For those of you just getting into the crypto game, you may be asking yourself “where do I start?” The answer, my friend, is Coinbase. Coinbase is a digital asset exchange company headquartered in San Francisco, California. They broker exchanges of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and other digital assets with fiat currencies in 32 countries, and bitcoin transactions and storage in 190 countries worldwide. In this blog post, I’m going to show you how to set up an account and purchase your first Bitcoin on Coinbase.
Creating an account on Coinbase
The first step is to create an account on Coinbase. You can do that by clicking the following link www.coinbase.com and clicking “sign up.” From there, you will need to enter your name, and email address, create a password, and confirm it. You will also need to enter your phone number and verify it via SMS. Once that’s all set up, you’re ready to move on to the next step: adding payment methods.
Adding Payment Methods
Coinbase offers two forms of payment: bank transfer and credit/debit card. I would recommend using a bank transfer because it is free (unlike credit/debit card purchases which come with a 3.99% fee) and it generally takes 4-5 days for the funds to hit your account (as opposed to instant approval with a credit/debit card). To add a bank account, click on the “Buy/Sell” tab and then select “Bank Transfer.” From there, you will need to enter your bank name, account number, and routing number. Once that information is entered, Coinbase will make two very small deposits into your account (typically less than $1) in order to verify that the account belongs to you. Once those deposits hit your account (which may take a few days), head back over to Coinbase, click on the “Buy/Sell” tab and enter the amount of money in USD that you want to spend on Bitcoin. Make sure that the “Pay With” drop-down menu says “Bank Account,” select how much money you want to spend, review the transaction details, and then click “Buy Bitcoin Instantly.” And just like that—you’re a cryptocurrency owner! Congratulations!
Now that you know how easy it is to buy Bitcoin on Coinbase, what are you waiting for? Get out there and start investing in cryptocurrency! As always, remember to do your own research before investing in any asset—cryptocurrency or otherwise—and never invest more than you can afford to lose. Happy trading!
