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How to Buy Ethereum / Ether Classic

Jordan Tuwiner Last updated July 13, 2017

Most people try to mine Ethereum but then get frustrated with the high up-front costs.

People want Ethereum, so the easiest way to get Ether ends up being by simply just buying Ethereum tokens or Ethereum Classic.

This post will show you how to buy Ether with any of the following payment methods.

Note: Before you buy Ethereum make sure you have a secure place to store your Ether! An Ethereum hardware wallet is the most secure option although not free.

Buy Ethereum with Credit Card or Debit Card

There are many ways to buy Ether with a CC and this section will discuss the 3 best options. Note that the fees will be around 3.5% for most options.

Coinbase

In the USA, Europe, Canada, UK, and Singapore, Coinbase is the easiest way to buy Ethereum with a credit card.

The fees will amount to 3.75% and you can buy instantly.

Note that Coinbase only sells Ether and not Ethereum Classic. To buy Ethereum Classic you need to buy bitcoins on Coinbase and transfer the bitcoins to Poloniex to exchange them for Ethereum Classic.

CoinMama

CoinMama is a nice option because you can buy less than $125 worth of Ethereum without the need to verify your identity. You can instantly sign up and buy Ethereum. You can have Ether in your wallet within about 20 minutes.

The downside to CoinMama is the fees are pretty high and come out to around 7%.

CoinMama supports credit and debit cards from basically any country.

Note that CoinMama only sells Ether and not Ethereum Classic. To buy Ethereum Classic you need to buy bitcoins or Ethereum on CoinMama and transfer the bitcoins to Poloniex to exchange them for Ethereum Classic.

CEX.io

CEX is a Bitcoin broker based in the UK and now sells Ether as well as bitcoins.

You will need to complete an extensive ID verification process. Once done you can buy Ether for about 4% fees.

Buy Ethereum with Bank Account

Want to buy Ethereum with bank account or bank transfer?

Well, luckily for you, buying Ethereum with bank transfer is pretty easy these days.

Buying Ether with a bank account is also a good way to buy large amounts of bitcoins, although please note it can be slower than some other methods of buying ethers.

Since Ethereum is a very volatile market, you may want to check the latest Ether price and other data before you make a purchase.

Buy Ethereum with Bank Account or Transfer

This post will list some of the many exchanges where you can trade your USD, EUR or other currency for Ethereum via bank transfer.

If you want to try another payment method besides Bitcoin, check out our full guide here.

Coinbase

Using Coinbase you can buy Ethereum with your bank account if you live in the following countries:

The fees will be about 1.49% per purchase.

For US users, the buy will take about 7 days because the ACH banking system is very slow.

Canadians can buy very fast in 1-2 days, and the same goes for UK and Europe if you use SEPA transfer to deposit to your account.

Kraken

Kraken is based in Europe and is one of the largest ETH/EUR trading markets. Kraken is a good option if you live in Europe and want to buy a large amount of Ether tokens.

Bitfinex

At Bitfinex you can buy Ethereum using SWIFT. You have to make an international wire transfer to Bitfinex. This can take a long time and generally has higher fees than the other methods described in this post.

Just know that Bitfinex was hacked and once you buy your ETH you should remove it very fast from the exchange to lower your risk.

Gemini

Gemini is a New York based crypto-exchange. You can buy Ethereum in the USA using ACH deposit.

It also serves Canada, some European countries, Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea.

CEX.io

CEX.io is based in the UK and is one of the oldest crypto exchanges online. You can buy Ether with SEPA in Europe or with ACH from inside the United States of America.

Buy Ethereum Classic with Bank Account

All of the above exchanges work for buying Ethereum Classic too, besides Coinbase. Coinbase only supports Litecoin, Bitcoin, and regular Ethereum chain.

Ethereum Classic is just like Ethereum but has a different development team and a smaller market cap.

That should be enough options for you to find a good way to buy Ethereum with bank account or bank transfer! Let us know in the comments if you need more help.

