Ethereum Receipt

What’s on an Ethereum Transaction Record

• The transaction hash — the unique ID, verifiable on Etherscan

• From and to wallet addresses (the 0x… addresses)

• The amount of ETH or the token and quantity moved

• The gas fee paid, shown in gwei and in ETH

• Block number and timestamp, and confirmation status

• The transaction type — a transfer, a token send, or a contract interaction

• USD value at the time, if recorded by your wallet or exchange

Gas, Gwei, and EIP-1559 Fees

Every Ethereum transaction costs gas — the fee paid to validators to process it — and reading it is the key to an ETH receipt. Gas is priced in gwei (one gwei is a billionth of an ETH), and the total fee is the gas used × gas price. Since the EIP-1559 upgrade, that price splits into a base fee (which is burned, removing ETH from supply) and a priority fee or tip to the validator. Fees rise and fall with network congestion, which is why the same transfer can cost a little at a quiet hour and a lot during a busy one. Since the Merge, Ethereum runs on proof-of-stake, so those fees go to stakers rather than miners. The gas line is genuinely useful on a receipt: it’s the real cost of the transaction beyond the amount you sent, and it matters for cost-basis records.

ETH, ERC-20 Tokens, and Smart Contracts

Ethereum isn’t just ETH. Most tokens you hold — stablecoins like USDC and USDT, and thousands of others — are ERC-20 tokens that live on Ethereum, and here’s the catch that surprises people: moving a token still costs ETH gas, because the network charges in its native coin regardless of what you’re transferring. So a receipt for sending USDC shows a USDC amount but an ETH fee. Interacting with a smart contract — a swap on a decentralized exchange, an approval, minting an NFT — is also a transaction with its own gas, and often an approval step precedes a swap, meaning two fees. Each of these appears as a distinct transaction on Etherscan with its own hash. Understanding that tokens and contract actions all settle as gas-paying ETH transactions is what makes an Ethereum history legible.

The Blockchain Is the Receipt — Verification and Taxes

The strongest proof of an Ethereum transaction is the transaction hash on Etherscan: anyone can look it up and see the addresses, amount, gas, and confirmations, permanently and publicly. That makes a self-made PDF weaker than the on-chain record — the hash is the authoritative receipt. For taxes, this matters because crypto is property in the US: disposing of ETH or a token (selling, swapping, spending) is a taxable event with a gain or loss, and gas fees can affect cost basis and proceeds. Exchanges and wallets export transaction histories with USD values for reporting, but the on-chain hash is the granular backup behind each line. Keeping your transaction IDs — or an exported history keyed to them — is how you substantiate a crypto tax position, since every entry can be independently verified on the blockchain.

Related crypto records: the same on-chain principles run across the ecosystem — see our Bitcoin receipt guide for the original blockchain ledger, and the staking reward receipt guide for how proof-of-stake income is taxed.