What is the recommended minimum deposit size for my vault?

We recommend at least 0.03 BTC per deposit to help avoid higher withdrawal fees.

Each deposit to a self-custody bitcoin wallet adds one UTXO (or "chunk of bitcoin") to that wallet. If the UTXO has a large value, then when it is spent, only a small percentage of the value will need to be used for transaction fees.

On the other hand, if the UTXO has a small value, a larger percentage of the value will need to be used for transaction fees. If bitcoin network fee rates are high and the UTXO is small enough, a majority of the value of the UTXO could be eaten up by fees. A UTXO like this is sometimes called "dust."

To prevent yourself from holding dust or experiencing high transaction fees, avoid making small deposits. Instead, deposit bitcoin less frequently and in larger amounts.

For an Unchained vault, we recommend making deposits of 0.03 BTC or more. If the average UTXO in your vault has a value above 0.03 BTC, you are less likely to experience high transaction fees from dust UTXOs.