I transferred IoTex from crypto.com exchange to Coinbase.com exchange. The coins never arrived to Coinbase. After checking around it seems that the coins were sent via the IoTex system and Coinbase indicates it must be transferred via the etherem system. Could someone assist me in recovering my IoTex from the IoTex system?
Hi deborahmwilson,
Thank you for writing in.
Unfortunately, when you make a token transfer/withdrawal, it’s not the recipient address that determines the destination network, rather the tokens never leave the network where they currently are: you simply transfer the ownership of those tokens to the recipient address, on the same network where the tokens already are.
Now, if you used ioPay, crypto.com, Metamask (connected to IoTeX), then you were dealing with IOTX tokens on the IoTeX blockchain, and you transferred them to the recipient address on the IoTeX Blockchain itself. If you sent to Coinbase (or any other ERC20 deposit address), your IOTX will not show up in your deposit address, because they are on the IoTeX blockchain while the recipient was waiting on a different blockchain(Ethereum).
Please sonic that you may also see a “different” recipient address in https://iotexscan.io if you check your transaction: that does not mean your tokens have been re-routed to a different recipient, simply that’s the IoTeX native representation of the recipient address, but that’s the exact same recipient address you input in your transaction.
In fact, in iotexscan.io you can switch the address representation to the “0x” format in the top right of the menu bar and you’ll see that’s the same address:
So, in the future, when you make any token transfer before you confirm the transaction, you must always ask yourself two things:
- what network the tokens I’m sending are on? and
- what network the recipient expects the tokens to be on?
Only if these two networks match you can safely make the transfer. If they don’t match, notice that the transfer always happens, but because the tokens are in a different blockchain the recipient will not “see” them.
This important “network check” is often overlooked by inexperienced blockchain users, and most times it ends up with a loss of funds: in fact, your funds are now owned by the deposit address of the exchange (for which you don’t have the private key) on the IoTeX blockchain (which the exchange does not support for that deposit address), so basically, you lost access to the tokens.
Technically the exchange could send them back, in practice none of them provides this service. If you sent to Coinbase, we can only hope that they will support the IoTeX Blockchain in the future and you will get access to your tokens on their platform in the future.
We are always available in our community channels to provide help: if you are unsure about any IoTeX-related operation before you go ahead, please ask a brand ambassador in our Telegram: https://t.me/iotexgroup, or send an email to support@iotex.io, or post in our support forum on https://community.iotex.io/c/ecosystem/support/62
Best,
IoTeX Support Team
1 Like
Same thing happened to me and neither Crypto.com nor coinbase will help me with sending them back. It’s B.S. they use a different block chains and don’t tell anyone then they refuse to help. I can see the tokens on the block chains but don’t know how to access it