Now that you have a place for your keys, it's time to fill your accounts! To do this, you will need to buy Bitcoin, which exchanges help you do. Technically, you can store your crypto on an exchange as if it were a wallet, but this is not recommended for security reasons. Use them to buy and sell, not to hold.
If you are buying crypto for the first time, you will need to find an exchange that supports fiat-to-crypto purchases using your local currency. You should be able to find some good options no matter what country you live in, but if you're lucky enough to be in the US, you can use Coinbase, which is very user-friendly and offers an ever-growing range of cryptocurrencies. that you can buy and many payment options available. Other options for the US and abroad include Gemini (very secure), Bittrex (good interface), CoinMama (lots of payment options), and Bitstamp (mainly serves Europe). Most of the most trusted exchanges will require you to upload some sort of ID for verification purposes, which can take a while to clear.
You can also get a little more old school and find a local seller who will trade cryptocurrency for cash without going through an exchange using a site like LocalBitcoins. Bitcoin ATMs are also an option in many cities where you can perform a cash-for-Bitcoin transaction at a physical kiosk using cash or a card.
Before using an exchange, however, do a bit of research and make sure everything is still in place. Things change quickly in the crypto world and you don't want your money stuck on an exchange whose founder died (or did?) and took all the passwords with him, for example.
Once you sign up on an exchange, the buying process should be fairly straightforward. You can choose the cryptocurrency you want to buy (Bitcoin is standard on all), your payment method (many exchanges support bank transfers, cards and services like PayPal), and the amount of crypto you want to buy. It's pretty much like any other online payment process at this point.
When the transaction is complete, your account on the exchange should be credited with the number of coins you purchased, and now you have the freedom to send them wherever you want.
You're almost there! Now that you have your coins in exchange, all you need to do is send them to your wallet for long-term holding or future spending. It should also be quite simple.
When looking at your cryptocurrency balance, your exchange should show you an option to send or receive cryptocurrency. To send it, you'll need your wallet's public key, which you should be able to find quite easily by going to your wallet and copying the corresponding string of letters and numbers under the "receive" option.
Paste this string into the “send” address field of your exchange. Make sure the address is correct! If you send it to the wrong address or send the currency to an address for another type of cryptocurrency, you cannot cancel it.
Press the "send" button. It should tell you that it is waiting for the transaction to be confirmed on the blockchain. This may take some time as several other computers need to validate your transaction first. If you want to check its progress, you can enter the transaction in a block explorer and see how many confirmations it has.
Once the coins appear in your wallet, you're done!
All that you want! “Hodling,” or just leaving them there and waiting for them to become more valuable, is quite popular. You can also trade them for other cryptocurrencies, use decentralized apps, or even buy and sell things in the real world. Many places accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in exchange for goods and services these days, and the payment process is often as easy as scanning a QR code. Now that you have your own digital currency stash, the blockchain world is your oyster!
