Are you looking to start investing in cryptocurrencies? Want to get in on the hype of the latest trending cryptos like Shiba Inu and Safemoon? Keep reading and find out How to Purchase Crypto in Canada. At the beginning of this year, I started investing in stocks and a couple of months later started reading and learning about crypto. I’m sure most of you have heard about Bitcoin and Ethereum, the top cryptos known worldwide. But did you know there are literally hundreds of cryptocurrencies available?
I originally thought crypto was too expensive because of Bitcoin and was for boomers and traders with big wallets and plenty of trading experience. Wrong! Crypto has gained a lot more traction and popularity among many young retail traders in recent years. I feel like the beginning of 2021 is when it really became more widely known especially with the help of social media. One crypto that became very popular and was driven by a lot of momentum is Dogecoin. Having Elon Musk publicly backing Doge has proven to be a catalyst for this currency. His company, Tesla, has already been accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment for purchases of their vehicles, and sometime around May, there were talks of having Dogecoin accepted as a form of payment too. The momentum to get Dogecoin to $1 was on a lot of retailer traders’ minds, including myself, which led to the price increase. Many people bought in and held for a few months and had huge profits.
I actually purchased Dogecoin when it was at $.08 CAD before all the frenzy, because I just wanted to park my money and invest in cheap crypto for the first time and Doge was it for me. A month or so later it went to $0.18, then $0.32, and it kept going up after that. Eventually, a new catalyst drove the price of Dogecoin, and this was news that Elon Musk will be hosting on Saturday Night Live. A couple of weeks prior to this event, the price went up to its All-Time High of $0.7376, on May 8, 2021.
The jump in price made millionaires out of investors who bought in early, one man known as ‘The Dogecoin Milionaire’ (Glauber Contessoto), is one of them. He bought 5 Million Dogecoins in February when it was just $0.045 USD, about $225K USD total. Go check out his YouTube channel when he posted about it and he gave reasons why he went all-in with his money and purchased Dogecoin. A couple of months later, in April 2021, he became a millionaire. The following month leading up to the SNL show with Elon, his Dogecoin was valued at $3 Million dollars USD. Unfortunately, the night of that show, Dogecoin dipped A LOT. The Dogecoin Millionaire held on to his crypto and to this day he says he is still holding and not planning on cashing out just yet. At the time of this post, Dogecoin is $.2388 and so with his 5 Million Dogecoins, he is still a millionaire.
If you search cryptocurrencies online it could get very overwhelming because there are a lot of them out there. Before you start investing make sure you do some research on the project. Some things to consider are- what’s the purpose of the crypto, present and future projects, contract system, and market cap?
Here are the Top Cryptocurrencies as of the time of this post according to the website CoinMarketCap. This is a great site to get a lot of information on cryptos.
So, if you’re ready to invest in crypto but you don’t know how to purchase them in Canada, here are some trading platforms that I’ve personally used and recommend. I’ve deposited, purchased, and sold crypto with these platforms so I have experience with these apps. I recommend trying a couple of these platforms so you can get a feel of how they work and figure out which one you like best.
There are some things you also need to consider before you sign up with some of these platforms. From my own personal experience, trial and error, I’ve been able to figure out the most important features that the trading platform must-have. By the way, this list is not in order of importance and each one is equally important in my opinion.
- Software App– having an app you can install on your cellphone so you can keep track of your cryptos any time of the day is important. The app should be easy to navigate through, esthetically pleasing, and not too busy, doesn’t have a lot of ads, stable and doesn’t crash or slow down, and most importantly it has to be secure. If you’re a heavy investor you need to make sure your funds are secure and that the trading platform you use has the ability to set up secure authentication before logging in or making transactions.
- Crypto Wallets– when it comes to crypto, you want to make sure your digital tokens are stored in a safe location and give you the ability to not only invest but to be able to send and receive to/from other wallets. Crypto Wallets store your ‘private keys’ and each digital token you own has its own unique key.
- Customer Service– always do your research and look at the ‘About Us’ page of the trading platform you plan on signing up with. Google them and read reviews from other people who have used them. A good company is one that you can get a response from fairly quickly, because should anything go wrong with your account or you have urgent inquiries you need to make sure you can get an answer right away. An important thing to consider is the location of their office, and is the company within your own country or overseas. You want to make sure their agents are trustworthy and preferably within your own timezone so you know you can get a hold of them at reasonable times. There was one platform that looked esthetically pleasing, clean, and looked legit, but after digging through their website to look at their about page and contact us page, there wasn’t a lot of information I could find. This was a red flag for me and I was glad it came across my head to search for this information because they ended up being from overseas, and reviews weren’t good.
