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Bitcoin is an asset that has definitely caught the eye of investors over the last few years. In fact, Bitcoin has been the best performing financial asset of the previous decade! So naturally, the number of people looking to buy Bitcoin has been given a serious boost. On that note, not everyone understands the main payment methods that can be used to buy Bitcoin. But in our experience, buying Bitcoin with PayPal is certainly a good avenue to go down.
In terms of how this is actually done - this is discussed throughout the rest of this guide.
Where to buy Bitcoin with PayPal
There are various crypto investment platforms that allow you to buy Bitcoin with PayPal, but there is one that ranks above all others for us:
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eToro has been able to build a significant following due to many reasons of late. Firstly, these guys are one of the main platforms when it comes to social trading - a form of ‘copy trading’ where you can replicate the trades of expert investors. All of that is free of charge. Secondly, eToro has completely removed fees for buying and selling various financial instruments on the site. This makes an enormous difference over time compared with other investment platforms!
Thirdly, eToro lets you buy Bitcoin directly, or buy Bitcoin as part of a well-balanced portfolio. This is a relatively new offering on the eToro platform, but it has already proven to be a hit with current members. And finally, eToro has put together a fantastic mobile app for both Android and iOS. This app is stylish, slick, and it allows you to execute Bitcoin trades while on the move.
Pros
- Over 25 million registered users
- No fees for Bitcoin purchases
- Support of social trading
Cons
- Inactivity fees do apply
- Fees charged for certain withdrawal options
>>> Buy Bitcoin using PayPal with eToro <<<
Cryptoasset investing is unregulated in most EU countries and the UK. No consumer protection. Your capital is at risk. CFD crypto trading is unavailable for clients residing in the UK and US. 67% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
How to buy Bitcoin with PayPal
Some cryptocurrency brokers, such as eToro, support PayPal as a payment method for purchasing Bitcoin. Here are the necessary steps to get up and running:
- Create an account and verify your details by providing ID
- Head to banking and deposit funds using PayPal
- Look for Bitcoin under the crypto asset class
- Enter the value of Bitcoin you’d like to buy
- Execute the trade by hitting the buy button
With Bitcoin holding a high value right now, it is unlikely that you’ll be looking to buy several coins at once. In fact, many investors are settling for buying fractions of Bitcoin these days. So for that reason, just keep in mind that the value entered may need to be given in decimals between 0 and 1 (if buying less than one Bitcoin). This completely depends on the platform chosen, however, as some may just let you enter the value in fiat currency.
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How to deposit and withdraw BTC via PayPal
After providing you with steps on how to set up your PayPal account and actually use PayPal to buy Bitcoin above, we’d like to get a bit more specific concerning the deposits and withdrawals process. Of course, PayPal is a method that supports both, and you can check out the details of both right here:
Deposit
Before you can pull the trigger and buy Bitcoin with PayPal, as mentioned earlier, you do need to fund your account to cover the cost. So on that note, here is what you must do to process your first deposit with PayPal:
- Sign in to your account on mobile or desktop
- Select deposits in the relative banking section
- Choose PayPal from the available options
- Enter the value of Bitcoin you wish to buy
- Enter your PayPal email address and password
- Complete the transaction
As you’ve probably noticed, there is no need to enter any financial details when using PayPal to buy Bitcoin. That’s because the details are already linked with your PayPal account, meaning there is no need to go and share them with your respective investment platform.
>>> Get started buying Bitcoin with PayPal here <<<
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Withdraw
Whenever you decide that you wish to withdraw the money from your Bitcoin investments, again, using PayPal, you’ll find that it’s actually very easy to do so. But to ensure you know exactly how this is done, we’ve put together the necessary steps here:
- Head to banking when signed in to your account
- Select PayPal from the available options
- Enter the amount you’d like to withdraw
- Confirm your PayPal account details (email and password)
- Hit the withdrawal button to complete the transaction
Note that before you can withdraw money with PayPal, you will need to have verified your personal details on the respective investment site. This is fairly common practice with all regulated investment platforms. And once you have hit that withdrawal button to cash out your funds, the processing times are usually somewhere between 0-48 hours. This is significantly quicker than other methods such as bank transfers or debit cards.
What should I look for in a PayPal Bitcoin broker?
Besides the choice of which products to use when buying Bitcoin, in the first place, one of the most important decisions you can make is which Bitcoin broker to go with. It goes without saying that not all Bitcoin brokers have the same quality, trust, or popularity among current and potential users. So to ensure that you only buy Bitcoin at some of the very best brokers available, we’d like to bring your attention to the following features:
- Variety of Bitcoin-related products
The crypto market has evolved to such a point now that buying or selling Bitcoin is no longer the only way to invest in this asset. In fact, there are a bunch of other products you may want to explore at leading broker platforms. These involve products like Bitcoin staking, CFDs, and several others too. Of course, the more Bitcoin trading options available, the more flexibility you have regarding how you invest.
- Platform fees
Unnecessary fees can swallow up large chunks of your bank balance when investing in assets such as Bitcoin. And we can tell you now - many platforms charge rather unfavourable fees in terms of deposit fees, withdrawal fees, trading fees, and inactivity fees. Naturally, it’s preferable to sign up and buy Bitcoin with sites that have reduced these fees as much as possible.
- Site reputation/rating
Before diving in with both feet at any platform, it’s important to pump the brakes and assess a site’s reputation first. On that note, we always recommend exploring trading platforms that have been in the game for a number of years. In addition to this, it’s beneficial to pick sites that have millions of registered users. This signifies popularity and trust with the wider investment community.
