Outline
Intro
What Is Bitcoin?
Why Do People Invest in BTC?
Important Factors to Consider Prior to Purchasing Bitcoin
Where to Buy Bitcoin and Other Altcoins?
Alternative Venues for Purchasing Bitcoins
How to Purchase Bitcoin Online?
Conclusion
Intro
Whatever the case, the pioneering Bitcoin cryptocurrency has demonstrated its meteoric growth for over 14 years and it is widely used as a means of payment in every corner of the world. At the date of writing, its total market capitalization is valued at $574,256,564,779 and occupies the first place in the crypto charts. The people’s involvement with Bitcoin as the “golden digital standard” is all conquering: some people are affected by its gigantic volatility and they speculate on crazy price swings, some use it as a store of value in order to boost and diversify their financial portfolios, while others are mesmerized b its decentralized nature and anonymity. One way or another, the best performing cryptocurrency has firmly made its path in our lives, however the problem outlined as “how can I buy some Bitcoins and where to do this fast and safely” is bothering the minds of millions of people. Let us briefly discuss the issue “how can I buy Bitcoins” and provide some basic recommendations on where and how to do this.
What Is Bitcoin?
It is needless to describe the popularity of the BTC crypto in our days, but one thing that is worth going in to more detail is the concept of Bitcoin. Let us step it up and get to know it closer. To put it clearly, Bitcoin is a virtual currency that operates on a P2P basis using the blockchain technology without any centralized issuing or controlling authority. Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, made it available to the wide audience back in 2009 and since then, it has become the trend-setter in the crypto universe. The crypto uses the Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm to mint new coins into mass circulation. The minimum unit of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency is named after its creator, — Satoshi. The circulating supply of Bitcoins is limited to 21 million units and roughly every four years, the mining reward for minting new BTC coins reduces by half in order to avoid inflation. The key features of Bitcoin that attract all the interested people from all around the world are:
– Decentralized nature;
– Privacy as well as fundamental fungibility characteristics;
– Highly speculative digital asset;
– Relatively fast Bitcoin transaction processing due to the implementation of Lightning Network;
– Excellent financial portfolio diversification because Bitcoin is viewed as the golden standard in the world of crypto;
– Buying and selling Bitcoins has become an easy walk due to its widespread use, popularity, hype and accessibility;
– Hard capitalization and limited supply;
– Irreversible transactions and anonymity;
– Great liquidity and network scalability;
– Highly resistant to censorship and control by the governmental bodies.
Why Do People Invest in BTC?
Undoubtedly, there is something mesmerizing in crypto investments, especially choosing Bitcoin as the main financial portfolio diversifier. A few decades ago, everyone was mad about stocks, gold, metal, oil, futures, bonds, derivatives and so on and so forth. Now the trending investing position has been occupied by decentralized virtual currencies, whereas the youngsters are overwhelmed by Bitcoin and altcoins fueled by inevitable social media driven future perspectives. The greater the people’s involvement in cryptos, the more the Bitcoin market capitalization expands and its value is on the rise. Here is a short list of the main reasons why people decide to make a step forward and get in to the realm of BTC and other virtual assets:
– Speculative perspectives. The cryptocurrencies are volatile by their nature and it brings endless opportunities to make incredible profits in a short time;
– Due to its programmed scarcity, Bitcoin is oftentimes used as an inflation hedge to secure investments;
– Many people like the very trend of Bitcoin and they purchase, sell and swap (exchange) crypto to stay mainstream;
– Educational purposes. People are amazed by the blockchain based technologies and want to get to know about the digital ledger, immutability, storage, online exchanges, crypto wallets, online crypto payments and P2P BTC purchasing;
– The BTC mining market is overburdened with propositions to make passive income with cloud based BTC mining. A decade ago or so, solo BTC mining for beginners was very easy and it was possible to mine BTC with a regular desktop PC. However, the situation has drastically changed and crop adepts flocked the cloud based mining sector. Stemming from this, people invest in BTC mining to earn passive income and multiply their gains in the due course of time.
Important Factors to Consider Prior to Purchasing Bitcoin
Before investing your capital in purchasing Bitcoin or any other blockchain based coin or token, it is a prerequisite to conduct a scrupulous investigation and get prepared in advance. This is of utmost importance because this way, you can avoid scam projects, problems with regulators and taxation. save, protect and multiply your investments, store, HODL and transact freely crypto in any direction you deem it is necessary, among others. The more you know and the greater efforts you take with precautions, the smoother your crypto experience will be. Let us get started with outlining the key factors before buying crypto.
Choosing Exchange Service
There are virtually hundreds of crypto exchange service providers offering to buy Bitcoin and altcoins at fair prices like Coinbase, Binance, Switchere, Paybis, Kraken, etc. However, you should decide which crypto exchange or trading platform you are about to use for purchasing crypto, at the same time paying special attention to website usability, fees, exchange directions, licensing, regulation, security, customer loyalty programs and genuine customer reviews.
