Why Are My Transaction Fees So High With a Hardware Wallet and How Do I Fix It?

This confused me a bit when I first started using hardware wallets and I still see people asking about it. So here is a plain explanation.

Most often, your hardware wallet does not set the transaction fee. The blockchain network does. The wallet is just the tool you use to sign and send the transaction. The fee goes to the network validators, not to the wallet company.

This matters because the same coin can be sent on completely different networks at completely different costs.

Take USDC as an example. Sending USDC on Ethereum mainnet might cost you $1 in fees depending on network congestion. Sending the exact same USDC on Arbitrum, Optimism or Base might cost you a few cents. Both arrive as USDC at the destination. The difference is purely which network you used to send it.

Some wallet companies add fees on sending transactions, but I don't think most do.

The problem is that some hardware wallets handle this better than others. Many of the bigger hardware wallet brands, like Ledger, mainly supports Ethereum mainnet for most altcoins by default. If you are sending frequently and always using Ethereum mainnet you are paying significantly more in transaction fees than you need to. Other wallets supports a wide range of networks natively, so you can choose a cheaper network for the same coin directly without extra setup. When doing hundreds of transactions over the years it becomes quite a meaningful amount saved in fees.

The fix if you are using a wallet that defaults to expensive networks is to connect it to MetaMask or another software wallet that supports multiple networks. It adds a few steps but opens up the cheaper options. Connecting your cold wallet to other browser wallets or defi sites does through come with additional risk.

More wallet guides in the community wiki.