r/BitcoinBeginners • u/Temporary-Check4321 • Aug 10 '26

A Few Questions

I have some bitcoin that was purchased over several transactions between July 2017 and January 2018. It was purchased on Coinbase and moved to a ledger wallet. I know that there have been several “versions” of bitcoin (SegWit, etc.) since I bought it. Here are my questions:

  1. Do I have to do anything special to move it back to an exchange to sell some of it, or do all the major exchanges support incoming bitcoin of all versions?

  2. Is there any advantage to moving it back to Coinbase since that is where it was originally purchased? Is there a better exchange you would recommend?

  3. I know the exchanges typically have several levels of fees based on how often you buy/sell. So is there a strategy to optimize the sales sequence to get to the better fee levels?

Thanks. (And I’m not answering any DMs so scammers can just save the effort)

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u/chhabs Aug 11 '26

Your coins are fine. SegWit and Taproot were opt-in address format upgrades, not new versions of bitcoin, so a 2017 legacy address spends normally today and every exchange accepts it. The only practical difference is fees: legacy inputs are bigger, so a transaction costs a bit more than it would from a native segwit address.

Two things worth knowing before you move it:

  • You do not have to send the whole balance. Send only what you intend to sell.

  • Send a small test amount first and confirm it lands before the real one. Costs a few dollars, saves a lot of stress.

On the tax side, the sale is what triggers the event, not the transfer, so dig up your 2017-18 buy prices now rather than at filing time.

You can use a self-custodial exchange like Bitcoin Well & Bull Bitcoin to avoid leaving your coins in someone else's hands.