A network fee is the fee that comes with every transaction on a blockchain. On the Bitcoin network it goes to the miners who create new blocks. On Ethereum it is split in two: the base fee is burned, and validators receive the tip paid on top. The fee is paid to the network itself, not to a bank or company.
What decides the amount?
Space in each BlockBlockA batch of transactions added to a blockchain in one go, together with a reference to the block before it. is limited. When many people want to send at once, they bid for that space and fees rise. When things are quiet, fees fall again. It works like an auction where the highest bids get in first.
The amount you send usually makes no difference. On Bitcoin the fee depends on the size of the transaction in bytes and is quoted in satoshisSatoshi (sats)The smallest unit of bitcoin: one satoshi is one hundred-millionth of a bitcoin, or 0.00000001 BTC. per virtual byte (sat/vB). On Ethereum it is calculated in GasGasThe unit that measures the computing work a transaction or smart contract needs on Ethereum, which sets how high the network fee is.. So sending ISK 1,000 costs the same as sending ISK 1 million, if the transactions are the same size.
An example
Fees can swing a lot. When the Bitcoin HalvingHalvingThe event roughly every four years when the number of new bitcoin that miners receive for each block is cut in half. took place on 20 April 2024, an unusual number of people competed to get into block 840,000, the block where it took effect. The fees in that single block came to about 37.6 bitcoin, roughly twelve times the 3.125 newly created bitcoin it carried. On an ordinary day, fees are a small fraction of that.
What to keep in mind
When you withdraw crypto from an exchange to your own wallet, you usually pay a network fee. If you set the fee too low in your own wallet, the transaction can sit unconfirmed for a long time.
Everything in Myntkaup Learn is written and regularly reviewed by the Myntkaup editorial team. It is for education and is not investment advice. Editorial policy. Updated 18 October 2026.