labels

SPL is the name of Solana's Token Program, which in its documentation "defines a common implementation for Fungible and Non Fungible tokens". A token type is a mint, balances sit in token accounts, and those accounts are linked to your wallet address. On a form, Solana, SOL or SPL all mean the Solana network: base58 addresses of 32 to 44 characters with no fixed prefix, gas paid in SOL, and no relation to a 0x address.

The Open Network (TON) and the XRP Ledger appear in the same menus with their own address formats and, on most exchanges, a memo or destination tag that identifies your account. The withdrawal address guide covers what happens when the memo is missing.

10. Why one address appears under ERC20, BEP20, Arbitrum and Polygon

Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Arbitrum One, OP Mainnet, Base, Polygon PoS and Avalanche C-Chain all run the Ethereum Virtual Machine, and an EVM address is derived from your private key, so one wallet shows one 0x address on every one of them. The EVM wallet address guide explains the mechanism.

Exchanges rely on it. Kraken's unified EVM deposits share one deposit address across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism and Polygon: generate a USDT address on Ethereum and the same address is available for USDC and the other unified methods. The network you pick decides which ledger the exchange watches for the funds.

That is also why the label matters more than the address. Right address on the wrong EVM network means the coins sit on another chain: a self-custody wallet can usually reach them by switching network, an exchange deposit address may not. A 0x address sent to Tron or Solana fails the format check or, if a service lets it through, is lost. The withdrawal address guide goes through each outcome.

11. The networks behind the labels right now

The table pairs each EVM label with its network, chain ID and gas token, and adds two live figures from the ChainGate gas tracker: the network's current block time and what a plain native transfer costs at Normal speed.

Live figures for November 6, 2026. Exchange withdrawal fees are set separately and come on top.

In code the same rule applies: a network is identified by its chain ID, so the label on a form maps to a chainId, and one address string is valid on every EVM network you register:

import { ChainGate } from 'chaingate';

const cg = new ChainGate({ apiKey: process.env.CHAINGATE_API_KEY });

// "ERC20" on a form is Ethereum, chain ID 1; the SDK knows it by name
const ethereum = cg.networks.ethereum;

// "BEP20" is BNB Smart Chain, chain ID 56: register it by chain ID and RPC URL
const bnbSmartChain = cg.networks.evmRpc({
  rpcUrl: 'https://bsc-dataseed.binance.org',
  chainId: 56,
  name: 'BNB Smart Chain (BEP20)',
  symbol: 'BNB',
});

// "Base" is chain ID 8453, with the RPC endpoint from the Base docs
const base = cg.networks.evmRpc({
  rpcUrl: 'https://mainnet.base.org',
  chainId: 8453,
  name: 'Base',
  symbol: 'ETH',
});

// One address string is valid on every EVM network; the chain ID says where the funds go
const address = '0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045';
ethereum.isValidAddress(address);      // true
bnbSmartChain.isValidAddress(address); // true
base.isValidAddress(address);          // true

The address validation documentation lists the networks the SDK knows by name.

12. Where to go from here

The label is the ledger. From here, the withdrawal address guide covers the rest of the form, the EVM chain ID list has the ID of every network and testnet, the EVM wallet address guide explains the shared 0x address, and the gas tracker compares what sending costs on each network right now. If you are building a platform that validates addresses and sends on Bitcoin, Ethereum and the other EVM networks from one SDK, ChainGate does that.

Frequently asked questions