Crypto glossary
Crypto broker (instant buy)
A crypto broker sells you crypto at a quoted price through an app, earning a spread, instead of matching your order with others on an order book.
When you tap buy in a payments app, a neobank or the simple mode of an exchange, you usually deal with a broker. The platform shows a price, you accept it, and it fills the order itself or routes it to liquidity providers behind the scenes. Many fintech and trading apps offer crypto this way alongside shares.
Brokers are popular because they are simple: no order types, no order book, often instant card payments and small minimum amounts. In return, the cost is built into the price as a spread, sometimes on top of an explicit fee, and is often higher than trading the same pair on an exchange's advanced interface.
Some brokers do not let users withdraw coins to their own wallets, so the customer only has a claim on the platform, not crypto they control. Others hold assets through a third-party custodian. Checking the total cost against the market price, withdrawal options and the provider's licence is worthwhile before buying larger amounts.
Example
A user buys €100 of ETH in a banking app at a quoted price 1.5% above the market rate; the same purchase on an exchange's order book would have cost about 0.1% in fees.