Security
Use secure Internet connection networking in your everyday business life. Never use public internet connections for your financial transaction processing and/or deal striking. Besides, make sure to check if the site’s architecture and infrastructure are well protected and your user account will not be compromised in any event. Always get familiarized with the security and privacy policies of the service provider and ascertain that offline crypto wallets are deployed by the chosen provider. Anyhow, if the private keys are not yours, you are at risk of losing your money at any moment. Check out is the website implements two factor authentication (two step verification), inactivity logout periods, wallet addresses whitelist. The more you know, the more you can control the process of managing your cryptocurrency portfolio.
Fees
By all means, the fee structure and policy can play a pivotal role in choosing a reliable brokerage firm to buy Bitcoin online. The crypto exchange services charge different commissions for their services, varying from deposits and withdrawals to trading and liquidation fees. In fact, this is the budget forming income for crypto trading platforms. Different providers charge fees depending on their reasonability, secure architecture, personnel involvement, legal stuff, salaries and business integration policies and marketing strategies. Nonetheless, always double check the fee details and make your own calculation after your order payment because certain platforms may charge unreasonable hidden fees with an aim of making additional profit. Let us demonstrate how different platforms charge for their service provision:
| Exchange | Deposit fee | Withdrawal fee | Maker fee | Taker fee |
| Coinbase Pro | No charge | No charge | 0.5% | 0.5% |
| Crypto.com | No charge | Yes | 0.1% | 0.16% |
| Kraken | No charge | No charge | 0.16% | 0.26% |
| Poloniex | No charge | Yes | 0.125% | 0.125% |
| Liquid.com | No charge | Yes | 0.29% | 0.29% |
The figures are presented for illustrative purposes and may slightly differ. However, as you may judge from the commission details, the percentage can greatly differ from one exchange to other conditioned by geography, legislation, usability, greed and trademark recognition.
Ease of Use (UI and UX)
The final decision to use a particular platform to buy, sell or swap Bitcoin or other virtual currency may be greatly impacted by the smart ease of use of the exchange services. The majority of companies invest tons of money into developing a user-friendly interface with intuitive navigation and multilingual website localization. Of particular interest is a nifty mobile application made available by progressive crypto platform for a toll-free usage. They may contain versatile price alerts, charts, graphs, order books, built-in account balance features as well as staking, lending, borrowing, Bitcoin cloud mining services, instant crypto-to-crypto swaps, just to name a few.
Versatile Payment Methods
A wide choice of available payment options for buying the first and most popular decentralized asset is astonishing. A person can choose the most preferable way to pay for his or her crypto purchases or online sales, starting from conventional VISA, Maestro, Mastercard, American Express, Electron bank cards (credit, debit, prepaid personalized and non-personalized cards) ending with region-specific payment methods, e-payments and wire transfers. It allows for more freedom in managing and controlling the financial portfolio and it factually boosts the liquidity of the crypto industry. For illustrative purposes, let us view the number of available payment options in different crypto exchange platforms:
| Exchange | Number of Payment Methods |
| Binance | 150 payment methods and 49 fiat currencies. |
| Switchere | 6 payment methods and 30+ cryptocurrencies |
| Huobi | 90 payment methods |
| Wirex | 3 payment methods |
As far as you can observe, the difference rate is paramount and it is also worth getting familiarized with the trading pairs available for instant buy and sell orders. The thing is that the richer the choice of crypto trading pairs, the more liquidity it can bring to you and your trading strategy. As of lately, a lot of crypto trading platforms started to issue their own branded crypto card for online payments with real time conversion rates on the Internet. The more a platform can offer to its users, the more attractive it becomes to crypto beginners and seasoned professionals alike. Finally, crypto oriented sites add more and more features to their sites with an aim of attracting new users, among which are staking, P2P lending, over-the-counter desks, DeFi projects and NFTs, just to name a few.
Licensing
In view of the increased interest in crypto transactions, anonymity, decentralized nature of blockchain technologies by fraudsters, terrorists, scammers and cyber criminals, the situation dictates that the activity of crypto trading and exchange platforms must be regulated to a certain extent. The more platforms report about their turnover and transaction activity, the less the risk of being deceived by companies with poor reputation. Each licensed and regulated exchange values its brand, trademark and reputation, therefore the risk of scams and unlawful user account manipulations is minimal. The list of popular regulated and licensed crypto trading providers is as follows:
| Crypto Trading Platform | Regulation |
| eTORO | Regulated in the United States of America, Europe and some other countries. |
| Binance | Bahrain, Canada, France, etc. |
| Kraken | The United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Asian Pacific region. |
| Gemini | The United States of America |
By and large, regulation by authorities and licensing are the signs of a mature approach to business running and iti s purely customer oriented. In fact, regulation does not allow certain governments to avoid applied political, economic and military sanctions and keep on laundering money using the blockchain based technologies.
