What does "Insufficient BTC at address X (Need approximately Y BTC.)" mean?

Sometimes when you want to Send BTC out of an address and click on the MAX button, but when you hit Send you get a message like this:

The likely reason is Counterwallet miscalculated the amount required to pay transaction costs. Sometimes Counterwallet leaves too small amount for transaction fee. This problem doesn’t always happen - if the bitcoin network is busy, transaction costs jump and make this problem more likely to manifest itself.

Another reason may be an issue with the client (Counterwallet or other). One example that has recently affecting only Counterwallet is the inability of the asset owner (usually the issuer) to change Asset Description to over 41 (and less than 53) single-byte characters. In that case you can try a 3rd party wallet provided it meets your usability and security requirements.

A simple solution is to manually lower the maximum amount suggested by Counterwallet and “leave” just enough for the transaction fee. How much is “just enough”? See the article about transaction costs linked in previous paragraph.

The bottom line is “transaction costs fluctuate”, so try lowering the amount by a small amount until it works.

##Example 1:

  • We have 2.42267145 at this (testnet) address mndnMzJuAqgHcGpCqBMH4Ehurb1FmnSzhA
  • Counterwallet suggests that the MAX amount of BTC that we can send out is 2.42247144 BTC
  • How much did Counterwallet leave for the transaction fee?
  • It left us (2.42267145 2.42247144)=0.00020001 BTC which may not be enough at present time (and this may be before dust amount required by Counterparty assets at the same address is deducted).

If we go along with Counterwallet’s suggestion, we get this Insufficient BTC at address... error which also tells us we need approximately 2.42274919 BTC at this address.

A simple solution is to lower the amount being sent by just a little until the amount left for the transaction fee is large enough, and then the transaction will go through.

To make this quick we’ll simply take the BTC amount we have at the address and deduct 0.00025 BTC which in recent weeks has been a sufficient transaction fee on mainnet: 2.42017145 - 0.00025 = 2.42017145.

Now we enter 2.42017145 BTC instead of the amount suggested by Counterwallet.

The transaction has been successfully broadcast to the network and its details can be found here. Screenshot below shows the notification and a pending balance after this transaction.

Done!

Notice how instead of “0.000229999 BTC remaining at this address” that Counterwallet pre-announced, the final unconfirmed balance seems off by a bit. That could be due to the fact that we have some Counterparty assets at this address, and each requires a dust amount of BTC.

We could have done better if we decreased the amount in smaller increments.

##Example 2:

You could also sweep the BTC from this address from another Bitcoin wallet (by providing it with the private key of the Counterwallet address that you want to send from).

Just to explain it the way I understand it.

This post mentioned about will change depending on when you look at it. The problem is the counter wallet does not tell you what they are setting is the low or the high network fee. So to get the correct answer and not pull your hair out this is what I suggest.

  1. get your max balance is what it is? let say it’s 0.06922832.
  2. Now select the Normal or Low fee from the drop-down.
  3. Provide your destination wallet address.
  4. Now make the transactions. You will get an error saying

Insufficient BTC at address XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. (Need approximately 0.07002961 BTC.). You must have a small amount of BTC in this address to pay the Bitcoin miner fees. Please fund this address and try again.

  1. now you take the Need approximately 0.07002961 BTC balance subtract your current max balance and you get to an answer that you need in your wallet to make the transaction

your balance = 0.06922832
required balance from the failed attempt = 0.07002961

gas = 0.07002961 - 0.06922832
gas = 0.00080129 ← this is the amount you need to leave in your wallet to get the funds out.

you will get
new_balnce = your_balance - gas
0.06842703 = 0.06922832 - 0.00080129

Hope this helps

What if there is BTC on the account, but still writes Insufficient BTC? can not be sent with any commission.

It’s not a “commission”, the only reason the sender needs BTC is to pay bitcoin miners (tx fee) because all Counterparty transactions are recorded on the bitcoin blockchain.

If there’s enough BTC at the address to pay for a transaction (say, more than 0.00005), it might be a bug in UTXO selection by Counterwallet, or something like that. You can test that by using one of alternative wallets which may not have the same issue. Not all alternative wallets support testnet, though.

For now at least a month, I CANNOT withdraw my FLDC coins from CounterParty.

I SENT a support ticket but NEVER GOT an answer.

