11 Best Places to Buy Bitcoin in 2023

Get in on the latest craze of digital currency.

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Our #1 Pick
Pros:
  • App Store: 4.7 · ‎1,641,739 reviews
Pros:
  • App Store: 4.6 · ‎15,689 reviews
Fees: 1.49%
Fees: 0.5% (lowest)
Pros:
  • App Store: 4.7 · ‎1,641,739 reviews
Fees: 1.49%
Our #1 Pick
Pros:
  • App Store: 4.6 · ‎15,689 reviews
Fees: 0.5% (lowest)

In the last few years, Bitcoin (BTC) has grown from being an intriguing digital token to a widely-accepted financial asset. However, its complexity and the many ways in which it can be used mean make it difficult for people to figure out the best place to buy Bitcoin.

This guide will show you five different platforms to buy Bitcoin, highlighting the pros and cons of each method. By the end, you should have a good understanding of which option is best for you.

Best Place to Buy Bitcoin Online

If you’re trying to buy Bitcoin, these crypto exchanges can help:

Our Pick
TradeStation Crypto
4.7

TradeStation is the top crypto destination to easily buy, sell, invest, trade, and earn cryptocurrencies. Open an account on an easy to use crypto trading platform.

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Coinbase
4.7

Coinbase offers over 25 cryptos to trade, invest, or stake in. If you want to diversify your income sources through cryptocurrencies, Coinbase is an ideal platform to buy, sell, or even build your crypto portfolio.

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best places to buy bitcoin

The first Bitcoin ETF in the U.S. has begun trading and some analysts have a 100K price target in the coming years for the speculative cryptocurrency.

With Bitcoin now trading at $30K at the time of this post…

It is no secret that buying Bitcoin to invest or simply make money fast is a no-brainer.

The best place to buy Bitcoin for investors is currently TradeStation Crypto, which allows you to buy, sell, and earn cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Cardano, Dogecoin, and Ethereum. You can also trade equities, options, and futures with TradeStation. More people should be using the free app to start investing.

Doesn’t hurt to sign up, feel out the platform, and make a small investment that can pay off big. Not sold yet or want to do more research? Let’s get into the nitty-gritty of the best places to buy Bitcoin.

1. TradeStation – Best for Trading Across Multiple Asset Classes

tradestation

TradeStation Crypto allows you to buy, sell, and earn cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but you can quickly move between all trading platforms.

Buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies all in a single hassle-free crypto trading platform, packed with the tools and technology crypto traders need.

  • Buy, sell and hold BCH, BTC, ETH, LTC, and USDC
  • One-click order entry
  • Easily keep track of your interest income
  • Quickly analyze prices
  • Customize your trading interface
  • Instantly see your unrealized profits

You can also trade equities, options, and futures with TradeStation Securities.

Details
  • Fees: TradeStation Crypto offers innovative pricing that is not tied to volume. Instead, rates are based on your account balance. TradeStation charges a competitive 0.5% per trade for accounts with balances of $100,000 or less, and even less for higher volume crypto traders.
  • Pro: Offers real-time market data, no minimum deposit required, and you can deposit and withdraw at any time for free.
  • Con: For accounts that don’t maintain an average end-of-month equity balance of $2,000 or execute at least five trades during the 12-month period following the anniversary of when the account was first funded, TradeStation charges an annual inactivity fee of $50.
Summary
  • User Interface: Easy to navigate and fully customizable
  • Fees: Low
  • Reputation: Trusted
Our Pick
TradeStation Crypto
4.7

TradeStation is the top crypto destination to easily buy, sell, invest, trade, and earn cryptocurrencies. Open an account on an easy to use crypto trading platform.

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2. Coinbase – Best for Earning Free Crypto

coinbase

Coinbase has emerged as one of the high-profile names in the Bitcoin world placing itself on the top as a one-stop solution for Bitcoins. Coinbase is a San Francisco based digital asset exchange that lets you turn your fiat currency into cryptocurrency.

It is the main entry point into the cryptocurrency space for most people. Coinbase also has a crypto wallet where you can pay for stuff and store NFTs.

It’s currently the quickest and easiest way to buy Bitcoins in the US. You can also earn free crypto through its Crypto Learn program.

New Coinbase accounts can get $5 in free Bitcoin for joining and can get $10 in Bitcoin for each person they refer to Coinbase.

Details
  • Fees: Coinbase charges 3.99% fees for credit/debit card purchases but you can get your coins instantly. 1.49% if you buy from your bank account.
  • Pro: “Instant Buy” option available with credit card or debit card
  • Con: Purchases made with bank transfer can take up to 5 days to complete
Summary
  • User Interface: Easy to Navigate
  • Fees: Average
  • Reputation: Trusted

If you wanted to create a Coinbase account you can create a Coinbase account by clicking this link.

