How to deposit on Stake with Bitcoin

A Stake Bitcoin deposit is a normal on-chain BTC transfer: you send coins from your own wallet or an exchange to the address Stake shows in your cashier, and the balance appears once the Bitcoin network has confirmed the transaction. There is no card form, no bank reference and no deposit fee charged by Stake itself.

Bitcoin is the coin every wallet and exchange supports, which is why many players start with it. It is also the slowest and, when the network is busy, the most expensive of the popular options. If you mainly make small deposits, read the Litecoin guide or the USDT guide too before you decide.

Before anything else, make sure you are on a genuine Stake address. If the main domain is blocked or slow on your network, the live mirror list shows working addresses with response times measured from your browser. Mirrors only help when a working address is blocked or slow on your connection; you still have to follow local law and Stake's terms.

1. Log in to your Stake account and click Wallet in the top bar, then the Deposit tab.
2. Choose Bitcoin (BTC) from the currency list. Stake generates a BTC deposit address tied to your account.
3. Copy the address with the copy button, or scan the QR code with your phone wallet. Do not retype it by hand.
4. Open your wallet or exchange and choose Send or Withdraw. Select Bitcoin, and if the exchange asks for a network, choose Bitcoin (BTC) — not BEP-20, not Lightning, not a wrapped version.
5. Paste the address and check the first and last four or five characters against the Stake cashier.
6. Enter the amount. Remember that exchanges usually take their withdrawal fee from this figure, so the amount that arrives can be slightly lower than the amount you type.
7. Pick a fee if your wallet lets you. A higher fee gets you into a block sooner; a low fee can leave the transaction waiting for hours on a busy day.
8. Confirm and wait. Stake normally shows the deposit as pending once it sees the transaction, then credits it after the required number of network confirmations.

Your Stake deposit address is reusable: you can send to it again later, though it costs nothing to copy it fresh from the cashier each time and doing so protects you against an old or tampered note.

Stake does not charge you to deposit. What you do pay is the Bitcoin network fee, which goes to miners, and possibly an exchange withdrawal fee if you send from an exchange rather than a private wallet.

The network fee

Bitcoin fees are priced per unit of transaction size (satoshis per virtual byte), not as a percentage of the amount. Sending 0.001 BTC can cost the same as sending 1 BTC. That is why Bitcoin is relatively poor value for small deposits: a fee that is trivial on a large transfer can be a noticeable slice of a small one.

Fees rise and fall with demand. On a quiet weekend a low-priority transfer can be very cheap; during a price spike or a busy period for inscriptions and other on-chain activity, the same transfer can cost several times more. Most wallets show a low, medium and high option with an estimated wait. Medium is usually the sensible choice for a deposit.

The exchange fee

Exchanges often charge a flat Bitcoin withdrawal fee that does not track the live network rate. Check the figure on the withdrawal screen before you confirm. Some exchanges offer cheaper Bitcoin routes over other chains — avoid these for Stake, because Stake's BTC address only accepts native Bitcoin.

A Bitcoin block is found roughly every ten minutes on average, but that is an average: two blocks can arrive a minute apart, or forty minutes can pass with none. Your transaction is confirmed once a miner includes it in a block, and each further block adds another confirmation.

Stake credits a BTC deposit after the number of confirmations it requires, which the cashier shows. In practice most deposits sent with a reasonable fee credit within about an hour, and often much sooner. The common reasons a deposit takes longer:

• Low fee. The transaction sits in the mempool until fee pressure drops. You can check it on any block explorer by pasting the transaction ID.
• Exchange batching. Many exchanges hold withdrawals for a few minutes or more and send them in batches. The clock only starts when the exchange broadcasts.
• Exchange checks. A first withdrawal to a new address can trigger a security hold or an address-whitelisting delay on the exchange side.

If the transaction shows as confirmed on a block explorer and Stake still has not credited it after a reasonable time, contact Stake support with the transaction ID (TXID). Do not send the same amount again "to push it through".

Stuck transactions

If a wallet transfer is stuck with a fee that is far too low, some wallets let you speed it up with replace-by-fee (RBF) or child-pays-for-parent (CPFP). Exchanges control the fee themselves, so with an exchange withdrawal there is nothing to do but wait or ask the exchange.

You do not need to hold crypto before you start. There are two routes:

• Buy inside the cashier. Stake's wallet has a buy-crypto option that hands you over to third-party payment partners. You pay by card or another local method and the coins are delivered to your Stake address. Partners and available methods vary by country, and partners charge their own fees and run their own identity checks.
• Buy on an exchange and send. Buy BTC on a regulated exchange in your country, then withdraw it to your Stake deposit address using the steps above. This takes longer the first time because of exchange verification, but spreads are often lower.

If you are buying specifically to play, consider whether Bitcoin is the right coin. Buying a stablecoin such as USDT removes price movement while the money sits in your balance; Litecoin is cheaper and faster to move. The comparison table further down sums up the trade-offs.

Stake keeps a separate balance for each coin, and you withdraw from the balance you hold. If you deposited BTC and played in BTC, you withdraw BTC: open Wallet, choose Withdraw, select Bitcoin, paste the address of a wallet you control and enter the amount.

A few things to know:

• A withdrawal fee applies and is shown in the form before you confirm. It covers the on-chain transaction Stake sends.
• Send to an address you own. If you withdraw to an exchange, use the BTC address the exchange gives you for the Bitcoin network.
• Verification. Stake may ask for identity verification before or during a withdrawal, depending on amounts and your country. It is easier to complete this early than when you want your money.
• Price moves. BTC can change value between deposit and withdrawal. If you want to track your results in dollars, you can switch the balance display to fiat in Stake's settings, but your balance is still held in Bitcoin.

If you are unsure whether you hit a wagering requirement on an offer, check the bonus code guide before you request a withdrawal.

• Sending on the wrong network. Choosing BEP-20 "BTC", wrapped BTC on Ethereum or any other chain instead of native Bitcoin. These coins will not appear at a native Bitcoin address. Recovery, if possible at all, is at Stake's discretion and is not guaranteed.
• Sending over Lightning. Lightning invoices and on-chain addresses are different things. Unless the cashier specifically offers Lightning, send on-chain.
• Copying a stale or altered address. Clipboard-hijacking malware swaps a copied address for the attacker's. Always compare the start and end of the pasted address with the one on screen.
• Undershooting the minimum once the exchange fee is deducted.
• Choosing the lowest fee on a busy day and then panicking when the deposit takes hours.
• Depositing on a fake site. Phishing copies of Stake exist. Use the mirror list or read how to find a working Stake mirror rather than clicking addresses from ads or random messages.

Every coin Stake accepts has a different speed and fee profile. Bitcoin wins on availability and liquidity; it loses on cost for small transfers.

Times are typical ranges, not promises; network load and exchange processing both play a part. Fee figures change constantly, so compare live costs on your wallet's send screen.