<!--
Sitemap:
- [Welcome to Kakushi 隠し](/index): Kakushi is a private execution layer for institutions building on stablecoin rails.
- [What is Kakushi](/introduction/what-is-kakushi): Money is private.
- [Using Kakushi with AI](/introduction/using-kakushi-with-ai): Every page in these docs is available as plain markdown for use with language models.
- [Quickstart](/quickstart): This is the ten minute path.
- [Zones and the trust model](/concepts/zones-and-trust): A zone is a private blockchain only you can see inside, with a public chain's proofs underneath.
- [The portal](/concepts/the-portal): Money walks in as public USDC and becomes private the moment it crosses.
- [Accounts and custody](/concepts/accounts-and-custody): Your existing wallet address is already a Kakushi account. Nothing to deploy, nothing to enroll.
- [Bring your own address](/concepts/bring-your-own-address): A zone account is just an address, the one an auth key recovers to, with nothing deployed.
- [Virtual addresses](/concepts/virtual-addresses): Hand every customer their own address, the way a bank hands out virtual account numbers.
- [Private transfers](/concepts/private-transfers): Pay fifty thousand people and publish zero salaries.
- [Settlement and composability](/concepts/settlement-and-composability): Two institutions settle in real time without sharing a ledger or seeing each other's books.
- [Private deposits and withdrawals](/concepts/private-deposits-and-withdrawals): Soon, even the edges go dark.
- [Proofs and the verifier](/concepts/proofs-and-the-verifier): You cannot fake a balance, and you can prove you are solvent without showing a single customer.
- [Fees and gas](/concepts/fees-and-gas): Your users never hold ETH and never see gas. They pay in the dollars they are already sending.
- [Privacy and disclosure](/concepts/privacy-and-disclosure): The public sees nothing, you see everything, the regulator sees what the law entitles them to.
- [Zone policies](/concepts/zone-policies): Compliance is built into the zone. You configure your program; the substrate enforces it on every transfer.
- [Onboard a customer](/guides/onboard-a-customer): Two calls and a webhook, and your customer has a private on-chain account.
- [Accept deposits](/guides/accept-deposits): Anyone with funds on the host chain can pay into your zone, and it lands as a private balance for your user.
- [Make private transfers](/guides/private-transfers): One call moves money privately. One call pays a whole payroll.
- [Process withdrawals](/guides/withdrawals): Burn inside, release canonical USDC outside, in one call.
- [Settle between zones](/guides/settle-between-zones): Send money to another institution's zone like it is a withdrawal. It is interbank settlement.
- [Handle webhooks](/guides/webhooks): React to money moving. Do not poll for it.
- [Reconcile](/guides/reconcile): Two numbers that must always match. Assert it on a schedule.
- [Non-custodial integration](/guides/non-custodial-integration): The user signs on their device. You never hold the key, and you still cannot move their money.
- [Compliance and disclosure](/guides/compliance): You hold the whole record. Disclosure is an export, not a negotiation with the protocol.
- [SDK reference](/sdk-reference): The look-it-up layer.
- [Connect and EVM reference](/connect-and-evm-reference): The chain-level integration detail.
- [Run a zone](/run-a-zone): Most operators never run any infrastructure.
- [Protocol spec](/protocol-spec): The deep technical layer, for auditors and engineers integrating below the SDK.
- [Resources](/resources): See Key concepts for the working vocabulary, expanded throughout Core concepts.
-->

# Process withdrawals

A withdrawal is how value leaves the zone for the public chain. The representation is burned inside, the canonical asset is released to a host-chain address, and from your side it is one call.

![A withdrawal: burn in the zone, release canonical USDC on the host chain](/images/guides/withdrawals.svg)

Estimate the fee, then withdraw, signing with the account you hold for the source.

```ts
import { privateKeyToAccount } from "viem/accounts";

// load the key from your own secret store / env; the SDK never sees the raw key
const aliceAccount = privateKeyToAccount(process.env.ALICE_PRIVATE_KEY as `0x${string}`);

const fee = await kakushi.withdrawals.estimateFee({
  account: aliceAccount, amount: "25.00", token: "USDC",
});

await kakushi.withdrawals.create({
  to: "0xRecipientOnBase", // a host-chain address
  amount: "25.00",
  token: "USDC",
  account: aliceAccount, // source is aliceAccount.address
  idempotencyKey: "w_2201",
});
```

You get `withdrawal.requested` when it enters the queue and `withdrawal.settled` when the canonical asset has been released on the host chain. That release is the only part of the entire lifecycle the public can see.

:::note
The withdrawn USDC is canonical the moment it lands, so it is immediately usable with any protocol or address on the host chain. There is no wrapped asset to unwrap.
:::