Buy Ethereum or Ethereum Classic with Bitcoin

You can buy Ethereum or Ethereum Classic with Bitcoin at nearly any crpytocurrency exchange. This is because most of the global Ethereum trading volume is actually done in the ETH/BTC pair, and not the ETH/USD pair.

You can buy either Ethereum or Ethereum Classic with Bitcoin or any other crypto using Changelly.

Poloniex has the most trading volume globally so you can get the best exchange rate there although there are 0.15-0.25% fees.

Using GDAX you can easily buy Ethereum for no fees, although there is less liquidity than at Poloniex.

Want to buy Ethereum with Bitcoin? Well, luckily for you, buying Ether with Bitcoin is THE fastest and easiest way to buy Ethereum.

Lately, even much of the global Bitcoin trading volume is from the ETH/BTC trading pair.

GDAX

For US customers, GDAX has some of the highest volume and is a convenient way to turn your BTC into ETH, especially if you already used GDAX or Coinbase to initially buy Bitcoin. If so, you won’t even need to create a new account but can just immediately start trading your bitcoins into ETH.

Poloniex

Poloniex has the largest ETH/BTC trading volume of all exchanges at the time of writing. If you intend to buy a large amount of Ether with your bitcoins, then Poloniex may be the best option since they have the best liquidity. Be sure to know that Poloniex was hacked a while ago, so like always, do not keep your newly purchased Ether on the exchange after you buy.

Kraken

Kraken is another large Bitcoin exchange, but also has one of the largest ETH/BTC markets available online. If you are in Europe than maybe you already used Kraken to buy bitcoins so you would not have to create a new trading account in order to exchange your Ethers for bitcoins.

Bitfinex

Bitfinex added Ethereum trading a while ago. Due to its already large share of global Bitcoin trading volume it also took a large share of the global ETH trading volume. You can also track the Bitfinex Ethereum charts. Note that like Poloniex, Bitfinex was also hacked. You should be VERY careful about leaving any money with them, since any funds lost in a hack will be taken from your balance with their exchange.

BTC-e

The funny thing about BTC-e is this:

They are a completely anonymous exchange. No one knows who actually runs it. Yet, it has one of the best track records of all Bitcoin exchanges. Also, it’s one of the longest running Bitcoin exchanges ever. It has been around since 2011.

Gemini

Gemini is an exchange based in New York. It is run by the famous Winklevoss Twins who famously had the idea for Facebook but lost it to Mark Zuckerburg. Anyway, Gemini was the first licensed Ethereum exchange.

You can trade your ETH for BTC and Gemini also has solid liquidity which means you should be able to get a solid price for your bitcoins and get a good amount of ethers.

CEX.io

Last but not least, CEX.io is another long existing Bitcoin exchange. You can use the exchange to trade your BTC for ETH at very low fees if you use the trading feature and not the buy/sell feature.

That should be enough options for you to find a good way to buy Ethereum with bitcoin! Let us know in the comments if you need more help.

Buy Ethereum with PayPal

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to buy Ether with PayPal.

You will first have to buy bitcoins with PayPal on VirWoX. Once you’ve purchased bitcoins there you can use an exchange like Kraken or Poloniex to exchange your bitcoins for Ether.

Buy Ethereum with Cash

Surprisingly, it is still quite hard to buy Ethereum with cash.

It’s up for debate why this is still true. But, it’s likely that most of Ethereum’s buyers are only buying for speculative purposes.

Buy Ethereum with Cash

Whereas many Bitcoin buyers use the coins to send money internationally, most Ethereum buyers appear to be buying ONLY for speculative purposes.

So we’re still yet to see something like LocalBitcoins.com or BitQuick for Ether.

Why do I mention this?

Because, actually, the best way to buy Ether with cash is to first buy bitcoins with cash and then use those bitcoins to buy Ether online using something like Shapeshift.io or Poloniex.

We understand this is frustrating, but this is just the reality of the market and trading platforms that exist today.

