How to buy Ethereum [ETH]
Before making the purchase of ETH, there are a number of points to keep in mind that will make our investment is made in the best way possible, among which we can highlight:
Knowing how to choose the wallet that best suits our needs or be clear that we must analyze when looking for an exchange to acquire ETH, among others.
Ethereum wallet
The first step, although not essential, is to have an Ethereum wallet to which to send the acquired ETH.
We say that it is not essential, because all cryptocurrency sales platforms will provide an ETH address to store the purchased cryptocurrency, however, as we will see later, to increase security it is necessary to have a wallet that you have total control.
There are some exceptions in which it will be necessary to have an Ethereum wallet, for example, if we are going to buy Ethereum [ETH] from another person, in this case, it will be totally necessary.
If the purchase of ETH is going to be made in a direct purchase and you need an Ethereum wallet, you can use MyEtherWallet or Metamask (Wallets that only accept Ethereum and their tokens), or multi-cryptocurrency wallets like Exodus or Ledger Nano S.
The best place to buy Ethereum
The most economical exchange
If we do not have a place of preference when buying cryptocurrencies, the most profitable thing will be to buy Ethereum on the platform with the lowest price.
Although this data is only the first to be taken into account, because although the price of a platform is the lowest in the market, you may have some purchase fees, sale or withdrawal that do not make it so attractive, that is why we must continue analyzing.
The exchange with low fees
Cryptocurrency exchanges or buying / selling platforms have commissions when using their services, whether at the time of selling, withdrawing or buying ETH.
It is essential to review the section of fees of the exchange or platform that we want to use before making any deposit, so as not to take surprises later.
Anonymity
For many investors in the crypto-space, anonymity is almost as important as the price, which is why buying Ethereum in an exchange that does not require a user verification (KYC) or making purchases from another person directly, may be the best alternatives.
Exchanges of cryptocurrencies such as Binance, do not require any type of personal identification if the transactions carried out do not exceed 2 Bitcoin every 24 hours.
Security
Robberies, hacks, phishing attacks, platforms that disappear with the money of their investors … The enemy can be anywhere and you have to be prepared.
Every time an investment is made in cryptocurrencies and Ethereum, Bitcoin or any other asset is bought, the buyers themselves decide where to buy and where to store said investment, with those actions they can increase or decrease the level of security.
Choosing an exchange of cryptocurrencies with a clean security history, that has not suffered any hacking, that has a good valuation by its users, is data that indicates that a platform is more or less secure.
Using secure passwords and saving them on paper or an external device that is not connected to the internet, not leaving the investment in an exchange and withdrawing it to a private wallet or activating the second authentication factor whenever possible are actions that the user should do to increase its security.
Just like when we deposit money in a bank, we have the confidence that our money will be safe, when you invest in cryptocurrencies, you are your own bank and are responsible for making your investment safe.
Other data of interest
Other data must also be taken into account, such as the limits of the exchange to deposit or extract cryptocurrencies from the platform, otherwise a user could buy Ethereum and not be able to withdraw it if the minimum withdrawal amount is not reached.
As the last point to analyze, although in many cases it is the most important, you should seek opinions from the users of the platform. The best way to know if a place is legit to make an investment, is to see how they talk about their investors.
Buy ETH in an exchange
Deposit funds
Once we have clear the place where we want to buy Ethereum [ETH], we must proceed to the deposit of the cryptocurrency or fiduciary currency that we want to use to make the exchange.
Depending on the exchange, the interface and the steps to follow to make a deposit may seem different, but they all have some points in common and knowing them will be able to do it on any platform.
The first thing to look for is the exchange wallet where we are going to deposit our cryptocurrency, the exchanges usually have this section in called sections, wallets, account, deposits.
The way to differentiate if we are in the right place is simple, since you will see a list of cryptocurrencies and the available values of each one, as well as buttons to deposit, withdraw or trade those amounts.
Once the wallet is located, just click on deposit and select the deposit address provided by the exchange.
Then you must go to the wallet where you have the cryptocurrency you want to send to the exchange and choose the option to send or transfer. At this point you will be asked for 2 data, the shipping address (which will be the exchange address) and the quantity to send.
After completing this step, we will only have to wait for the shipment to be made and the funds to be transferred.
One way that is usually used to verify that the shipping addresses are correct is to check the first and last digits of the wallet.
It is advisable to verify the destination wallet before proceeding to the shipment, given that an error in a single digit can lead to the loss of the cryptocurrencies sent.
Execute the order
If for example we want to change Bitcoin [BTC] by Ethereum [ETH] we will have to carry out the following steps:
- 1: Send BTC from the source wallet, to the BTC wallet of the exchange
- 2: Find the BTC / ETH pair in the exchange
- 3: Analyze the Ethereum purchase / sale order table to see the lowest sale price and the highest purchase price, and thus decide the entry you want to make
- 4: Once the order is executed, the change will have been made successfully. (If the ETH do not appear in the exchange’s wallet, the order may not have been executed, you must search for the option “open orders” and verify that it is still waiting)
Remove ETH from the Exchange to a wallet
If the acquired ETHs are not going to be used to continue trading, it is advisable to withdraw them to a wallet on which you have total control. This is the safest way to store acquired cryptocurrencies.
If you save your cryptocurrencies in an exchange, your investment can be compromised if the platform in question is the victim of a hack.
Buy Ethereum in person
If you want to make a purchase of Ethereum [ETH] directly and do not want to be forced to trade in an exchange, you can make the purchase on platforms like localethereum, a platform with more than 100,000 users that gives another alternative to buy Ethereum from Direct, fast and safe way.
Buy Ethereum in Coinbase
One of the most used platforms for this, due to its security and ease of acquiring crypto-assets is Coinbase.
To acquire Ethereum on this platform, you will first need to create an account, if you need to create one, you can use our Coinbase guide where we explain the process step by step.
Once the account is created and verified, the purchase process is very simple:
- You just have to select the Buy / Sell option and mark the “Buy” tab
- Then select the cryptocurrency you want to acquire, in this case Ethereum [ETH]
- In this purchase window you must enter the amount of ETH you want to buy (If you have any purchase limit, it will appear just above)
- Press the “Buy Ethereum instantly” button
If you make the payment by credit card, in a few minutes you will have the balance available on your wallet.
Conclusion
That buying Ethereum [ETH] is a great investment, there is no doubt, but regardless of whether you want to buy this or another cryptocurrency, you must take into account the following points:
- Do not invest what you are not willing to lose
- The safest way to save ETH and any cryptocurrency is on a wallet that has total control
- Choosing the cheapest exchange is not always the best option, you have to analyze other factors, such as commissions
- Options such as in-person shopping, decentralized exchanges or exchanges without KYC offer anonymity to purchases
If you are interested in this project and want to be informed of everything that happens, visit our Ethereum News section
