⚡Fast Withdrawals

Withdrawals on Vertex occur when a user initiates a withdrawal from their Vertex account to an external wallet.

The Vertex sequencer submits transactions on-chain in batches, determined by the order in which they were received and executed by users -- including withdrawals.

Vertex minimizes user fees by sending transactions on Arbitrum when gas fees are low. All actions on Vertex still happen instantaneously and are non-custodial, but withdrawals can take up to 30 minutes or longer during high gas periods.

The 30-minute time-frame is the targeted maximum that a withdrawal will typically remain pending, as Vertex usually submits the transaction on-chain to Arbitrum after this time automatically.

At minimum, the sequencer adds a 110-second delay to submit pending transactions on-chain to Arbitrum to avoid signature reuse. Withdrawn funds are delivered to the user’s destination wallet when a withdrawal transaction is submitted on-chain. In normal cases, where Arbitrum gas fees are nominal, a delay of a few minutes is expected until withdrawn funds populate in the user’s wallet.

During periods of network congestion, volatile market activity, or high gas prices, a backlog of withdrawal transactions can develop. The sequencer will continue to process and submit transactions to Arbitrum during this period, just at a slower rate than usual.

That was before the release of fast withdrawals!

Introducing Fast Withdrawals

The fast withdrawal feature enables users to receive funds within seconds of submitting a withdrawal request. Basically, users can initiate fast withdrawals to skip the gas backlog and withdraw funds to their wallet almost immediately.

The new feature is powered by a liquidity pool that can send assets to users that are withdrawing their funds before the transaction is submitted by the sequencer on-chain. Later, when the transaction is submitted in the standard first-come-first-serve order by the sequencer to Arbitrum, the user's original funds are used to refill the pool.

Fast withdrawals are charged a higher fee than normal withdrawals as a result. The fast withdrawal fee is calculated as:

normal_withdraw_fee + max(5 * normal_withdraw_fee, 0.1% * withdraw_amount)

To track the status of your withdrawal, visit the Portfolio page's 'Account History' section of the Vertex app.

How to Initiate a Fast Withdrawal

To initiate a fast withdrawal, start by initiating a normal withdrawal. Next:

→ Navigate to the ‘History’ tab of the ‘Portfolio’ page.

→ Click on the ‘Fast Withdraw’ button next to the ‘Processing’ status of the pending withdrawal.

→ Upon clicking the ‘Fast Withdraw’ button, you will be presented with the dialogue box below.

→ Click on the ‘Submit Fast Withdraw’ button at the bottom of the dialogue box.

→ Once successfully submitted, you will see the box below.

Your fast withdrawal is complete!

To verify the status of your fast withdrawal request, you can view the list of withdrawal statuses in the ‘History’ tab of the ‘Portfolio’ page. If the withdrawal status displays ‘Confirmed’ you will see the funds populate in your wallet shortly.

What if my Fast Withdrawal is Unsuccessful?

If you submit a fast withdrawal and your funds do not shortly arrive in your wallet, make sure to check the status of your withdrawal in the ‘History’ tab of the ‘Portfolio’ page.

If the status still shows ‘Processing’ in yellow next to your withdrawal, then it’s likely due to low liquidity for that asset in the corresponding fast withdrawal liquidity pool.

Users will see the following red error box in the bottom-right corner of the ‘Portfolio’ page if their fast withdrawal was unsuccessful.

If your fast withdrawal fails due to low liquidity for that asset, you will not be charged the fast withdrawal fee and users can still process their withdrawals normally.