Buying your first Crypto
For someone who is new to the Crypto world, this can be a frustrating process. Especially now, with all the new users a lot of exchanges are suspending new memberships until they can figure out how to keep up with the demand. I will be offering a service using my accounts to purchase any cryptocurrency you might want to purchase. Until I have that up and running you can mail me HERE for more info on that.
The Crypto world can be tough to break into. Because of the laws of accepting cash (or fiat money), most exchanges will not let you purchase your cryptocurrencies with real money. So before you can buy the coin or token your looking for you need to get your hands on Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH). All exchanges will allow you to “trade” your BTC or ETH for the other currencies on their exchange. There are a few ways to get these two currencies. But only three that I am going to cover here.
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Craigslist- Do a local craigslist search for “Local Bitcoin”. This will show you anyone that is willing to meet up and exchange cash for BTC or ETH. Be careful as there are a ton of scammers.
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Find a BitCoin ATM- These machines do exist in major cities and I bet will soon exist everywhere. The problem is the fees= They charge high fees that sometimes are more than DOUBLE your investment. Imagine paying 40$ for 20$ worth of BTC.
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Create a CoinBase Account- This is probably the easiest and most secure way to purchase BTC or ETH. CoinBasehandles most of the “cash for coin” trades. This is my recommended method of getting into the Cryptocurrency market and I will be showing you how to do that here.
The steps to open a CoinBase Account and Purchase your first Crypto…
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The first thing you need to do is register for your CoinBase Account. You can do that by clicking here. (I will be making a video soon that will cover this process).
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Once you have registered for CoinBase you will need to verify your identity. This is usually done by submitting a State Issued ID (U.S. ONLY) or passports for customers from other countries they support. This process can take anywhere from 10 minutes to a week to complete because of the high volume of new accounts. It took me three days to complete at the beginning of December 2017.
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Once your identity is verified you need to add a way to pay for your Crypto.
There are three options…
A. Bank accounts= Bank accounts will link instantly but take 4-7 days to transfer funds into the USD wallet. The limit is 7,500$ per week to start.
B. Credit or Debit Card= Credit/Debit cards will link instantly. CoinBase will send two or three small (under 2$) transactions to your card in order to verify your card. It will ask you to enter the cents back into a form. (if they charged 1.34$, 1.62$, and 1$ you would enter 34 into the first box and 64 into the second box. The Even dollar charge should be ignored.) These charges will be removed from your account within 5 business days. Once the card is linked you will have a 600-750$ limit per week. This will go up after a period of 60-90 days.
C. Wire Transfers= A wire transfer to your USD wallet may take anywhere from 5-10 business days to complete. The limit is higher at 15,000$ and is the only option to invest a large sum at once. - You have verified your identity and your method of payments is set and ready to go! Congratulations! Now all you need to do is purchase some Crypto!!! But first, I want to point something out. The Crypto Market has been very volatile in recent months. With huge thousand percent gains and losses IN JUST HOURS!!! Understand that you run the risk of losing most of your investment, if not all of it. I recommend never to invest more than what you can afford to lose! If that doesnt scare you off, then on to the fun part!
Many people are still using BitCoin to purchase other cryptos. However, Bitcoin is slow and expensive. Not only is one coin equal to over 15 thousand dollars but the fee to send it to a wallet or another exchange is around 40$ minimum. Therefore I recommend using Ethereum to purchase other cryptos. If you want to buy BTC just to own it then do so using the same steps…
Clicking Buy/Sell will bring up the screen where you purchase or sell your CoinBase assets.
5. At the top of your Dashboard there is an option labelled Buy/Sell
You will notice that CoinBase charges a small fee for instant buys of ETH and BTC (BTC fees are more). However, after much research and experimenting, I find that this is actually the fastest, cheapest, and overall easiest way to buy ETH or BTC. (There is a way to buy with zero fees by using the GDAX exchange but you would need to transfer money to your CoinBase USD wallet first.) Just remember if you want 100$ or another even number to add the fee to what you are buying. So to buy 100$ worth of ETH here I would need to spend about 104$.
6. Make sure the Currency you want to purchase is selected. Select your payment type. Enter the Dollar amount you are willing to spend. Click Buy Instantly.
Once you click the Buy Instantly tab a confirmation window will appear...
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ATTENTION: ONCE YOU CLICK CONFIRM BUY THERE IS NO GOING BACK!!!! MAKE SURE THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT BEFORE CONFIRMING TRANSACTION.
CONGRATULATIONS, You just purchased your very own CryptoCurrency. What you do with that Crypto is up to you. You can leave your ETH, BTH, BTC or LTC from CoinBase alone in the CoinBase Wallets or you can move it to a more secure wallet. Find those how-to instructions below… Thanks again for the visit and I hope this helped.