- Funding– being able to transfer money in and out of your crypto wallet with ease is extremely important. Find a platform that allows you to send e-transfers from your bank so they can get deposited into your account almost instantly. There are times when you want to catch the dip when prices are low and need to transfer funds immediately so you can purchase. It may be wise to always just have spare cash held on your wallet so you can trade it whenever, but there will be times when you may want to add more. Deposits shouldn’t take longer than an hour in my opinion. If it’s withdrawn from my bank account right away, I’d prefer to have the funds available right away as well. My favorite crypto wallets also allow me to deposit whatever amount I like and don’t have a minimum. I’ve used some that require a minimum of $100 USD. Sometimes you might have spare coffee cash you want to deposit and don’t want to deposit that much.
- Trading Fees– each trading platform charges fees for buying and selling crypto, transferring to wallets, and withdrawing funds to your bank account. Most of these platforms are free to use but it’s the fees that get you. Again, do your research and search for ‘fees’ on the company websites so you can compare with other platforms. Some have minimum token buy-ins, for example, if you want to purchase Dogecoin you have to purchase a minimum of 10 tokens or a minimum of $50 worth. When you do your calculation you need to make sure you have enough funds to buy certain ones. The same thing may apply when you sell some of your cryptos or transfer to other crypto wallets.
- Withdrawal Fees– eventually you will cash out some of your funds and deposit them back into your bank account. They can be as low as $25 up to $100. Definitely look into this information before you deposit your money anywhere because you don’t want to deposit $25, profit $50, and have to pay insane amounts of withdrawal fees that don’t end up in your pocket.
Now let’s get to the reason why you’re here. Here are some Trading Platforms you can sign up with if you’re in Canada.
- NDAX– a Canadian company based in Alberta, currently my main trading platform because their app is fairly easy to use and navigate through, instant Interac deposits and my money is usually available within 10 minutes (so far). Fees for trading are fairly low and withdrawing to my bank is cheaper than other platforms I’ve used. They have a majority of the top cryptocurrencies available to trade like Ethereum, Bitcoin, Ripple, Stellar, Cardano, Shiba Inu, Dogecoin, and more. Click on this referral link to get $10 for signing up.
- Shakepay– also a Canadian company that allows you to buy and sell Ethereum and Bitcoin. They also have instant Interac deposits and withdrawals to your bank account are also just as quick. You can also earn portions of Bitcoin daily by opening the app and shaking your phone. Free money? Sure, why not! The downside is the limited amounts of cryptos available to trade. Right now it’s just these 2 that can be traded. Click on this referral link to get $10 for signing up.
- Bitmart– a company with office locations in New York, Seoul, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Bitmart’s platform allows you to set limits on your trades and has a lot of cryptocurrencies to choose from. It was one of the only platforms that allowed me to trade Shiba Inu and Safemoon several months ago, which is great because you can find cryptos that aren’t hyped by social media momentum and give you the ability to be one of the early investors to get them at cheap prices. You can earn rewards by lending or staking your crypto. They also have various events you can participate in to win prizes.
- Crypto.com– just like Bitmart, Crypto.com is a trading platform that is available in many countries and allows you to trade over 150+ cryptocurrencies. The platform gives you information about each crypto so you can get important information right from the app. The platform has a lot more advanced features besides being able to buy, sell, and transfer crypto. You can even apply for a prepaid Visa Card and stake your chosen crypto to fund the card. Depending on the card you choose, there’s a minimum amount of tokens you need to stake (held/locked for a period of time) but there are other perks with each card. The visa cards do not have a monthly or annual fee, you can also get cash back on purchases. Crypto.com also allows you to deposit crypto and get an instant loan, or just stake your crypto and choose your preferred term expiry to earn interest every 7 days, paid in the same currency as your deposit. Another great feature is being able to pay with your crypto by scanning QR codes.
- Wealthsimple– a Canadian company that allows you to invest in stocks and trade cryptocurrencies with their Trading app. A simple, very easy-to-use interface. I really like that I can trade both stocks and crypto with one app so I can track them without having to download a separate app. Funds do take a little bit longer to get deposited in your account because they don’t have the Interac e-transfer option and are withdrawn from your linked bank account. You could opt for their Premium subscription which allows you to get instant funding up to $1000 per week so you can start trading before funds clear your bank account. Wealthsimple is a great app to use for beginners, however, they don’t have wallet support to send/receive crypto but looks like the feature will be coming soon. Click on this referral link to get TWO free stocks to trade.
I hope you found this post helpful and remember to always do your research first and only invest money you can part with. Stock markets and Crypto markets can be very volatile but if you invest wisely and early, there could be a lot of profits to be made. Time to expand your portfolio and start investing in crypto now! Good luck and I wish you all the best in your investments.
