Direct wallet request
The email carries a destination and instructions. The payer builds or opens the request in a compatible wallet and approves it.
Core guide
How to send altcoins to email without confusing email with a wallet.
Use email to deliver a complete, verifiable payment request while keeping custody, network choice, wallet approval, and settlement visible.
Hosted payment link
A first-party page validates the invoice and hands a decoded transaction to the wallet. It should retain a plain-text fallback.
Custodial claim flow
A provider associates the email with an account or claim. The message must explain custody, enrollment, identity checks, expiration, and recovery.
The safe sequence
Separate identity, instructions, authorization, and settlement.
A convincing message is not proof. Each stage should answer a different question.
- Confirm the relationship. Is the request expected, and is the recipient verified through a channel already on file?
- Name the exact route. Specify token, network, contract when needed, destination, amount, reference, and expiration.
- Review the wallet instruction. Compare the decoded destination, asset, amount, network, function, and fee with the email.
- Record the result. Save the transaction identifier and issue a receipt after the confirmation threshold is met.
Do not skip
A first payment deserves a test.
For a new destination, unfamiliar network, or meaningful amount, send a small test after completing recipient verification. Ask the recipient to confirm the exact asset and network before sending the balance.
A test does not verify identity. An attacker can confirm a test sent to an attacker-controlled address. Identity and destination verification still come first.
Request anatomy
Every email should make seven facts easy to find.
Purpose
What invoice, order, project, gift, reimbursement, or payout is this?
Asset
Full name, symbol, and contract when a symbol alone is ambiguous.
Network
Full network name and chain identifier when useful.
Amount
Token units or fiat pricing basis, rate time, and expiration.
Destination
Complete address, required memo, and independent verification path.
Fees
Who pays them and whether the exact invoice amount must arrive.
Settlement
Confirmation target, late-payment rule, and receipt process.
Boundaries
No seed phrases, private keys, recovery codes, or automatic transfers.
Common mistakes
Most failures happen around the chain.
Wrong networks, look-alike tokens, expired quotes, exchange withdrawal deductions, compromised email threads, and incomplete records cause more practical trouble than the cryptography itself.
Use an approved asset list, a fixed email template, independent change verification, a wallet preview, and a receipt. Do not make the customer infer the network from a logo or assume that a symbol uniquely identifies a token.
Next guide
The long-form walkthrough adds recipient handoff, payment-link security, failure modes, and settlement details.
Read the complete safe workflow →Need the business record too?
Use the invoice guide to connect the email request to a durable reference, due date, pricing basis, confirmation policy, and receipt.