Follow the Money
Build the journey, then walk it one hop at a time. The gold coin is the value moving; the badge under each step says who holds it. At the end, a scorecard counts how many hops the money spent in each pair of hands.
What this shows, and what it leaves out
The journeys are illustrative composites, not recordings of real transactions. Each journey is assembled from a library of typical hops, routed by where you say the money starts and ends. They describe how custodial exchange accounts, self-custody wallets, smart contracts and public networks interact on Bitcoin, Ethereum and similar ledgers. Steps and terminology follow the public developer documentation: the Bitcoin developer guide on transaction broadcast and the memory pool and payment processing, and the ethereum.org documentation on transactions, smart contracts and bridges.
Fees are named, not quoted. Network fees move constantly; the live number is on our Fee Weather page. Exchange trading and withdrawal fees vary by venue and are published on each venue's own fee schedule. Pool, bridge and contract fees vary by protocol and are published in each protocol's own documentation. Bank transfer timing follows ordinary Canadian EFT and wire practice.
The tax note is descriptive, not advice. The Canada Revenue Agency describes when disposing of crypto assets is a taxable event in its published guidance. What applies to any one person depends on their situation and belongs with a qualified tax professional.
The DeFi and bridge journeys are simplified. A real swap can route through several pools, a real bridge trip can chain several networks, and every protocol has its own screens, approvals and token allowances that this page collapses into single hops. The custody picture at each hop is the point, not the button-by-button detail.
What this still omits: in-person cash trades, transfers between two exchanges, lending and borrowing beyond a simple position, stablecoin issuance and redemption, and layer-2 specifics. Those journeys have more hops, not fewer custody changes. Content last reviewed July 2026.