Helping someone get their first bit of crypto feels like it should be simple. You already know how to send tokens on Base, they want in, and it seems like a matter of asking for an address and transferring something over. In practice, most of the mistakes that trip up a first time recipient happen before the transaction itself, in the setup around it. None of these steps take long, but skipping them is how people end up with funds they cannot access or never actually controlled in the first place.
Confirm it is actually their wallet
The address someone sends you is not proof that they control it. A common failure mode is a new user signing up for an exchange account, copying a deposit address from a page they have not fully verified, or asking a friend to "just make them a wallet" without ever seeing the recovery phrase themselves. If you send to an address like that, the recipient may not actually hold the keys, which means they do not actually hold the funds in the way they think they do.
Before sending anything meaningful, ask directly whether they set up the wallet themselves and backed up their own recovery phrase. If the honest answer is no, the better use of your time is walking them through creating a wallet properly first. Our guide on what self custody actually means is a good starting point if they want the short version of why this distinction matters.
Never ask to see or hold their seed phrase
It can feel helpful to offer to "set everything up" for a nervous first time user, but that should stop well short of writing down or viewing their recovery phrase yourself. Whoever has seen that phrase has the same control over the wallet as the person it belongs to, permanently, with no way to revoke that after the fact. The responsible version of helping is explaining how to generate and store the recovery phrase safely and then stepping out of the room, literally or figuratively, while they do it. If they want a backup beyond paper, our guide on encrypted cloud backups for a recovery phrase covers the tradeoffs of that approach.
Verify the address character by character
Crypto transfers do not have a recall button. Before sending, compare the full address, not just the first and last few characters, against what the recipient sent you, and have them confirm it back if the amount is significant. Our guide on checksum addresses and catching typos before you send explains how wallet software can catch some mistakes automatically, though it is not a substitute for actually checking. If something still goes wrong, what you can do after sending to the wrong address is worth reading, though the honest summary is that recovery is rarely guaranteed.
Make sure they have gas, not just the token you meant to send
A first time wallet with a token balance and nothing else is a common and avoidable problem. Every transaction on Base, including a simple transfer out, requires a small amount of ETH to pay the network fee. If you send someone a token without also covering their gas, they may end up holding a balance they cannot move at all. Our guide on how to get ETH on Base and the related piece on what to do if you are stuck with tokens but no ETH for gas both cover this, and it is worth sending a small amount of ETH alongside whatever else you are gifting, even if the main gift is a different token entirely. The mechanics of the transfer itself are covered in our guide to sending and receiving tokens on Base.
Start small, especially the first time
There is no reason to send a large amount on the very first transfer to a new wallet. Send a small test amount first, have the recipient confirm it arrived and that they can see it in their own wallet interface, and only then send the rest. This catches address mistakes, wallet setup problems, or confusion about which network they are using, while the cost of a mistake is still small.
Warn them about the scams that specifically target new users
People who just received their first crypto are a known target for scammers, partly because they are still learning what normal looks like. Two patterns are worth mentioning explicitly before they go looking for help online: fake customer support accounts that reply to public posts asking about wallet setup, and fake wallet apps uploaded to app stores or linked from search ads. Our guides on fake support and impersonation scams and spotting a fake wallet app are both short enough to send along as a first read. It is also worth telling them, early, that any token that shows up in their wallet unprompted deserves suspicion rather than excitement. Our guide to spotting scam tokens on Base explains why.
The short version
Confirm the recipient actually set up and controls their own wallet before you send anything. Never view or hold their recovery phrase for them. Double check the address, send a small amount first, and include enough ETH to cover gas alongside whatever token you are gifting. Then point them toward the specific scams that target people in their exact position, before they encounter one. A few extra minutes here is the difference between someone's first crypto experience being a good one and being an expensive lesson.