Hi all,
Doing a bit of research into ways to diversify my portfolio and one of my options is crypto, specifically Bitcoin.
Relatively new to this, do any of you have a view on which platform is the best to buy and hold crypto in?
I think Trading212, Revolut and Coinbase allow you to buy crypto but not sure which one if any one of the above would be “safe” to hold a crypto position in for a longer period of time.
Thanks for the help!
I’m using Coinbase Pro and then you can use Coinbase to purchase the smaller coins
Buying in Revolut is easy but on May 25th they will put commission up for buying from 1.5% to 2.5% for people with a standard account. I suppose that’s fine for a one off buy and leave approach, Personally I prefer swinging in and out of crypto so the % is important.
When I used to “invest” in Litecoin I got myself a Ledger - worth looking into for £90/100 if you want control of your crypto
Having Crypto on any platform is high risk. There are 3 real risks:
The first is that the company is a scam and exits with all your crypto. With the platforms you mentioned this is unlikely.
The second is that the company goes bust and you loose your investment. Possible for all the ones you mentioned.
The third is that they get hacked and all your crypto assets are gone for ever as they can be impossible to track. This happens to some of the biggest and best players in the crypto space with the highest levels of security.
If you take the above warnings into consideration, you will follow the standard advice for keeping crypto.
“Only hold your crypto in a wallet, where you hold the private key”
There are multiple options for this.
The best ‘Cold’ wallets are the Ledger Nano and the Trezor. These are the most secure.
The best ‘hot’ wallet where you can access the wallets via a mobile app is hard to choose as there are so many good ones. I use the Trust Wallet, downloadable on iOS and Android. Trust Wallet is owned by Coinbase.
If you are only investing a small amount of money in BTC and you are willing to take the risk, then leave it on the platform that you purchase it from. For a more sizeable investment that you don’t want to loose, consider using your own wallet where you hold the private keys.
The only exception to the advice above, would be if you would like to earn interest on your Crypto. In that case you will have to keep it on a platform that pays crypto interest on your holdings, and take the risk.
Excellent advice!
Sure, Revolut is ‘easy’ but unless anything has changed you cannot transfer out to your own wallet.
Coinbase Pro (not to be confused with the regular Coinbase) is the lowest-cost way I’ve found. They’ll allow even tiny on-chain withdrawals for free.
Just to add to the above comments…
Revolut and Trading212 don’t actually allow you to buy crypto. You will just own a position on the price.
With Coinbase you will own it, so you can transfer, use and store it as you see fit.
My recommendation would always be if you want exposure to crypto that you need to own it. However you would need to spend time researching and learning about how blockchain works.
my choice would be binance.
As mentioned above, any of the platforms can be hacked. Binance is the biggest crypto exchange for buying and selling a massive number of different crypto assets. They have extra-ordinary levels of security.
However, even Binance have been successfully hacked and multi-million $USD of crypto funds have been lost for ever.
As their reputation is so valuable and they have deep pockets, they have compensated users for their lost funds up until now.
The only safe place to store crypto is in your own wallet where you own the private key.
I’m not saying don’t hold it on a platform such as the ones originally mentioned, or Binance. I’m just saying that your funds will never be completely safe.
The crypto world is full of extremely tech savvy individuals who spend their life looking for vulnerabilities in platforms security systems.
Once you have succeeded in the difficult bit of hacking a platform and stealing their crypto, the next step of hiding your stollen crypto is extremely easy.
Send the stollen crypto off the platform to a private wallet
Send the crypto to a crypto exchange
Sell it and buy a completely untraceable crypto like Monero
Send your Monero to your private wallet
Move to another private wallet.
Viola your stollen funds are untraceable
Never store crypto on an exchange, they have been a ton of hacks… There is an “old” saying: not your keys, not your crypto !
If you want to buy crypto, Kraken is probably your best choice. Once you have some, I would suggest using Binance as they have a lot of liquidity and many assets.
Revolut all day!
Thanks guys, very useful. Definetely need to do some more research!
Revolut doesn’t sell real crypto, it’s rather a CFD-like product. You can’t send them to a real wallet, they only work inside Revolut…
I use cryptodotcom pretty awesome in all respect. Just received my metal card today with 2% cash back and free Spotify and many more. See my card in the picture. Better than anything i have tried and i am into crypto and early adopter.
And btw, they now liquidated credit/debit card fee for buying crypto until june or july. So if turns out you want to buy crypto now or in the foreseeable future, go ahead as you can save unlike revolut or other providers 
binance.je - No deposit or withdrawal fees and lower fees than coinbase.
That looks Brave
Indeed 
I have been waiting for this card for years. I participated in the ICO which looked like a true legetimate project amongst other fake ICOs. I am enjoying the perks now. Plus, you own the keys from your wallet. I am with binance and have been with them since day 1. So, if you are in crypto like me as well, this company is a great place to start, hold and be with. And another thing, when you buy and sell crypto, there is an option to convert crypto dust into other coins 
As mentioned above, its probably more secure to hold crypto yourself rather than on any platform.
However, I hold a small amount on Freebitcoin as they pay 4.08% annual interest on my bitcoin.
Have opened an account with both Binance and Coinbase.
I think Binance is cheaper, I do find their interface rather complicated though and their app is shit.
I also think that their way of handling bank transfers through this ewallet is rather annoying.
May give Coinbase and Coinbase pro a go but do not offer interest on your assets unfortunately
