You can buy bitcoin and altcoins through exchangers, on exchanges and from other people, these are the most popular options. We talk about each of them and about the risks that can lead to the loss of all money
You can buy cryptocurrency in different ways. Exchanges, exchangers and other services are suitable for these purposes. But the market is changing, new opportunities appear for working with digital assets, and the risky sides of the old ones are revealed.
“Сhange bureau”
The most common way to buy cryptocurrency is through exchangers. These are special services where you can exchange most of the popular coins for fiat money in various options. For example, purchase digital assets using bank cards, through payment systems, cash using ATMs, or transfer funds using a phone number.
Exchangers work as follows.
- You choose the asset you want to buy and the payment method
- Indicate the amount for which you want to buy cryptocurrency
- Indicate the address of the wallet where the cryptocurrency will go. This can be a wallet on an exchange, a cold wallet, etc.
- Confirm purchase request
- Transfer funds to the address offered by the exchanger
On many services, after payment, you need to click the “I paid” button. If this is not done, the service will not transfer your cryptocurrency
Exchangers charge commissions for their services. Their size is always different, differs from service to service and depends on the payment method chosen by the user. In addition to this, exchangers always have different rates. To find the most profitable option, you can use special aggregators. On them, you can sort exchangers by the best offers, as well as by reviews.
When using exchangers, in order not to lose funds, it is important to follow a few rules. First, always start working with an unfamiliar service with a small amount to make sure it is working properly and check for fraud. Secondly, send exactly the amount of funds indicated in the exchange request. Otherwise, the service will not recognize the transaction and it will hang. If this happens, the only solution is to contact the service support.
Thirdly, it is extremely important to check the reserves of the exchanger, their value is indicated for each asset separately on the service website. Reserves mean the amount of rubles or cryptocurrency that the exchanger has in stock. If you place an application for an amount that exceeds the amount of the reserve, the service will have nothing to transfer your cryptocurrency from, and the transaction will freeze. In this case, you should also communicate in support.
When using exchangers and exchanges to buy digital assets, there is always a risk of getting “dirty” cryptocurrency related to illegal activities, warned Nikita Zuborev, senior analyst at Bestchange.ru. This is especially true for small exchange offices. They may not have enough resources to properly and promptly check the coins sold, sometimes their purity “no one checks in any way.”
If we talk about the segment of exchange offices, then the risk of getting tokens seen in criminal schemes in a large exchanger is comparable to the risk of getting those from a cryptocurrency exchange. All of these organizations verify the purity of assets to a certain extent and comply with all anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing procedures for any suspicious transactions.
Exchanges
Now you can buy cryptocurrency with a bank card on most major cryptocurrency exchanges. But payment methods in this case, as a rule, are much less when compared with exchangers. There are also advantages – it is safer to purchase digital assets on trading platforms, especially large ones, as the risk of using the services of fraudsters is reduced.
At the same time, you can lose part of your capital on commissions. Their size on exchanges can be significantly higher than those set by exchangers. Reason: most trading platforms do not sell cryptocurrency directly, but through other services. In other words, the user transfers money to a third-party company, it makes an exchange with the exchange, and then the latter credits the user with coins. In this case, a double commission may be charged, so you should carefully check the terms of the deal.
Another advantage of exchanges over exchangers is that the purchased cryptocurrency can be immediately used for trading or other purposes. For example, exchange for many other coins to build an investment portfolio. However, it is not safe to store funds on trading floors. If there is a risk that the exchange will go bankrupt or be hacked by hackers, as happened with KuCoin. Therefore, the hope is to keep digital assets in cold wallets.
Other ways to buy
Apart from exchanges and exchanges, there are several other options for buying cryptocurrencies. For example, exchange offices operating on the p2p principle – from person to person, are very popular. On such platforms, the user leaves an application to buy or sell assets for a certain amount. When a counterparty is found, they exchange, and the platform acts as a guarantor that one will not deceive the other.
This method has several disadvantages. There are not always enough bids to buy or sell cryptocurrency. Sometimes you have to wait until a great offer appears. Also, p2p platforms are inferior to exchangers in terms of the number of payment methods, and there is a risk of buying dirty assets.
Less popular methods include buying cryptocurrency through cryptomats (analogs of ATMs, but with cryptocurrency) and directly from another person for cash. In the first case, the problem is the low number of such devices. According to the cryptocoinmap.ru card, there are only 7 crypto ATMs in Moscow. In the second case, there is a high risk of losing funds. The counterparty can sell coins at an overvalued rate, disappear when receiving money, appropriate them for himself, citing a technical error, or cheat in any other way.
