The Absolute Fastest Way to Buy Stellar (XLM) or any other AltCoin with USD one_true_snek Follow Feb 15, 2018 · 7 min read

The below guide will walk you through how to buy Stellar Lumens (XLM) with USD. Many alt coins including Stellar (XLM) are currently not able to be bought directly with USD. You must first buy another cryptocurrency and then trade that for your AltCoin.

Overview

The creation of the necessary accounts, the funding of your account with a wire, the buying of Ethereum, the buying of your AltCoin and finally the transfer to a personal local wallet is what will be detailed. Below is the diagram of the process.

Wire (USD) -> Coinbase/GDAX -> Buy ETH -> Binance -> Buy AltCoin ->Transfer Out

Create Accounts

Create a CoinBase account Create a Binance account

Fund Coinbase/GDAX (WIRE)

Now this part is extremely important so make sure you pay close attention. Browse any exchange subreddit and you will find countless horror stories about lost wires for many months. If you do the wire correctly you should have no problems. However, in case of a mishap, I recommend first sending a smaller amount to CoinBase. Once that clears, you can then be sure everything was done correctly and do it again with a larger amount. I will show exactly how to setup the wire through Bank of America, however, the process should be similar for any other bank. You can get smaller instant amounts by Debit/Credit card but this has been recently halted by a number of banks. The ACH method is very slow but as far as I know it will always clear correctly.

On CoinBase, click the “Accounts” button Go to the USD Wallet and click “Deposit” Select Wire Transfer

4. Copy the Reference Number and click continue

5. Enter the amount you wish to send and click continue

6. Go to your Bank account and set up a Wire transfer

7. For Bank of America, sign in and then click on this link

8. Select these options

9. Click on the “Add Account” button

10. Enter the information on CoinBase to the appropriate fields. Double check everything. Copy/Paste can get newline characters and mess this up. Clear any extra white spaces.

11. Go back to the Wire page and select your bank account and the CoinBase Account as the Recipient. It has to be a same day transfer because otherwise the “PETX” code will not be delivered. No code. No Funds. Therefore, double check the code and everything. The amount needs to also match what you put on CoinBase.

12. Get your Bank of America Safe Pass SMS and click send

13. On CoinBase, click I sent the funds and follow any additional instructions

If all goes well, you should have your funds in around 2 hours (that is how long it takes for me). Keep in mind, the wire needs to be submitted on a business day and sent before 1:00pm PT for you to get it the same day. You will get a e-mail from CoinBase when your funds are available.

Buy Ethereum

Now that your USD is with CoinBase you can buy Ethereum

Click on the Buy/Sell button Select Ethereum Select your USD Wallet Click in the amount textbox and then click the “BUY MAX” button (or however much you want to buy)

You now have Ethereum which is a trading pair for most AltCoins

Optional: Transfer to GDAX

One way to avoid withdraw fees is to use CoinBase’s exchange called GDAX. However, you must get verified. Getting verified can take variable amounts of time (24 hours for me) and is rather finicky to get working. You decide if it is worth taking a withdraw fee hit.

Click the “stack of pancakes” in the top right Click on Accounts Click the down arrow next to “ETH ACCOUNT” Transfer your ETH from your CoinBase account to GDAX Click the up arrow to send it to your Binance account

Deposit into Binance

Binance is currently the best exchange for AltCoins and lists most of them. If Binance doesn’t have your AltCoin transfer your funds to a exchange that has it. There are some very sketchy exchanges out there (BitGrail) and would proceed with caution if you are not going to use Binance.

Click the “Funds” button and the “Deposits” in the top right Search for Ethereum Copy the ETH Deposit Address

Go back to CoinBase and click the “Send” button on the Ethereum wallet on the Account page Enter your Binance ETH Address and double check it. Again you may want to send a smaller amount the first time but you will incur more fees this way. Confirm everything is correct and send the Ethereum to Binance

Once this is done, refresh the deposit page and you should see the incoming Ethereum along with the confirmations. The transfer will complete once the necessary confirmations are met. This will take around 5 minutes.

Buying your AltCoin

Once you have your Ethereum in Binance, navigate to the exchange with the AltCoin Ethereum pair. For example, for Stellar (XLM) it is

https://www.binance.com/tradeDetail.html?symbol=XLM_ETH

You can change this to your AltCoin by selecting the XLM/ETH button in the top right. You need to find out what the shorthand or ticker is for your AltCoin. Once you are on the correct trading pair, click the 100% button and then “Buy”

Your order may not filled right away and you may need to adjust the ETH price amount. You can check on the order and cancel it in the “Open Orders” window in the bottom left.

Congratulations! You now own your AltCoin!

The e-mail You Never Want to See

*NEVER KEEP YOUR COINS ON A EXCHANGE*

This has been my fundamental rule ever since I lost my Bitcoins in the Mt. Gox hack of 2014. To this day no one has received any form of compensation back. If you think this problem has been solved, you are mistaken. In just the past few days the exchange BitGrail was hacked and $170 Million of Nano (a cryptocurrency) was stolen. In late January 2018, $400 Million of NEM was stolen from Coincheck. Exchanges are the number one target of hackers due to their large wallet sizes. For this reason, you should transfer your coins to a local wallet with encryption and/or password protection.

Download a local wallet. For Stellar (XLM), I recommend the StarGazer Client. For most others, I recommend Exodus. If your AltCoin is not available on StarGazer or Exodus, go to the AltCoin’s webpage and find a approved wallet. Click the “Funds” button in the top right and then the “Withdraws” button Search for XLM or whatever AltCoin you just bought

Get your deposit address from StarGazer or Exodus Enter and double check the withdraw address Follow any extra instructions on the Binance Withdraw page Enter a small amount to make sure it works (For Stellar XLM the fees are very low so you should do this, but for others it may be higher and you may want to consider that) Double check the withdraw address and that everything is correct Click “Submit” Binance will send you a confirmation SMS and CONFIRMATION EMAIL. Confirm both and your AltCoin will be on the way. Once that is confirmed in your wallet and you see it, send the rest of your coins with the (MAX) button Add password to the wallet (take advantage of the wallet’s built in security mechanisms) Be sure to make a physical note of the password and keep the password note in a safe place where you will remember to look for it.

Stellar (XLM) Only: Inflation Pool

One neat feature of Stellar is every week the network transfer fees are redistributed among Stellar (XLM) holders. To get free Stellar (XLM) every week, you must join a Inflation Pool. The best Inflation Pool that takes zero fees is Lumenaut.

Open StarGazer and click the small gear in the top right Click on Advanced and then Inflation Destination Enter the Lumenaut Inflation Destination Address Click OK

Thanks for reading my guide. If you have any questions or comments ask below with the chat bubble icon button.

Disclaimer: I used my referral codes. This is my personal perspective and personal advice.