How to Check Your Ethereum Wallet Balance and Transactions or view Tokens on your wallet with Etherscan

Etherscan

There are many ways to check the balance of your Ethereum wallet.  This guide will go over how to check it using Etherscan, which is an Ethereum block explorer.  If you want to check your balance using MyEtherWallet (MEW), check out my other post here.
Block explorers are basically interfaces that allow you to view the activity on a blockchain.  Most provide effortless ways to look up your account balances, transactions, and other pertinent information.  You do not need to create an account to use these, just plug in your wallet address and you should be good to go!

Steps to Check Your Balance

1. Go to Etherscan, link is here

2. Type in your wallet address in the search bar located at the top right and click “GO”

3. If you only have ETH you are done. You should see a screen like the below screenshot, which shows your ETH balance. Go to the next step to see how you view non-ETH tokens.

4. If you have more than ETH in your account, you should see a “View Tokens” box with a number in the corner of it. Click this to see all the non-ETH tokens in your wallet

NOTE: This is an exchange wallet, hence the massive number of tokens.  “View Tokens” will not always show the name of the token.  If a token is newer and the contract has not been verified, you may see the contract address instead of the name.  However, you will still see the token symbol (LINK, CVC, CND, etc.).  Balances are also not always available, so you may not see balances for every token in your wallet. 

Transactions

Transactions can be broken up into 3 categories.  ‘General’ transactions, Internal Transactions, and Token Transfers.  Each one of these types can be seen from the account screen on Etherscan.  Note that the screenshots below are from a smart contract, so you will see a couple of extra tabs.  The transaction information is the same between this and a wallet address though.  Some details on each tab are below.

• General Transactions – Any basic transfer from or to your wallet, as well as signing transactions, will be listed on this tab.  Non-ETH value transfers will not show here though, that will be on the “Token Transfers” tab.  Clicking the blue address under the “From” or “To” column will take you to that account’s page.  You can also see what block the transaction was included in, as well as the TX hash.  If you see a red exclamation beside the Tx Hash it means the transaction failed.  Hovering over it will display the reason for failure.  

• Internal Transactions – These transactions are value transfers that are initiated by executing a contract. An example of this would be when withdrawing your ETH from the EtherDelta smart contract.  You will only see the transaction on this tab.  If you ever have trouble accounting for ETH, check this tab.  If you haven’t used EtherDelta before, check out my guide on “how to buy Ethereum based tokens using EtherDelta”. 

• Token Transfers – Any transfer of non-ETH tokens from or to your wallet.  Notice some token names display “Erc20 Token”.  This is likely due to it being a new or unverified token contract.  For this reason it is sometimes better to use MyEtherWallet to view your token balances.  For more information on that method, check out “Adding a custom token to MyEtherWallet”. 

Summary

Using Etherscan is a very quick and easy way to check your Ethereum wallet balance and transactions.  I tend to use this option if I am in a hurry or just don’t feel like dealing with my private keys.  It is also extremely helpful when trying to reconcile transactions.  If you need to create an Ethereum wallet, check out my guide on “Creating an Ethereum Wallet Using MyEtherWallet“.