Ok, you’ve read about Bitcoin, Ethereum, and all these other cryptos but you aren’t sure where to start buying. The good news is that there are a number of options available for you.
Plenty of websites list their “best” or “top” exchanges. Read a couple of their exchange reviews. One place to start is Coin Market Cap. (Just keep in mind that Coin Market Cap is owned by Binance since April 2020). Some others are Forbes, and Business Insider.
Something you’ll hear people say is “not your keys, not your crypto”. What does mean? Well the “keys” they are referring to are the public and private keys for your “wallet” (which is another conversation). By having control over your crypto, you can send it out of an exchange for staking, decentralized finance, buying NFTs, swaps, and other things. I wouldn’t ever recommend anyone using an exchange that doesn’t allow you to send your crypto out of the exchange (even if they don’t have ANY fees).
I’ve personally used Binance.us, Coinbase, Coinbase Pro, Bittrex, Robinhood, Uphold, Gate.io, Voyager, and Crypto.com. Voyager, Robinhood, and Uphold either don’t allow you to send any crypto or limit which crypto you can send out of the exchange. The others allow you to freely move your assets as you see fit. Each exchange will have a different fee per crypto transaction. Some are more clear about it than others. For example, to send your ADA out of Binance.us, it’ll cost you 1 ADA as a fee.
Your probably wondering why I used so many different exchanges. The short answer is that not all exchanges support every crypto. For example, Coinbase (and Coinbase Pro) currently don’t support VeChain or Hedera, but Binance.us does.
Out of all of them, I like Coinbase Pro the most. If you create a Coinbase account, you’ll have a Coinbase Pro account. Coinbase Pro differs from Coinbase in that you can do Market, Limit, and Stop trades and the fees are lower (lower than Binance.us too). I do use Binance.us second most. The Binance.us app is actually better than Coinbase Pro’s app but paying less in fees means I have more crypto in my pocket. (If you really want a nice Crypto “chart” app, check out Trading View.)
Even if you ultimately decide to not use Coinbase, you might as well run through their videos to earn free crypto!
You can link your bank account or debit card to your new exchange account, make a deposit, and start trading. You’ll usually need to wait 3 to 7 days after depositing to withdraw that money or crypto from your account. Crypto withdraws can take a couple minutes to a couple hours, depending on the crypto. Withdrawing money back to your bank account usually only takes a couple business days.
The good news is that you aren’t locked into any exchange that you use. If you use Coinbase Pro and you don’t like it, well, you can transfer your crypto, hold it, or just sell it! Ultimately, read through the reviews and the faqs, know what the fees are, and know what limits the exchange imposes on you before signing up.
Good luck on your crypto journey!
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