Coinbase
4.7

Coinbase offers over 25 cryptos to trade, invest, or stake in. If you want to diversify your income sources through cryptocurrencies, Coinbase is an ideal platform to buy, sell, or even build your crypto portfolio.

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Related: Coinbase vs eToro: Cryptocurrency Trading Comparison

3. SoFi Invest – Best for Ease of Use

sofi invest crypto

SoFi Invest is a free consumer investing service that offers stocks, ETFs, and robo advising, with no commissions or management fees.

With SoFi Invest, you can trade crypto 24/7, unlike the regular market. This means weekends, holidays, middle of the night—no time is off limits.

Just like Coinbase, you can trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Cardano, and 17 more coins—24/7 all with no fees. Plus, more new coins are on the way.

Worried about your money getting hacked? You don’t have to be. SoFi invest is a secure platform that ensures your holdings are protected against fraud and theft. Your holdings are FDIC-insured as well.

Details
  • Fees: SoFi will charge a markup of up to 1.25% on crypto transactions.
  • Pro: If you have the SoFi app, you can buy crypto alongside the stocks, fractional shares, and ETFs that you’re already trading.
  • Con: Can’t transfer crypto holdings to an external wallet.
Summary
  • User Interface: Easy to navigate and fully customizable
  • Fees: Fair
  • Reputation: Trusted
Get up to $1,000 in free stocks
SoFi Invest
5.0
  • Become an investor— without commission fees
  • Make your first trade or your next trade with active investing
  • Learn the market as you do-it-yourself buying hot IPOs or cryptocurrencies
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4. Kraken – Best for Security

kraken

As one of the largest and oldest Bitcoin exchanges in the world, Kraken is consistently named one of the best places to buy and sell crypto online, thanks to its excellent service, low fees, versatile funding options, and rigorous security standards — but this is only part of the story. They’ve been at the forefront of the blockchain revolution since 2011.

Details
  • Fees: The fee per transaction for buying Bitcoin is 0.9%.
  • Pro: Lightning-fast engine allowing 1,500,000 transactions per second gives users a great trading advantage.
  • Con: No credit/debit card deposits.
Summary
  • User Interface: Sleek design, a good overview of the trading market with lots of customizations.
  • Fees: Low
  • Reputation: Trusted

If you are trying to take your crypto investments to the next level, you can get started with Kraken here.

Kraken
4.5

New to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies? No problem. Crypto may seem confusing, but Kraken can help. Sign up today and buy 50+ cryptocurrencies in minutes. Get started with as little as $10.

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5. Robinhood – Best for No Cost

robinhood crypto

Robinhood is a great option for those who want to buy Bitcoin but want to avoid paying any fees. Robinhood is an investing app that allows you to buy and sell Bitcoin with no commissions is one of the top crypto exchanges.

If you’re already familiar with how to buy and sell stocks, then buying Bitcoin on Robinhood will be super easy. In addition to buying Bitcoin (BTC) — you can buy Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin SV (BSV), Dogecoin (DOGE), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), and Litecoin (LTC).

Overall, using Robinhood to buy Bitcoin is smart, easy, and straightforward. Plus, you’ll even give you a free stock worth between $5 and $200 for joining. Then you can sell that stock and buy free Bitcoin with it.

Details
  • Fees: Free
  • Pro: Easy to use and you can buy or sell bitcoin without commissions.
  • Con: Limited supported currencies and no crypto wallets.
Summary
  • User Interface: Easy to navigate and fully customizable
  • Fees: Low
  • Reputation: Trusted
Robinhood
4.5

Robinhood has commission-free investing for stocks, options, ETFs, crypto, and tools to help shape your financial future. Sign up and get your first stock worth between $5 and $200, free.

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Related: Robinhood Review: My Experience Day Trading on Robinhood

6. Coinbase Pro – Best Crypto Trading Platform

coinbase pro

Coinbase Pro (Coinbase’s exchange), is one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges in the United States. Users can fund their accounts via bank transfer, SEPA, or bank wire. Coinbase Pro offers good prices and low fees, but their confusing user interface may initially prove difficult to navigate unless you are used to trading/investing in cryptocurrencies. In order to join Coinbase Pro, you’ll have to create a regular Coinbase account.

Details
  • Fees: Possible to buy bitcoins for 0% fees.
  • Pro: One of the lowest fees available for US and UE users.
  • Con: The user interface is not easy to navigate for beginners.
Summary
  • User Interface: Difficult to Navigate
  • Fees: Low
  • Reputation: Trusted

If you wanted to create a Coinbase Pro account you can create a Coinbase account by clicking this link.

