What is a Bitcoin address, and can I reuse one?
An address is the string of letters and numbers someone needs to send you bitcoin. An old one still works, but a new one for each payment keeps your payments harder to link.
What a Bitcoin address is
A Bitcoin address tells someone where to send you bitcoin. Bitcoin.org calls it “the only information you need to provide for someone to pay you.” Your wallet makes it from keys only that wallet holds, so only your wallet can spend what is sent to it. It works a bit like an account number for receiving, with one difference: the blockchain is public, so anyone who has the address can see every payment to it and its balance. Nobody can take bitcoin out with the address alone.
What a Bitcoin address looks like
A Bitcoin address is usually 26 to 62 characters long and starts with 1, 3 or bc1. The start shows its type. Addresses starting with 1 or 3 are older formats, and capital and small letters count as different characters in them. Addresses starting with bc1q (SegWit) or bc1p are newer, use small letters only, and may be shown in capitals in a QR code. Any Bitcoin wallet that supports the type can send to it. A 64-character code of digits and the letters a to f is a transaction ID, not an address. A Lightning invoice starting with lnbc is for a different kind of payment, and an address starting with 0x belongs to another network, such as Ethereum.
- Starts with 1 (legacy)
- 15gjQioKHayHoe2GbUvmx4W4p1YQn8Nx4RThe original format. Capital and small letters differ.
- Starts with 3 (script)
- 35bCphwPtWfWzK77k7SFY1tYcPVLvyvEUmOften an older multisig or compatibility address.
- Starts with bc1q (SegWit)
- bc1qw508d6qejxtdg4y5r3zarvary0c5xw7kv8f3t4Small letters only. Usually cheaper to spend from than 1 or 3.
- Starts with bc1p
- bc1p0xlxvlhemja6c4dqv22uapctqupfhlxm9h8z3k2e72q4k9hcz7vqzk5jj0The newest type, from 2021. Small letters only.
How to get your own Bitcoin address
Open your wallet or app and choose Receive. In an exchange or payment app the button may say Deposit instead. It shows an address and a QR code. Copy the address, or let the sender scan the code, rather than typing it out. Most wallets show an address that hasn’t been paid yet each time you choose Receive, and the old ones still belong to your wallet. If you are moving bitcoin from an exchange, choose the Bitcoin network when you withdraw, so the address and the network match.
Where is my bitcoin address on Cash App?Can I reuse a Bitcoin address?
Yes, it still works. Bitcoin addresses don’t expire, and a payment to an address you used before arrives as long as your wallet still has its keys. But it is better to use a new address for each payment. Bitcoin.org advises: “To protect your privacy, you should use a new Bitcoin address each time you receive a new payment.” Anyone who knows an address is yours can see every payment to it and its balance, so reusing one links all of those payments together, and to you. A fresh address shows a sender only their own payment. A shop or service you pay may also give you a new address each time; use the one it shows now, not one saved from before.
What is address reuse, and why avoid it?Don’t make lots of addresses you never use
Wallets that follow BIP-44 find your payments by checking your addresses in order, and stop after 20 unused ones in a row. If you hand out more than 20 new addresses and only a later one gets paid, a wallet restored from your recovery words may not show that payment until it is told to look further, which some wallets let you do in their settings. So give out a new address when a payment is coming, not dozens in advance.
An address is not your whole wallet
One wallet can hold many addresses: the ones it gave out for receiving, and change addresses it uses when you send. Your wallet’s balance is the total across all of them. Looking up one address shows only the payments to and from that address, so its balance may be a small part of what your wallet holds. To show someone your whole wallet you would have to share its extended public key, which reveals every address in it, so keep that private.
How to read transaction outputs and changeCheck every character before you send
Addresses include a checksum, a few characters worked out from the rest, so a typo almost always makes the address invalid and the wallet refuses it. For a bc1q address, BIP-173 guarantees the checksum catches any mistake in up to four characters. What a checksum can’t catch is a different, valid address, such as one swapped in by malware or a rogue server. On 24 October 2026 Electrum warned that rogue servers could show its users a fake copy of a payment they had just sent. In the reported cases the fake paid an address made to match the last four characters of the real one, and speeding up the fake made the wallet sign a real payment to the attacker. Electrum 4.8.3 fixes it. So compare the whole address with the one you meant to pay, not just its start and end. A confirmed payment can’t be reversed.
Sent bitcoin to the wrong address?Look up any address on UTXOHub
Paste an address into UTXOHub’s search to see its confirmed balance, the payments it has received and sent, and whether each one is waiting or confirmed. You don’t need a transaction ID, and you don’t need to connect a wallet or sign in. That makes it a quick way to check whether a payment to your address has been sent, and how far it has got.
Open payment searchAn address can only receive. Giving it to someone never needs your recovery words, private keys or sign-in details.
References
- Bitcoin.org, “Some Bitcoin words you might hear”.
- BIP-173, “Base32 address format for native v0-16 witness outputs”.
- BIP-350, “Bech32m format for v1+ witness addresses”.
- Bitcoin.org, “Protect your privacy”.
- BIP-44, “Multi-Account Hierarchy for Deterministic Wallets (Address gap limit)”.
- Bitcoin.org, “Some things you need to know”.
- Electrum, “Malicious server can replace a just-broadcast tx and try to trick user into RBF-ing it (GHSA-6jp4-8v48-cc5v)”.