I have 0.0007 BTC in my account, which should be enough to send with minimal transactions fees.

I eve lowered the amount of FLDC to withdraw, but I STILL GET this BORRING message
about not having enough BTC for the fees.

PLEASE HELP

I had the same issue and got it solved by sending 0.001 btc to my counterwallet.

The reason why your 0.0007 btc do not work is because it consists of maybe 14 tiny 0.00005340 btc which is called dust. If want to use these 14 tiny btc you also need 14 times the fee cause all adds up. The dust is created with each counterwallet transaction because it rides on the bitcoin network which needs a btc dust as minimum btc value.

Still counterwallet could give a hint that the current balance has too much dust and that is why the balance cannot be used for transaction fee.

Here is a solution how to redeem your 0.0007 btc from dust to usefull btc.

Maybe counterwallet could have such a dust redeem feature implemented.

Another option is to send some btc to counterwallet and then send all btc to another bitcoin address like electrum with low fee and then send all back with low fee. This consolidates all fragmented btc dust into one continues btc value. And so everything can be used again.

Or is it even possible to send everything from counterwallet to same counterwallet?

1 Like

Hallo,

also auf der Seite von counterwallet habe ich auch das selbe problem hier, also ich habe maximal 0,00165894 bitcoins auf der counterwallet bitcoin adresse, aber wenn ich es mir auszahlen lassen will bekomme ich diese meldung , "
Insufficient BTC at address 14nz13FxgUyJuzERrup7EB8abdSLryh161. (Need approximately 0.00205401 BTC.) . You must have a small amount of BTC in this address to pay the Bitcoin miner fees. Please fund this address and try again. "

Also es ist egal was ich da eingebe, auch wenn ich weniger bitcoins eingebe bekomme ich diese meldung, also ich weiß auch nicht was ich machen soll, denn ich habe geld auf das bitcoin wallet und will es mir auszahlen lassen, aber es funktioniert nicht und es wäre nett wenn man das überprüft und mir bescheid gibt wie ich mir die bitcoins auszahlen lassen soll. und da sollte der support hier mal antworten weil da stimmt etwas nicht auf der webseite oder ob das eine störung ist . und soll ich hier auf englisch oder auf deutsch schreiben und danke für ihre antworten.

Viele Grüße

Stever

Hello,

so I asked is that an english speaking forum and I have still that issue that I can not withdraw the amoun from the counterwallet accoun, not sure what to do, is there any support who can explain how that works out cause I stil get that message that " Insufficient BTC at address 14nz13FxgUyJuzERrup7EB8abdSLryh161. (Need approximately 0.00205401 BTC.) . You must have a small amount of BTC in this address to pay the Bitcoin miner fees. Please fund this address and try again. "

it doesnt matter which amount I write in there, it doesnt work, and still the same message so there is something wrong in the system and thanks for your answers.

Best regards

Stever

Bitcoin transactions require a fee paid to the miners. This fee is based on the size of the transaction. Each bitcoin transaction has inputs and outputs. In this case, you have 0.00205401 BTC in your address, but that bitcoin balance is spread out among a bunch of different Unspent Transaction Outputs (UTXOs) or “Outputs” from previous transactions.

You can see a list of your utxos at :
http://xchain.io/api/utxos/14nz13FxgUyJuzERrup7EB8abdSLryh161

When Counterparty is trying to make your transaction, it puts UTXOs into the transaction until it can make up the send and fee amounts. In your case, since you have so many UTXOs, the transaction size is larger, which would require a larger transaction fee.

If your just looking to move all your BTC to a new address, you might want to try exporting the private key for your address and then importing or sweeping it into a wallet like https://electrum.org/ where you have more control over exactly what UTXOS your using and how much your paying in tx fees.

Hello,

and thanks for your explanation. no, I have altogether 0,00165894 bitcoins on the counterwallet bitcoin address and this is exactly what I wanted to do, I wanted to withdraw all the amount to the electrum bitcoin address. , so I have already an electrum bitcoin address and how to export the private key and import it to the electrum wallet, maybe it sounds complicated but in the end will there remain some bitcoins in the counterwallet address for the fees or can I withdraw or export all of the bitcoins and thanks for your answers.

Best regards

Stever

Every bitcoin transaction must pay a transaction fee. You can not move all your BTC without paying a transaction fee.