Recovering from a wallet transfer mistake

The mistake

You sent money from Binance to another wallet, but chose the wrong network.

There are many options when transferring money around wallets and it’s quite tempting to choose the cheapest option, but that isn’t always right.  This example is where someone sent some USDT from their Binance wallet to what they thought was their USDT Wallet using the Blockchain app.  The user sent the money using Binance Smart Chain (BSC), but Blockchain.com do not support BSC.

LUCKILY, the Blockchain app allows you to view your private keys and even more luckily BSC is just a copy of ETH, so those private keys can be imported into a wallet that does support BSC.

Step 1 : Confirm you can actually recover from your mistake.

This is a lot of messing around, so make sure that you meet the recovery criteria before messing around.

You MUST meet both these conditions:

1. You sent from Binance using BEP20 (BSC) to a ERC20 wallet.
2. You have access to the private keys of the destination wallet (if not you might be able to raise a support request with your wallet provider).

Step 2 : Find your private key for your destination wallet

Warning: Never give your private keys to anyone.  Do not email them.  Do not store them unencrypted on the internet.

Examples of wallets where you can get to your private keys.

Blockchain Wallet (from Blockchain.com or the Blockchain app)

Step 3 : Install Metamask wallet

You can install this as a browser plug-in or Mobile app for Apple or Android

Go through the set-up procedure, secure your recovery key and maybe view the tutorial.  Note that the recovery key is only for the new wallet that Metamask creates for you when you install the app.

Step 4 : Import your private key into Metamask wallet

When viewing your wallet, click/press the circle above “Account 1” that looks like it could be a profile picture.  Choose “Import an Account” and paste your private key from Step 2 into it and then click “IMPORT”.

Step 5 : Add Binance Smart Chain network to Metamask wallet

Press/click the menu button on the top left, press Settings, scroll down and pick “Networks”, choose “Add Network” and enter the following:

Network Name: Binance Smart Chain
New RPC URL: https://bsc-dataseed.binance.org/
ChainID: 56
Symbol: BNB
Block Explorer URL: https://bscscan.com

Then click Add.

Note: To switch between Ethereum Network and Binance Smart Chain – just click the top of the app, where it says “Wallet”, you might need to scroll down to see the Binance Smart Chain.

Step 6 : Make sure Metamask is pointing the Network and Wallet

Make sure that you are now using the right Network and the imported wallet (Account 2)

Click/press the very top of the Metamask app where it says “Wallet Ethereum Main Network”.  Scroll down and choose “Binance Smart Chain”

Click the menu button on the top left and click on “Account 1” and choose “Account 2”.

Step 7 : Add your missing coin to the BSC wallet on Metamask

At the bottom of the Metamask wallet, click “+ADD TOKENS”.  Search for the token that you are missing (eg. USDT) and then click “ADD TOKEN”.

You might need to restart Metamask in order to see your balance.

Step 8 : Now get it to where you wanted it

There are a number of ways to do this, but the easiest is to send it back to Binance.  In Binance, when you look for your Deposit address, make sure that you pick BEP20 (BSC).

After you have done this, send it to the right place using the network that BOTH wallets support.

NOTE: this was quite complicated to work out, so if this helps you and you would like to send me a tip my wallets are:

BTC
1Gxjf2crehcSDRQh4dUkGD4wcg8AartTqm

ETH (ERC20 or BEP20)
0x4471e4ab83069fd926ba418a1731766b4699e313

BNB (BEP2)
bnb136ns6lfw4zs5hg4n85vdthaad7hq5m4gtkgf23
Memo: 102292475