As adoption soars and values reach all-time highs, more people are looking to get in on crypto trading — and a crypto trading platform is the way to do it.
While there have been many headlines recently devoted to the rise of institutional interest in Bitcoin and various other cryptocurrencies, as well as well-known payment portals beginning to offer their services to the welders of such tokens — there seems to be little information devoted to just how the average investor can expect to purchase Bitcoin. Buying cryptocurrency, while a multi-step process, isn’t supremely difficult to do. What makes the task so daunting is understanding how to purchase crypto in such a way that you, and your newly purchased tokens, are safe and secure.
Which is where humble crypto trading platforms like Bitvavo step in. These platforms are designed with the average investor in mind, walking new users through the process of buying and securing tokens, while also allowing them to expand their knowledge base regarding investment practices. Crypto trading platforms are a fundamental part of widespread crypto adoption, and it’s no wonder that more people use them every single day.
Why Crypto Trading Platform Matters
Crypto trading platforms are what provide access into the wide world of crypto finance. Depending on the platform a user chooses to engage with, a number of really useful tools and information can be used alongside just trading and storing crypto. Choosing which type of trading platform best suits, you can be a difficult decision, as each platform brings something unique to the arena.
What makes most crypto trading platforms so incredible, isn’t just their ability to bring crypto into the standard home, but also provide financial security for the billions of people around the globe that are considered underbanked, or unbanked. Studies estimate that there are two billion people worldwide who are considered unbanked — in that they have no access to the traditional financial services market. Tack onto that number, the number of people that have only limited access to financial tools, specifically the type of tools that give them access to education, reliable shelter, and nutritious food.
While being “banked” — or having direct and relatively easy access to any and all financial tools available — is something that a large majority of us are used to. Being able to apply for lines of credit and loans when we need them. Effortlessly shopping online for the goods that we need, but can’t find at home. Depositing our paychecks electronically into our bank accounts. All of these things and more are all luxuries of being capable of interacting with the global centralized financial system. If you have a bank account, line of credit, mortgage, or other banked tools, consider what it took to create it. A history of bills, personally identifying documentation, startup cash, weeks if not months of time. A long history of being a responsible and repetitive consumer. Living in a country where banking can be achieved with relative ease.
For those that do not have access to banks and legacy financial institutions, there was historically no way for them to protect any assets that they may have owned, no way to gain more. Luckily, thanks to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and the trading platforms that host them, these billions of individuals no longer fall through the cracks. Moreover, cryptocurrencies can not only serve as a portal into general finance, but they can also serve to protect and ensure capital and assets that one already has. Keeping them safe from unnecessary seizure, hyperinflation, or loss of capital due to ever increasing fees.
Crypto Trading Platform Systems to Consider
There are essentially three main ways that someone can come to own, or trade, crypto.
- Exchanges and Trading Platforms
- Peer-to-Peer Networks
- Bitcoin ATMS
Exchanges and crypto trading platforms remain the most common and readily accepted places in which to snag some crypto for yourself. This is because these platforms not only come with some assurances, but many also offer a number of financial tools and comprehensive information that any novice crypto trader will want at their immediate disposal.
Most exchanges not only offer wallets and secure places in which to store your crypto, but they also can help guide users to making the best investment options possible. Most exchanges also offer transparent fee scales and the latest trading price of any cryptocurrency they offer. Exchanges are a great way to emulate the feel of a traditional financial structure in cryptocurrency. While crypto lending and savings accounts are still under development, most trading platforms allow users to effortlessly exchange their tokens between their personal wallets and the trading table. And using these tokens to pay for goods and services is becoming a more and more popular option.
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks are best designed for crypto traders who plan on holding on to their cache for the long haul as well as those who are already intimately familiar with how crypto and its associated markets work. These networks work similarly to things like Craigslist or GumTree, where interested parties will essentially post what they are looking to buy or sell, and others will interact directly with those postings. Most networks have an internal rating and vetting system that allows traders to gain some clarity as to whether the poster has a good history of following through with transactions appropriately — but there are no assurances. Oftentimes these transactions are conducted via bank transfer and there is no way to contest purchases if a seller/buyer falls through. What P2P networks do offer, is a fully decentralized platform in which crypto can be bought pseudo anonymously. Something many crypto purists are incredibly interested in.
Bitcoin ATMs are few and far between, with huge variances in what anyone machine is capable of. Some will deal in other altcoins as well as bitcoin, some will create wallets for the buyer. Some will be capable of both selling and buying bitcoin. The best way to find out what machines are most accessible and what they are capable of is to reference a Bitcoin ATM map. What sets this on-ramp apart from the others is that with many Bitcoin ATMs, cryptocurrency
