Why is my bitcoin pending on PayPal or Venmo?

Find out which kind of pending it is

PayPal and Venmo run their crypto through the same company, PayPal Digital, under the same terms, so pending means the same in both apps. A bitcoin payment sent to an outside wallet, or received from one, is pending until the Bitcoin network confirms it, and that you can look up. A payment sent to another PayPal or Venmo user never goes on the network, and bitcoin you bought by bank transfer can’t be sent until the bank payment clears, so there is nothing to look up for those.

If you sent it to an outside wallet, look it up

PayPal says transfers on the blockchain usually take around 2 hours. Venmo says a few minutes to a few hours, and shows an estimated time when you send. Until the network confirms it, the transfer shows as pending, and the terms say PayPal will tell you if it wasn’t sent to the network at all. To look it up, you need its transaction hash, which is the transaction ID. Venmo puts it in the confirmation email. PayPal shows it in the transfer’s details under Activity once the transfer is complete. Paste it into UTXOHub’s search: the payment’s page says whether it is waiting for a block or confirmed and, if it is waiting, roughly when it will probably confirm.

• No transaction hash yet means the payment may not be on the network. The terms say a transfer can be delayed while PayPal checks that you authorised it.
• Confirmed in PayPal or Venmo but not yet in the other wallet: the terms say the recipient’s wallet may wait for more confirmations before it shows the payment.

If you sent it to a PayPal or Venmo user

Sending bitcoin to another PayPal or Venmo account stays inside PayPal, has no network fee and never appears on the blockchain. If it shows as pending, the recipient hasn’t set up crypto or verified their identity yet. They have 30 days to do it, and if they don’t, the bitcoin comes back to you. PayPal says there is no way to cancel or reverse it before then.

If bitcoin sent to you is pending

Bitcoin sent to your PayPal or Venmo address shows as pending until the network confirms it, and PayPal needs several confirmations before it accepts the payment. The sender chose the fee, and the terms say PayPal can’t help if it was too low, so ask the sender for the transaction ID and look it up, or paste your address into UTXOHub’s search. After it confirms, PayPal checks the payment for risk and sanctions before adding it to your balance. If it places a risk hold, the bitcoin shows as unavailable or pending and PayPal tells you in the app, by phone or by email. The terms say these holds generally last up to 21 days and can last up to 180.

• Find your address under Receive: on PayPal, the Finances tab, your crypto balance, then the transfer arrows; on Venmo, the Crypto tab, then the transfer arrows.
• You get a new address each time. Both apps say older addresses still receive, but give the sender the newest.
• Send only bitcoin to a bitcoin address. PayPal says crypto sent to the wrong address type, such as Bitcoin Cash, is lost.

If you can’t send bitcoin you just bought

PayPal says bitcoin bought by bank transfer may take several days to clear before you can send it, while bitcoin bought with a debit card can be sent straight away. Venmo says that to send bitcoin you just bought, it may have to wait for the payment to settle, and then releases it within seven days or emails you. Nothing has gone on the network yet, so no explorer can show it. PayPal also blocks crypto transfers when your account has a negative balance, and sends outside PayPal must be at least 0.001 BTC. Both apps allow up to $25,000 of crypto transfers a week.

You can’t cancel or speed up a bitcoin transfer

The terms say you can’t cancel, reverse or change a crypto transaction once you have authorised it, and that a transfer is irreversible even while it is still pending. PayPal charges you its estimate of the network fee before you send, and its help describes no way to raise the fee afterwards. If you sent bitcoin to the wrong address, PayPal says to ask the owner to return it. PayPal’s Purchase Protection doesn’t cover crypto transfers.

Don’t pay anyone to speed it up

Posts about a pending payment attract people offering to speed it up or recover it. PayPal says that anyone posing as its customer service who asks for your password or two-step verification code, a “test” payment, or to install software is never genuine, and that you should never send money to a crypto wallet named in an invoice or money request. Contact PayPal or Venmo only from the app or their own help centres.