After each purchase, your Bitcoin is held at a licensed and regulated Nevada-charted trust company, Prime Trust, in your name, with you as the sole legal owner.
Bitcoin withdrawals are free for Swan customers. When you confirm these Bitcoin withdrawals, the transaction is broadcast to the network at a fee rate that should get the transaction included in the next few Bitcoin blocks. Thus, your Bitcoin should be sent to your wallet within the next hour.
As a reminder, Bitcoin withdrawals do not send funds back to your bank or allow you to convert them into USD. Instead, they send your Bitcoin to a Bitcoin wallet. If you are interested in exchanging funds back for dollars, please contact us instead.
In order to withdraw your Bitcoin from Swan, you must set up two-factor authentication on your account. Read here for a guide for setting up two-factor authentication.
You are not required to withdraw your Bitcoin to your own wallet, but we do highly recommend learning how to use a Bitcoin wallet and withdrawing your coins for maximum security. If you're not comfortable setting up a wallet, take your time and do your research on wallets.
There are two factors that determine when your Bitcoin is available to withdraw:
1) Purchase Method - Depending on whether you purchased via ACH or via Wire, your Bitcoin will be available for withdrawal between 1-30 days. Please see the linked FAQ article here for more detail.
2) Custody Method - If you have never withdrawn Bitcoin, your Bitcoin resides in Prime Trust's cold storage wallets for extra security. As soon as you decide to withdraw Bitcoin for the first time, your Bitcoin is sent to a hot wallet at Prime Trust. That transition is processed manually and may take up to 72 hours. Thereafter, your Bitcoin is stored in hot wallets, so any succeeding withdrawal can be processed much more quickly.
You may withdraw from Swan to any standard Bitcoin public address type. Your addresses can begin with a "1", a "3", or Native SegWit addresses that start with "bc1."
If you are new to Bitcoin wallets and withdrawals, we recommend doing a smaller test withdrawal so that you get comfortable with how the process works.
For information on setting up a Bitcoin auto withdrawal plan please read here.