Step 1

Open and setup an account in a cryptocurrency exchange.

Choose one cryptocurrency exchange that allows you to make money deposits (USD or EUR). Our suggestion is Coinbase, as one of the safest and most appreciated cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. It was established in 2012, based in San Francisco, California and is available for European citizens as well. By joining Coinbase using this link, you can get $10 worth of Bitcoin for free for a deposit of at least $100.

After registering on Coinbase, you need to provide your phone number so the 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) can be enabled. It is extra layer of security that is absolutely vital in the cryptocurrency world. You will also need to verify your identity by providing an ID, driver’s license or passport photo before being able to make any deposits.

Here is how the Coinbase dashboard looks like:

After successfully verifying your account, you need to add a payment method.

We would go with Bank Account since the Credit/Debit Card should be used only for small amounts and sometimes, depending on the issuing bank, high fees might be charged.

Step 2

Deposit funds.

Next step is to deposit money to your Account. We deposit EUR in this case but the same process can be followed in the case of a USD or GBP account. As seen below, we click on “Accounts” and then “Deposit” on the EUR Wallet.

Then you need to follow the 3 steps on the screen.

One very important step is to add the reference number in the wire transfer so the money can be allocated to your Coinbase account. If the number is missing, it might take days or even weeks till the money is returned to your account.

Here is all the information you need for the wire transfer. It is a SEPA payment (Euro Payments Area) in this case, which depending on your bank will have 0 to 0.30$ fees.

What actually happens is that you send a wire transfer to a Coinbase account in a bank in Estonia and by providing your personal reference number, the money will be credited to your Coinbase wallet within one to three days in most of the cases. After the deposit, our account will look as below:

Step 3

Buying Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Some important notes before we proceed:

As you can see, you can actually buy Litecoin (LTC) or Bitcoin Cash (BCH) as well. You need to pay attention though that Bitcoin’s “code” is BTC and not BCH. This is a common beginner’s mistake. It is also very important to bear in mind that you don’t necessarily have to buy a whole Bitcoin or Ethereum, but you can just get fractions of it.

At this point, we need to mention that there is the possibility to buy Bitcoin/Ethereum directly on Coinbase as seen below. It is however not advised for trading, since the fees are relatively high and is suggested only to those who want to buy once and hold.

Now it’s the time to introduce GDAX. GDAX is the digital exchange service of Coinbase and you can actually consider it as the crypto-exchange part of it. Transactions between Coinbase and GDAX happen instantly and with zero fees. By typing https://www.gdax.com in a new tab, we reach the GDAX GUI, which in the beginning might scare away someone with no trading experience but believe me, it’s one of the most intuitive and user friendly crypto currency exchanges in the market.