Did you make a crypto deposit to the card and the amount received was much lower than what was sent from the other wallet?
In most cases, this happens because the money had to cross different networks and was “eaten” by fees along the way.
1. What Happened Behind the Scenes
When you send a crypto other than USDC.e through a network other than Gnosis, the system needs to do something more complex than a simple “send to another address”:
- Move the amount on the origin network (e.g., leaving the Base network).
- Pass through a cross-network bridge (to leave Base and reach Gnosis).
- Convert the token, if necessary, to the format used by the card (e.g., from USDC to USDC.e).
- Pay network fees (gas) and fees for services/“bridges” involved at each step.
All these steps charge crypto fees, and these fees are deducted from the amount you are sending.
2. Why Did the Amount Drop So Much?
In such operations, you basically pay three types of costs:
-
Network fee (gas)
- Charged on each network where the transaction runs (e.g., Base and Gnosis).
- Used to pay validators/miners who process your transactions.
-
Cross-network bridge fee
- It's the “toll” to transport your balance from one network to another.
-
Conversion/swap fees
- When the system needs to swap the token or adjust formats (USDC ↔ USDC.e), there may be minor fees and small conversion losses.
The most important point:
A large part of these fees is practically fixed.
They cost almost the same whether you send 5 USDC or 500 USDC.
Therefore, when you send a low amount, the “toll” is almost entirely paid with the amount sent — and very little may remain on the card.
Hypothetical example:
- Sent: 5 USDC on the Base network.
- After all network + bridge + conversion fees,
- Remaining: 0.90 USDC.e on the Gnosis network in the card balance.
In other words: most of it was used to pay fees, it wasn't a calculation error by the card. If the amount sent was 500 USDC, the amount received would be 495.9 USDC.e (without significant capital loss).
3. How to Prevent This from Happening Again
Some good practices for crypto deposits on the card:
-
Avoid very small amounts in cross-network operations
Since fees have an almost fixed component, very low amounts end up being almost entirely consumed by costs. -
Whenever possible, use the correct network from the start
The card uses balance on a specific network (Gnosis), so it's worth having the balance on this network before sending. -
Prefer simpler routes
Whenever it's not essential to use cross-network crypto, it may be more efficient to:- Deposit via traditional methods (Pix)
- Use Picnic's options to convert cryptos before loading the card, which removes some of the transaction complexity.
4. What Picnic Can Do
- Help you understand where the amount was spent on fees.
- Guide you on more efficient ways to make future deposits.
5. What Picnic Cannot Do
- Refund network (gas) fees or fees from bridges/external providers.
- Cancel or reverse transactions already confirmed on the blockchain.
In summary: Picnic can explain and guide, but cannot recover what was paid in fees to the network or external services.
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