Coinbase
4.7

Coinbase offers over 25 cryptos to trade, invest, or stake in. If you want to diversify your income sources through cryptocurrencies, Coinbase is an ideal platform to buy, sell, or even build your crypto portfolio.

Open Account Coinbase Alternatives

7. Gemini – Best Beginner Friendly Platform

gemini

Gemini is the best place to buy Bitcoin with a debit card instantly. Gemini makes it simple to research the crypto market, buy Bitcoin and other cryptos, and build a portfolio for the future of money.

You can also buy DOGE on the platform and is one of the only exchanges where your deposits are FDIC-protected.

Details
  • Fees: Gemini charges 3.99% fees for credit/debit card purchases but you can get your coins instantly. 1.49% if you buy from your bank account.
  • Pro: You can buy Bitcoin right now with a debit card, very easy to use app-based interface, available in all 50 states, you can even earn interest on your crypto.
  • Con: Customer service support is not the best.
Summary
  • User Interface: Easy to navigate and fully customizable
  • Fees: High
  • Reputation: Trusted
Sign up for Gemini and get $7 in ETH
Gemini
4.7

For casual investors, Gemini offers a trading platform that’s easy for beginners, an advanced platform for serious traders, and a portal for peer-to-peer trading.

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Other Places to Buy Bitcoins

You should stick to the Bitcoin exchanges above as they are the safest, quickest, and offer the lowest fees. However, these are the Bitcoin exchanges that didn’t quite make the top 9 list.

8. CEX.io

cex.io

CEX.io lets you buy bitcoin with a credit card, ACH bank transfer, SEPA transfer, cash, or AstroPay. Purchases made with a credit card give you access to your bitcoin immediately. CEX.io works in the United States, Europe, and certain countries in South America.

Details
  • Fees: Low 0.2% trading fee.
  • Pro: CEX.io is one of the oldest Bitcoin exchanges around so it is trusted.
  • Con: Verification process more intensive than most exchanges and requires a photo ID.
Summary
  • User Interface: Easy to Navigate
  • Fees: Average
  • Reputation: Trusted

If you wanted to create a CEX.io account you can create a CEX.io account by clicking this link.

9. ProBit Exchange

ProBit Exchange supports over 150 currencies with 5 major coins as quote currencies Bitcoin included. ProBit aims to provide users with a wide array of the most trusted coins and tokens on the market and abundant trading pairs. As a global coin-to-coin (C2C) exchange, they provide users with a fast and robust trading experience with its massive processing capacity of 1,500,000 transactions per second – one of the world’s fastest among competitors.

Signing up at ProBit.com with at least $50 worth of digital asset deposit earns you 4USDT in your ProBit wallet. Once signed up, you can earn more rewards through the referral program by simply inviting your friends.

Details
  • Fees: ProBit uses PROB tokens as the currency for platform transactions. They charge a low fee of 0.10% for takers and 0.05% for makers.
  • Pro: Lightning-fast engine allowing 1,500,000 transactions per second gives users a great trading advantage.
  • Con: Relatively new platform, yet to gain bigger following.
Summary
  • User Interface: Easy to navigate and fully customizable
  • Fees: Average
  • Reputation: Trusted

You can sign up to ProBit.com and be one of the first to try this new upcoming exchange for yourself.

10. Coinmama

Coinmama is one of the most popular digital currencies exchanges available. It allows customers in almost every country to buy bitcoin with a credit or debit card as long as it’s a Visa or MasterCard.

Details
  • Fees: Coinmama charges a 6.6% fee on each purchase. 5% additional fee for credit/debit card purchases, but you can get your coins instantly.
  • Pro: Reliable and trusted broker and works in almost all countries.
  • Con: Some of the highest fees among credit/debit card bitcoin brokers.
Summary
  • User Interface: Easy to Navigate
  • Fees: High
  • Reputation: Average

If you wanted to create a Coinmama account you can create a Coinmama account by clicking this link.

11. Bitbuy

Bitbuy is one of Canada’s most popular and trusted platform to buy Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Bitbuy is registered with FINTRAC and is audited annually. Their easy to use interface is designed for both beginners and experienced traders. Customer service is available by phone or chat for any user that requires assistance. They also offer over-the-counter trading.

Details
  • Fees: Transparent fee model, with trading fees as low as 0.10%
  • Pro: Trusted Canadian platform that is regularly audited
  • Con: Available only in Canada
Summary
  • User Interface: Easy to Navigate
  • Fees: Low
  • Reputation: Trusted

If you want to create a Bitbuy account, you can create a Bitbuy account by clicking this link.

Bitcoin for Dummies: What is Bitcoin?

best bitcoin exchanges

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that is open source and created for peer-to-peer money transfers. Imagine PayPal or Venmo without a central authority. No one to tell you what to pay, how to buy, when to buy with no worries of a huge fee.