And finally, you should always take some time to investigate customer reviews to gain an understanding of how a site operates and treats its members.
- User experience
After you’ve weighed up whether a site has a good reputation, what its products are, and whether the fee structure is to your liking - you may want to take the site for a test drive. Basically, this involves visiting the platform, whether through the desktop or mobile channels, and then playing around to see whether you like what you see. Above all, the platform should be easy to use without any significant technical glitches.
This can all be assessed before you choose to register with that particular platform.
- Available trading tools
Trading tools are different to trading products - we’d like to clear that up immediately. While the products determine how you can invest in Bitcoin, the tools determine the ‘help’ you have, so to speak, when it comes to actually trading the asset. The very best platforms out there support tools like MT4 and MT5 trading software, spot and futures buying options, educational videos on Bitcoin, and so much more. Again, all of this adds up to help with your buying and selling decisions relating to Bitcoin and other cryptos.
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Should I buy Bitcoin using PayPal?
In order to address this question right away - yes, we think you should be looking to buy Bitcoin with PayPal. Why? Well, let us highlight the main pros of using PayPal over other methods right now:
Pros
- Higher transaction limits
This is an important feature to mention, especially with Bitcoin holding significant value right now. While other payment methods such as debit cards or prepaid cards have quite low deposit maximums, PayPal’s are usually very high. So if you want to invest quite a chunk of change into Bitcoin, PayPal is a great choice.
- Overall security
PayPal is widely regarded as one of the most secure online payment platforms available these days. The company itself has actually been in business for more than 20 years, and PayPal has helped millions of users around the globe to perform online transactions with greater ease. Aside from this reputation, PayPal doesn’t actually share your bank details once they have been stored. All you have to do is give your email and password when processing online transactions - limiting the chances that any sensitive details will fall into the wrong hands.
- Speed of transactions
Compared with methods such as bank transfers, for example, PayPal is actually an incredibly quick option. When processing deposits with PayPal, you should find that your funds are made instantly available. And when it comes to withdrawals, it’s quite common for funds to be credited back to your PayPal account within 48 hours.
Cons
- Fees for currency conversion
Although we’ve mentioned that you can hold various currencies in your PayPal account, this does come with a negative aspect. If you plan on making regular transactions or conversions involving several currencies, you will incur fees. These aren’t exactly huge, but they can add up over time.
- Not yet widely adopted
To avoid confusion, yes - PayPal is widely adopted in the world of eCommerce. However, when it comes to investment platforms that support Bitcoin, PayPal isn’t yet broadly available. Sure, major crypto platforms like eToro do support PayPal, but if you start to explore less popular platforms, it is not a guarantee that PayPal will be a payment option.
- Pending payments
This is a rather frustrating thing that PayPal does in an attempt to protect your account. Basically, if money comes through that they don’t determine to be ‘normal’, they can put the funds into a pending balance. And until you manage to get confirmation that this transaction is something that you’d expected, the funds will remain in a holding balance, potentially for weeks.
What are the alternative payment methods to buy Bitcoin with?
Although we recommend that you buy Bitcoin with PayPal over others, for the benefits mentioned earlier, you can still explore other methods, of course. On that note, here are some common alternatives to PayPal that you may want to consider:
- Debit cards
Most of you will be fully aware of what a debit card is and how it functions, so we won’t be running through this. Instead, we’d like to quickly touch on the pros and cons of using a debit card to buy Bitcoin. Of course, the majority of people have debit cards these days, and they do support instant transactions along with a degree of safety - as many banks now ask you to manually approve online transactions. However, the limits when using debit cards are generally much lower than PayPal.
- Other e-wallets (Skrill/Neteller)
PayPal is technically a digital wallet, but this form of payment system is by no means unique anymore. In fact, many other digital wallets operate on a global scale, with the likes of Neteller and Skrill ranking highly. These e-wallets support many of the same benefits as PayPal, involving higher transaction minimums, low or zero fees, and awesome security features. Of course, the only hassle here is that you must set up an account before you can use them.
- Direct bank transfers
Bank transfers have long been viewed as a highly secure form of payment, and this is true to this day. With bank transfers, you must manually perform the transaction and then approve it, which makes it very hard for someone to ‘hack’ your account. And with many banks now supporting instant transfers, the previous frustration of lengthy processing speeds are now a thing of the past.
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Final Thoughts
At this point, we hope it is clear that buying Bitcoin with PayPal is a good choice. Bitcoin is obviously a long-standing crypto that has enjoyed massive success over the previous 10 years. And with PayPal supporting so many key benefits when it comes to buying Bitcoin, we definitely recommend this avenue for all. But to conclude, in order to make sure you buy Bitcoin at one of the top platforms, we suggest that you sign up with eToro.
67% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider
FAQs
Can I buy Bitcoin anonymously with PayPal?
Technically yes, even if PayPal knows exactly who you are. Bitcoin holdings are stored according to a wallet address, not to an individual. So in terms of the Bitcoin blockchain, yes, you are technically anonymous.
How fast is buying Bitcoin with PayPal?
After you’ve set up your PayPal and investment account, buying Bitcoin with PayPal is effectively instantaneous. This means that once you hit that buy button, you are officially a Bitcoin investor.
Do I need a crypto wallet?
Yes, but don’t worry about the technical details of this. Basically, once you set up an investment account, you will already have your own wallet where your Bitcoin is stored. You can then set up separate wallets in both an online and offline setting if desired.
Are there low fees when using PayPal to buy Bitcoin?
Yes. The fees associated with buying Bitcoin with PayPal are very low, especially if you are doing this with just one main currency.
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