Taxation
Whatever the case, it is your obligation to know what tax laws are applicable in this or that jurisdiction. The crypto market is largely not regulated, whereas in some countries like China all crypto related operations are banned.
Where to Buy Bitcoin and Other Altcoins?
For experienced traders and newcomers to the crypto industry alike, crypto trading platforms offer a paragon of useful instruments to buy and sell crypto using the trading engine. Traders submit buy and sell orders in the order book and speculate on price swings. For those who want to experience greater risks in crypto investments, a lot of crypto trading platforms like Kraken, Bitfinex, HITBTC, Coinbase and alike offer margin or leveraged trading. To buy Bitcoin with a crypto trading platform, it is necessary to fund a user account and place a buy order (market or limit).
For over five years or so, online cryptocurrency exchange platforms have taken the plunge and are one of the most popular venues for purchasing Bitcoin and other altcoins. You may wonder why it is so? The answer is pragmatic: buying Bitcoin turned out like an easy walk to a shopping center. At the onset, it was even redundant to register an account and go through KYC verification. The main beauty of online crypto exchanges was ease of crypto access and simple user workflow. However, in due course, when the regulatory compliance became stricter, the GDPR, CCD and AML policies were implemented to eliminate any chance of fraudulent activities.
Case in point, over-the-counter trading allows to move large amounts of money without using public order books on crypto trading platforms. This option is suitable for high volume single traders and institutional traders. The minimal entry point may start from a few hundred thousand dollars and the only limit in this case can be the starting capital. A lot of wealthy whales use OTC trading to sporadically transact millions of US dollars worth in crypto.
In its turn, decentralized P2P cryptocurrency exchange platforms like LocalBitcoins allow to strike deals for buying and selling BTC and altcoins without involving third-parties.
Alternative Venues for Purchasing Bitcoins
The ways to purchasing BTC are not limited to trading platforms, online exchanges, OTC trades, or P2P exchanges. There exist a lot of other methods to buy Bitcoin online. One of the most popular ways to get some crypto near your house, workplace, etc. is Bitcoin ATMs. You can insert paper cash in the slot and purchase or sell Bitcoin in real-time. Nonetheless, using ATMs for purchasing crypto is rather costly due to service charges associated with the ATM exchange. The average fee for buying BTC at Bitcoin ATMs is more than eight percentage from the total amount (by contrast, online crypto exchanges charge from four to five percentage respectively). Nonetheless, Bitcoin ATMS can be found in all popular venues like hotels, airports, stores, gas stations, etc. As of today, the United States of America are the leaders in installed Bitcoin ATMs.
As of recently, PayPal has made it available to US residents to buy crypto. Unfortunately, the rest of the world does not have access to the option of buying crypto, which is why its spread and popularity are rather slow paced. Another drawback of PayPal is that a user cannot transfer crypto outside his or her PayPal account. To crown it all, there are very few crypto exchanges that support PayPal as a payment gateway.
Different brokerage firms offer their services including the purchase of Bitcoins and other popular cryptocurrencies. However, the Bitcoin purchases via the brokerage firms are unprotected by insurance. A person may buy futures contracts on BTC and trade the coin right there.
How to Purchase Bitcoin Online?
Let us describe how to buy Bitcoin using different examples. For a starter, we can begin our crypto journey with online crypto exchange platform Switchere. To buy Bitcoin online using your credit card, simply register an account with the Switchere crypto exchange and complete the basic verification tier. The onboarding process will take from 10 to 30 minutes. Once registered and verified, you can use the widget form to enter necessary pay-in details like the amount you want to convert, the payment method and your crypto wallet address. Once you check all the order details and make a corresponding payment, you will receive Bitcoins to your crypto wallet. Alternatively, you can download the Switchere mobile app and purchase BTC using your smartphone.
Regarding the purchase of BTC on crypto trading platforms, let us take Binance as an example. You do the same as with any online crypto exchange: register an account and get verified. Set up your account security options and deposit some funds to your user account. Once your balance is topped up, you can use the trading dashboard and submit orders to buy crypto. Likewise, you can buy BTC using your regular credit card similar to online crypto exchanges. In general, the mechanism of buying BTC is very similar with the rest of payment alternatives. But it is important to take into consideration that you have to store your crypto assets in your personal wallet, preferably in cold storage in order to avoid cyber hacks, blackmailing, account manipulations, or unsanctioned use of your balance.
Conclusion
Drawing closer to a conclusion, be sure to investigate the topic prior to making any financial decisions and do not invest more than you can afford to lose because cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and you can either gain or lose money in a matter of seconds. Stay tuned for more useful articles on our official blog and join the crypto mainstream today!
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