Where and how can you buy bitcoins?

Where and how can you buy bitcoins?

For a long time, bitcoins have been considered as play money for nerds and cybercriminals, and now the financial industry is taking the cryptocurrency seriously. With their help, you can not only make transfers, for many, it is also interesting as a speculative investment.

For example, anyone who acquired a bitcoin at around 200 euros in May 2015 can look forward to the eightfold increase in its capital. At the beginning of March, a Bitcoin was worth more than a troy ounce of gold for the first time. Despite all the risks of loss and high volatility, more and more people want to invest in Bitcoin (BTC).

Only: how does that work? Beginners first need a so-called wallet, so a virtual wallet. Behind it hides a software that exists for all operating systems and platforms. With the wallet you can send and receive bitcoins. Among other things, the currency is available on one of the Bitcoin marketplaces in the network. Investors must log in and deposit their account details; Some providers allow the Bitcoin purchase by credit card.

The choice of the marketplace requires care and a leap of faith. Because these companies can go bankrupt or be hacked - both have already happened. German leader is bitcoin.de, which advertises with regular safety audits. There, BTC owners offer their bitcoins as with Ebay at a certain price, the marketplace itself takes a transaction fee.

If the purchase price has been transferred to the account of the seller and the recipient confirms that, the purchased bitcoins wander into the wallet. Alternatively, you can also gain your first offline experience with the cryptocurrency - at local Bitcoin meetings, for example, as they are in many cities. According to Statista, there are also around 1,150 Bitcoin ATMs - most in the US; Germany is still a diaspora here.