Is Buying Ethereum with Cash Going to Get Easier?

If people ever use Ethereum for use-cases where they need cash, it probably will get easier to buy with cash.

That, however, does not seem likely. Whereas Bitcoin is more of a currency, Ethereum is more of a platform for smart contracts and doesn’t even appear to be in direct competition for most of what Bitcoin is being used for. Also, Ethereum is inflationary whereas Bitcoin is deflationary, so Bitcoin’s fixed supply makes it a much more attractive option for investors who believe in deflationary currency.

How Long Would it Take to Buy Bitcoins with Cash and then Trade for Ethereum?

It depends on how you are buying with cash.

If you have a Bitcoin ATM in your area, then the process can be very fast since once you arrive to a Bitcoin ATM your purchase is basically instant. Note that ATMs have very high fees at around 5-10%, although purchasing Ethereum with that Bitcoin can be very cheap. Also note that if you buy from an ATM you are buying in a very private way, if you care about that.

If you buy with cash using something like LocalBitcoins or Bitquick, the speed can depend on the availability of sellers in your area. Using these two sites you can buy with cash deposit in the USA and most of Europe. The fees are usually about 1%, so much lower than ATMs although sometimes less private since some buyers on LocalBitcoins may require ID, and BitQuick also requires ID verification from the start.

Do Bitcoin ATMs Support Ethereum?

Bitcoin ATMs do not support Ethereum at this time. This is, again, likely because there is no real demand right now to use Ethereum in cross border payments or remittances, or for online shopping like so many people use Bitcoin for.

What are the Benefits of Buying with Cash?

The main benefit is privacy. If you don’t care about that, then try to buy Ethereum using your bank account or credit card, where you can buy larger amounts, buy faster, and also pay less in fees than buying bitcoins with at an ATM and trading that in for Ether.

We wish you luck and hope you are able to follow this guide to buy Ethereum with cash.

Frequently Asked Questions

This section will answer the most common questions about buying Ethereum.

When is the right time to buy?

Like any market, it’s impossible to know the right time to buy.

One strategy you can use is dollar cost averaging. This means you split your buys over a period of time to even out in case the price rises or falls substantially.

You may also want to use charts to track the market, so you can see if the price seems too high or too low.

What are the risks with buying Ethereum?

Ethereum is a new type of asset and even more volatile than Bitcoin.

You should do as much research as possible, compare Ethereum to other crypto assets, and if after that you feel you understand it perhaps it is time to decide if you buy.

Why can buying Ethereum take so long?

The reason buying Ether can be slow is because the traditional banking system is very slow. Credit card and bank payments are all very slow and most exchanges must wait for these payments to clear before you can get your Ether.

Can you sell Ethereum?

Of course, you can use most of the exchanges mention above to sell Ether.

Can you buy partial Ethereum?

Yes, Ether is divisible to many decimal places so you don’t have to buy an entire Ether.

Can anyone buy Ethereum?

Anyone is free to use Ethereum. If you can find an exchange in your country, there is no reason you should not be able to buy.

Is it better to mine or buy Ethereum?

It depends what your goals are. Mining Ethereum has more up front costs, while buying is the fastest way to acquire some/

What is the best payment method to use when buying?

It depends what your goals are. For low fees, try a bank transfer. For privacy, you will have to buy bitcoins privately and then buy Ether on an exchange. For speed, try credit card.

What should I do with my Ether once I buy?

If you plan on storing your Ether long term, move your coins immediately to a secure Ether hardware wallet.

For small amounts you can use any online wallet although they are less secure.

What is the difference between Ethereum and Ethereum Classic?

This is somewhat confusing, but a while ago the Ethereum blockchain split into two: Ethereum and Ethereum Classic.

Ethereum Classic is the smaller chain and has a market cap of about $200 million.

How to Buy Ethereum Classic?

The easiest way to buy Ethereum Classic is to first buy Ether or Bitcoin and then trade that for Ethereum Classic on Poloniex.

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