Cryptocurrencies have gained significant traction recently and particularly during the pandemic, where many young investors were flush with both time and cash (in the form of government stimulus). This prompted prices to soar, which then caught the attention of many larger institutional investors.
How do you buy cryptocurrency, and what is a digital wallet?
The first port of call when buying cryptocurrency is an online exchange, which acts similarly to a share brokerage platform, such as CommSec. Some of the more popular local and international exchanges are Coinbase, Kraken, BTCMarkets and Independent Reserve.
Once you’ve set up an account, transferred some money and run through the mandatory “know your customer” process, you can then get to purchasing your crypto. On most exchanges, this is as easy as picking what you want and hitting a big green “buy” button.
If you’re crypto curious, by now you’ve probably also heard about “digital wallets” that people store their funds in, and possibly also heard some horror stories of investors forgetting their private keys (wallet passwords) or accidentally falling victim to some sort of phishing scam.
