Last Update: December 25, 2014

Introduction

The question of how to buy DogeCoin(DOGE) comes up extremely frequently. This article is an attempt at a concise answer that covers all of the most practical options. I assume that you already have your DOGE wallet and know how to use it.

Before starting, it's important to note that how you buy DOGE will depend on a number of factors, and there is currently no "universally best" option. These factors are:

Location: As exchanges move to conform to local laws and regulations, they limit countries and states from which they will accept clients. Time: How fast you want to get your coins. Price: How much you are willing to overpay for speed and convenience. Volume: How many DogeCoins you are buying. Some exchanges have minimum and maximum amounts you can buy per day. Risk-tolerance: Whether or not you are willing to use shady exchanges.

With that said, there are two main ways to buy DOGE:

Indirect: Buy BitCoins (BTC) with US dollars (USD), and then buy DOGE with the newly acquired BTC. Lowest possible fees (around ~1%.)

Best security and protection of private info.

High transaction limits - can buy virtually as much as you are willing to pay for.

Slow - can take up to a week.

Requires bank account or credit card. Direct: Buy DOGE directly from one vendor. Fast purchase times - often under an hour.

Can pay with PayPal.

High fees - up to 15%.

Relatively weaker security measures.

Low transaction amounts, $15-$250 a day maximum, depending on verification level.

Few legitimate vendors.

You may wonder why you would ever consider an indirect purchase, given the choice. First of all, historically, there was no way to buy DOGE directly outside of trusting random strangers on forums, ebay, local classifieds, etc. Second of all (and more importantly), while there are now "formal" direct options, they involve paying higher fees and/or using less secure exchanges. As such, the direct option remains a fall back for when you need to get your DOGEs extremely quickly or do not have / want to use your bank account, as opposed to paypal.

Indirect Purchases

Step 1 - Purchase BTC from one of the following vendors:

(The table makes the assumption that you are a new user, which affects purchase maximums. Some aspects are over-simplified for convenience. "Purchase time" includes money transfer times. Exchanges in beta, such as Bitfinex, aren't included in the list. Kraken isn't listed because it isn't reliably accepting USD at this time.)

Exchange Location Team Security Payment Methods BTC/USD Trade Fee (%) Minimum Purchase Maximum Purchase Time Comments {{x.name}} {{x.location}} {{x.team}} {{x.security}} {{x.paymentMethods}} {{x.btcUsdTradeFee}} {{x.minimumPurchaseUsd}} {{x.maximumPurchaseUsd}} {{x.purchaseTime}} {{x.comments}}

I have given you a lot of options here, but really, just use CoinBase. It will give you the best price (when factoring in wire-transfer costs) unless you are making a huge purchase, at which point you may want to consider BitStamp for the .5%-.6% lower trade fee. This is only worth it if you are spending a LOT of money, at which point security becomes an issue, but BitStamp is perhaps more established than CoinBase, just not domestic.

Need BitCoins NOW? Think the DOGE price will move TODAY? Try TruCoin if it's available in your state. Though at this point, you might as well jump over to the direct option: WeSellDoges. You WILL overpay there, by about 10% to 14.5%, but it's simple and fast.

Side note on privacy: You have none. The days of anonymous crypto-currency are over. The US government has declared crypto to be "real money," and exchanges are regulated by the United States Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and are subject to Money Services Business regulations, which involve "know your customer requirements." If you want to buy crypto without an ID, this article is not for you, and you will be dealing with peoeple selling illegally.

Step 2 - Transfer your BTC to one of these exchanges selling DOGE for BTC and make the trade:

(There is a bit more freedom with BTC/DOGE exchanges as you do not need the exchange to accept a particular FIAT currency.)

Exchange Location Team Security DOGE/BTC Trade Fee (%) Comments {{v.name}} {{v.location}} {{v.team}} {{v.security}} {{v.btcDogeTradeFee}} {{v.comments}}

Lots of choices again, but Kraken, Coins-e, and Cryptsy are your go-to here for lowest fees and best security. The other exchanges get brought up so often that most people don't realize they aren't exactly competitive in the transparency department. If you start actively trading DOGE and other crypto, they become worth looking at for a variety of reasons. Just for buying DOGE though? There is simply no reason to use them.

I don't list time-frames for Step 2, because they are short, but it CAN take up to a few hours for an exchange to receive and process your BTC deposit. Trades are usually instantaneous, if you don't set a limit price. Withdrawal fees in DOGE aren't mentioned because they are virtually always negligible (5 DOGE is the norm). After making the trade here, you are ready to move the DOGE to the wallet on your computer.

Direct Purchase

I won't make a table here, since you only have one legitimate option. Note that you CAN make a direct purchase through BTC-e, but I don't consider BTC-e an option, because it's as much of a pain as an indirect purchase and I can't stress enough how shady it is (if you haven't looked at the table comments).

That leaves you with WeSellDoges.com...and that's it. When I started this article, I was positive that there were other direct ways, but there are not; At least not remotely trust-worthy ones. WeSellDoges is a small LLC located in the US that is undergoing MSB registatrion and is FinCen compliant. The owners and location of the company are known. To buy from them, you need a PayPal account. You can buy up to $15 worth of DOGE from WeSellDoge by sending an email with your name, and up to $150 by emailing them a photocopy of your ID (this is dictated by government regulation). The whole purchase process usually takes less than a few hours. Their fee is 15% - much higher than the indirect options which average less than 1%.

Being a small operation, they cannot possibly have the same security measures as something like CoinBase, but unlike CoinBase, WeSellDoges doesn't need your bank information. WeSellDoges also has a very good reputation on Reddit, where they have been selling DOGE for a while. In short, if you want to buy DOGE now or are buying a small amount, WeSellDoges is a legitimate option. The rapidity of the transaction can be especially important if you think the price of DOGE may increase rapidly in the next few days - there is a good chance of missing out on the action when you are waiting almost a week for the indirect route; Not to mention spending a lot of time checking whether or not your intermediate transactions are complete.

Conclusion and Notes

If time isn't an issue and you have a bank account you can use, and/or you are buying over a few hundred dollars of DOGE, stick with the indirect method.

UPDATE: You can also buy Dogecoin directly from GoCelery. The fee is 1%, but a purchase takes 4-5 days, just as most indirect purchases and GoCelery requires your bank information, despite not being an established company. GoCelery is supposedly based in New York, but the provided address is a general office building, and the team make-up is unclear. The few people on Reddit who had used GoCelery had no complaints. Could be less of a hassle than buying indirectly, but with the same good price. Unproven as of now.

Miscellaneous:

If you are in Canada, use Vault of Satoshi for a direct DOGE purchase.

If you are in the EU, use Kraken or Yacuna for a direct purchase.

If you would like me to correct anything, write a comment or shoot me an email at dogepricenet@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading!