HOW TO BUY ALTCOINS
By Teddy Cleps
Bitcoin is by far the most popular and used cryptocurrency. Its technology is the foundation of the entire Blockchain industry as it is responsible for inspiring endless creators and entrepreneurs to create currencies with similar or drastically different use cases – all of which are based on Bitcoin’s technology.
Generally speaking, every cryptocurrency that is not Bitcoin is called an Altcoin. They are still accessible to everyone but they are slightly harder to get hold of in comparison to Bitcoin, as you may have to join different exchanges.
You need some Bitcoin!
One of the main advantages of buying altcoins is the fact that you will be buying them directly with Bitcoin as supposed to fiat currencies; this means that you will not have to connect your bank account to the exchange and consequently the amount of KYC required is drastically less.
You can create an account on an altcoin exchange within minutes, whilst it can take up to a couple days/weeks before you are authorised to purchase your first Bitcoin. If you still don’t own any Bitcoin, read this guide: How To Buy Bitcoin
What exchanges do I use?
There are nearly as many exchanges as cryptocurrencies, however only a handful of them are safe and actually have enough liquidity for you to quickly buy altcoins without having to wait.
There are not many exchanges that I personally use or that I would recommend for the purchase of altcoins, so far I had great experiences with the following ones:
1.Binance
The go-to exchange for altcoins, as it is by far the most popular exchange after Coinbase. It has been used by millions of users and so far it has never experienced any major hack – mainly due to its large infrastructure and resources that enable a safe experience to crypto enthusiasts.
You can assume that any respectable project with enough liquidity will be available on Binance.
2.Kucoin
Another great and respectable exchange that I have used endless amount of times without ever having any issues. Kucoin in comparison to Binance is less demanding with regards to listing criteria, meaning that you will be able to buy and sell cryptocurrencies that are slightly newer to the market or newly listed ICOs.
However, the liquidity on this exchange is a lot less than Binance – it can be a problem big large positions.
3.Idex
The only decentralised exchange among my suggestions; the key difference in terms of user experience is that you will be responsible for managing and storing your own funds as supposed to having the exchange do that for you.
The only reason you would ever need to come here is if the altcoin you want to buy is not available on both Binance and Kucoin. But keep in mind that the liquidity can be very very low; a nightmare for big positions as it may take you days before your order is complete
What exchange should you use for your altcoin?
It is important to know in advance where your altcoin is trading as you would be wasting valuable time going through every single exchange in attempt of finding out if the currency is listed or not.
The process that I use to identify the relevant exchange for altcoins is through this website: www.coinmarketcap.com
1. Simply search for the name of the altcoin in the top right search tab
2. Once you are on the page of your altcoin, click on the “Markets” tab, it will show you on what exchanges the coin is trading
3. On the left you will see Volume (24h) – It automatically ranked exchanges by the amount of daily volume
4. At this point it is a matter of identifying your preferred exchange. In this scenario it is Kucoin, mainly due to its good reputation and drastically higher volume in comparison to other exchanges.
Get ready to buy your altcoin
We are almost there! Now that you have identified the exchange that has listed your altcoin all you have to do is:
1. Open an account on the exchange, luckily that process should be very simple and user-friendly. Just make sure that the URL is correct and that you are not on a fake website.
2. Send funds to your new account, as you will need them to buy altcoins!
Deposit funds on new exchange
The process of sending funds to an exchange is relatively simple; however it is vital that you take your time and double check every step – as failure to do it correctly will result with your funds being lost.
I will be documenting this process on Kucoin’s exchange, however the process will be 99.9% similar on all exchanges.
1. Once the account is created, click on Assets and then deposits
2. You will then be taken to the “deposit” page and it is VITAL that you select the correct currency you want to transfer. If you are transferring Bitcoin make sure to select Bitcoin’s wallet – if you want to deposit CryptoFreakNetwork Coin (for example ) make sure that you are selecting the right deposit address. Your funds will be lost and impossible to retrieve.
I would strongly recommend sending a very small amount at first, in order to see if the address given by the exchange actually works – better safe than sorry!
3. Copy the public key /address of your wallet within this exchange
4. This is the last step, all you have to do now is access your main wallet where your Bitcoin is safely stored and send it to the address copied above!
Time to buy!
One you have sent funds from your wallet to the new exchange you need a little bit of patience. You would expect the transfer to take seconds / couple of minutes but it can actually take several hours – keep this in mind before a transfer!
Once the funds have (finally) arrived it is time to buy!
You simply go to the “exchange” section and search your altcoin, regardless of website the interface should be relatively similar to this one:
– Your available funds
– How much you are willing to pay x unit, don’t forget that you are dealing with satoshi’s not USD!
– How many units you want to buy
And finally press BUY!
At this point you have officially traded your Bitcoins for altcoins; for the time being they will be stored within the exchange’s wallet. If you are planning to keep these coins for a substantial amount of time I strongly suggest moving them to a wallet as it will be drastically safer!
As mentioned above the exchanges that I mentioned ( Binance, Kucoin and Idex ) are not the only exchanges available but the exchanges that I personally actively use to buy altcoins.
You can check this link here for a complete list of exchanges ranked by volume!
