What Is Segregated Witness (SegWit)

Binance supports using Segregated Witness (SegWit) to withdraw Bitcoin to SegWit (bech32) addresses.

What is SegWit?

SegWit is an improvement over the current bitcoin blockchain, which reduces the size needed to store transactions in a block. By separating the transaction signatures from bitcoin transactions, SegWit allows more transactions to fit within one block to support smoother and quicker Bitcoin transactions.

To learn more about SegWit, please refer to the Binance Academy’s article: A Beginner’s Guide to SegWit.

How to use SegWit to withdraw BTC?

When you choose Bitcoin SegWit (under the BTC network) to withdraw your BTC, make sure the corresponding platform or wallet supports SegWit. If you choose an unsupported network or incompatible assets, your funds may be lost and cannot be recovered.

To learn more about how to deposit or withdraw funds, you may refer to the tutorial.

You should choose the correct network when you transfer the funds. Not all wallets and exchanges support all 3 addresses.

• Bitcoin Legacy address (P2pKH): After SegWit was introduced to the community, the original Bitcoin addresses were called “Legacy”. These addresses start with “1”.
• SegWit or nested SegWit addresses (P2SH): These are multi-purpose addresses that support both non-SegWit and SegWit transactions. These addresses start with “3”.
• Native Segwit (bech32): The native Segwit address starts with “bc1”. These addresses include only lowercase letters for better readability.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can I use the SegWit address to send BTC from Binance to the original Bitcoin addresses?

Yes. SegWit is backward compatible with previous Bitcoin addresses. You can safely send transactions to any external Bitcoin address or wallet. However, make sure the corresponding exchange or wallet supports SegWit(bech32). If you choose an unsupported network or incompatible assets, your funds will be lost.

2. Does SegWit allow me to send other assets besides Bitcoin to my BTC SegWit address?

No. Digital assets sent to the wrong currency address will result in the permanent loss of those assets.