eth_getBalance

Returns the balance of a given address on Moonriver.

Why Moonriver? Build on the Moonbeam canary network on Kusama for real-world testing of EVM dApps with Moonbeam code ships here first, full EVM compatibility on Kusama, 80% fee burn mechanism, and XCM cross-chain messaging.

Use Cases

The eth_getBalance method is essential for:

• Wallet applications - Display user balances
• Transaction validation - Check if account has sufficient funds
• DeFi applications - Monitor collateral and liquidity for production-grade dApp testing, early feature deployment, and Kusama-based EVM applications
• Account monitoring - Track balance changes over time

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
address	DATA	Yes	20-byte address to check balance for
blockParameter	QUANTITY|TAG	Yes	Block number in hex, or "latest", "earliest", "pending", "safe", "finalized"

Request

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "eth_getBalance",
  "params": [
    "5GrwvaEF5zXb26Fz9rcQpDWS57CtERHpNehXCPcNoHGKutQY",
    "latest"
  ],
  "id": 1
}

Returns

Type	Description
QUANTITY	Integer of the current balance in wei (hexadecimal)

Note: 1 native token = 10^18 wei. Convert using balance / 10^18.

Response

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "result": "0x1a055690d9db80000"
}

Code Examples

cURL

curl -X POST  \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "eth_getBalance",
    "params": [
      "5GrwvaEF5zXb26Fz9rcQpDWS57CtERHpNehXCPcNoHGKutQY",
      "latest"
    ],
    "id": 1
  }'

JavaScript

import { JsonRpcProvider, formatEther } from 'ethers';

const provider = new JsonRpcProvider('');

const address = '5GrwvaEF5zXb26Fz9rcQpDWS57CtERHpNehXCPcNoHGKutQY';
const balanceWei = await provider.getBalance(address);
const balance = formatEther(balanceWei);

console.log(`Balance: ${balance}`);

// Get balance at specific block
const historicalBalance = await provider.getBalance(address, 1000000);
console.log(`Historical balance: ${formatEther(historicalBalance)}`);

Python

from web3 import Web3

w3 = Web3(Web3.HTTPProvider(''))

address = '5GrwvaEF5zXb26Fz9rcQpDWS57CtERHpNehXCPcNoHGKutQY'
balance_wei = w3.eth.get_balance(address)
balance = w3.from_wei(balance_wei, 'ether')

print(f'Balance: {balance}')

# Get balance at specific block
historical_balance = w3.eth.get_balance(address, block_identifier=1000000)
print(f'Historical balance: {w3.from_wei(historical_balance, "ether")}')

Go

package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"
    "log"
    "math/big"

    "github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/common"
    "github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/ethclient"
)

func main() {
    client, err := ethclient.Dial("")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    address := common.HexToAddress("5GrwvaEF5zXb26Fz9rcQpDWS57CtERHpNehXCPcNoHGKutQY")
    balance, err := client.BalanceAt(context.Background(), address, nil)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    // Convert to ether
    fbalance := new(big.Float).SetInt(balance)
    ethValue := new(big.Float).Quo(fbalance, big.NewFloat(1e18))

    fmt.Printf("Balance: %f\n", ethValue)
}

Error Handling

Error Code	Message	Description
-32602	Invalid params	Invalid address format or block parameter
-32000	Execution error	Node execution error

Related Methods

• eth_getCode - Get contract bytecode
• eth_getTransactionCount - Get account nonce