Now imagine all your transactions becoming open to the public eye through pseudonymity. Bitcoin was created to combat the financial crisis that happened as the banks had too much power.

Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin created it to give the people the power of their money. No need for banks to hold your money. You hold your money in your own wallet.

Your wallet can consist of a paper wallet with just your Bitcoin hash address, a mobile/computer wallet or a cryptocurrency hardware wallet.

Benefits

  • Quick: One major advantage of cryptocurrencies, in general, is that they are quick. If you buy something, the seller will get their coins pretty quickly. If you purchase with a Visa, they need to wait for the transaction to be accepted, then settle then go to your bank account in 3 days.
  • Cheaper Transactions: PayPal and payment processors generally charge 3-4% of the fees and charge that from the seller. In this case, the buyer is paying the fees but it amounts to fractions of a percent.
  • Paperless: Going into the age of digital, paperless is becoming bigger as more people are liking it. Digital currencies do not need a reason to be with paper as everything is done on your phone or computer.
  • Irreversible Transactions: Some people think an irreversible transaction is a bad thing but there are ways to go around it. For sellers, it is a great idea because people cannot make unnecessary chargebacks as we see it being done on sites like eBay and Amazon. To make sure you’re not sending it to the wrong address, always send a minimal amount to the hash address to make sure it is correct.
  • Appreciating Asset: With the way things are going, it seems like Bitcoin can’t keep going up forever. To be frank, not everything will go up forever. However, the difference between fiat and Bitcoin is that the government keeps printing more money while Bitcoin has a set amount that there will ever be which is 21 million total coins. If you’re concerned, you can also learn how to earn interst on your crypto with crypto savings accounts.

How do I get started investing in cryptocurrency for beginners?

The first step is to open an account with one of the crypto exchanges above. Be sure to be aware of the supported currencies, user-friendly interface, pricing, withdrawal fees and options, and security.

Overall, one of the best cryptocurrency exchanges is TradeStation, which allows you to exchange US dollars for Bitcoin or Ethereum, which can then be transferred to a different exchange to buy cryptocurrencies. Learn how to get started with cryptocurrency trading and investing with cryptocurrency guides.

Our Pick
TradeStation Crypto
4.7

TradeStation is the top crypto destination to easily buy, sell, invest, trade, and earn cryptocurrencies. Open an account on an easy to use crypto trading platform.

Open Account

You should understand how crypto coins like Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum work. Also, understand the risks. The risk is high, but the reward is high too. If you wanted to get in on the action, you can do it with the TradeStation.

Only invest what you can afford to lose. 

Tip: Coinbase only has 25 cryptos, if you wanted the most popular exchange that lets you buy all cryptos you want to check out Binance.us and use a Binance referral code to get 10 USD after you complete $100 worth of trading in 30 days.

What about peer-to-peer cryptocurrency transactions?

Decentralized exchanges take a different approach to buying and selling digital assets: They operate without an intermediary organization for clearing transactions, relying instead on self-executing smart contracts to facilitate trading. The best decentralized exchanges are PancakeSwap, dYdX, Uniswap, and Sushiswap.

Best Place to Buy Bitcoin

Do you know that major companies are now accepting Bitcoin as payment and some apps even offer free Bitcoin?

But where are the best places to buy Bitcoin?

 
Our #1 Pick
Pros:
  • App Store: 4.7 · ‎1,641,739 reviews
Pros:
  • App Store: 4.6 · ‎15,689 reviews
Fees: 1.49%
Fees: 0.5% (lowest)
Pros:
  • App Store: 4.7 · ‎1,641,739 reviews
Fees: 1.49%
Our #1 Pick
Pros:
  • App Store: 4.6 · ‎15,689 reviews
Fees: 0.5% (lowest)

In case you want to diversify your investments or just want to make some money, above we took a look at the most popular and trusted Bitcoin exchanges.

Bitcoin is a type of digital currency that you can use for digital purchases or you can trade like stocks. To buy and sell cryptocurrency including Bitcoin, you’ll need to use cryptocurrency exchanges.

I hope you found our list of the best places to buy Bitcoin useful. If you are looking to conveniently buy Bitcoin using the best Bitcoin exchanges, then you will want to check out some of our favorites.

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About the author

Brian Meiggs
Brian Meiggs is a personal finance expert, and the founder of My Millennial Guide, a personal finance site helping you unlock the wealth of freedom. He helps millennials follow the smart money in order to increase their earning potential and start building wealth for the future. He regularly writes about side hustles, investing, and general personal finance topics aimed to help anyone earn more, pay off debt, and reach financial freedom. He has been quoted as a top personal finance blogger in major publications including Business Insider, Yahoo! Finance, NASDAQ, Discover, Fox News, MSN Money and more.

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