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Keen to start investing in crypto but not sure how? Here’s our guide to getting started. Don’t worry, it’s easier than you might be thinking. We’ve chosen Coinbase to run through as an example. They’re one of the biggest companies in the world, and one of the original crypto exchanges.
Ready to start investing in crypto? Here’s how to get started, with our full beginners guide. Crypto is a hugely fast paced, exciting industry, with new developments and projects launching daily, which makes it super popular. There’s millions of crypto investors worldwide, and thousands of crypto projects too.
There’s large established cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum that dominate the market, but also smaller projects looking for investment to bring their new technology and ideas to life, or expand to new customers or regions across the world. It’s an exciting time for investors, and lots of money to be made (crypto can be very volatile so please be careful).
As a new crypto investor, you’ll be navigating your way around all the different types of cryptocurrencies that appeal to you, and have potential as an investment. Don’t worry, we’re not throwing you in at the deep end, we’ll run through how to do it using Coinbase, which is one of the most popular, if not the most popular crypto exchange in the world (an exchange is a place to buy, store and sell crypto).
With Coinbase¹, you’ll not only be able to buy and trade crypto easily, but it’s also a great place to research cryptocurrencies and learn more about crypto trading. We think it’s one of the best places for most people to start, we call it the ‘go-to’ place for crypto, and as it’s also designed for advanced traders, you’ll be able to pick up and use more features as your crypto knowledge develops (if you want to).
In fact, let's run through why Coinbase is great for beginners.
Check out Coinbase. It's super popular, widely used, trustworthy and reliable.
Coinbase¹ is one of the very first crypto exchanges (it’s been around for years and years), and has developed a very solid reputation. In fact it’s seen as the most trusted crypto exchange in the world (from a YouGov survey).
It’s also very popular, and is the largest publicly traded crypto company in the world (that means they’re so big their shares trade on the stock market). Being a publicly traded company also means they have to adhere to strict rules and regulations, and are audited (reviewed) by other companies to ensure they are operating correctly.
They also have a very strong focus on security, with a range of initiatives, and state-of-the-art encryption and security. Customers' money in crypto is also held exactly as it is, they don’t use it to lend out or try and make more money off of it. It simply sits there until you need it (unlike many other companies).
Coinbase¹ is designed to support people at different stages of their crypto journey, offering simple navigation alongside in-app explanations and learning materials. You can access key features like buying, selling and trading without having to deal with extensive professional-grade tools from day one. As your knowledge grows, you can choose to move on to more advanced exchanges, or make use of Coinbase’s advanced platform.
The range of coins on Coinbase¹ is huge. Which is great for beginners, and you can learn about coins and trade on a secure, reliable and trustworthy exchange, rather than having to use one that’s not safe to trade the specific coins you want to.
Coinbase offers 1,000s of coins, including of course the big ones, bitcoin and ethereum, but also the smaller coins too. They tend to list new coins regularly, after being vetted as legitimate projects and tokens (although this doesn’t mean they can’t go down in value).
In fact, with new coin listings, by trading on Coinbase, you can get early access to new token (coin) launches. To get access, you just register within the Coinbase app, and request an allocation for when the token launches.
And, they also have something called the Coinbase 50 Index. This is the top 50 cryptoassets that fit the criteria (set by Coinbase), and is a great way to measure your own portfolio’s performance against the index, which acts as a benchmark for the whole crypto market. It’s very similar to the FTSE100 (top 100 companies in the UK) and S&P500 (top 500 companies in the US), which are super popular ways of investing in stocks and shares and to compare investing performance.
Check out Coinbase. It's super popular, widely used, trustworthy and reliable.
With Coinbase¹, you can store your crypto in your Coinbase account as soon as you buy it. This is often a good option for beginners with smaller balances. Your Coinbase account is secure with a password and two-factor authentication (email or SMS verification codes), and you can add even more secure features if you want to.
You can then rely on the security of Coinbase exchange and the security of the crypto itself (behind the scenes), rather than looking after it yourself with your own wallet (a place to store crypto). Setting up and securing your own wallet can be complicated and takes some learning and puts the responsibility solely on you.
You would also need to make transactions in and out of your Coinbase account and wallet. It is seen as the most secure way of holding large amounts of crypto. You might do this in future when you’re more confident.
Note: with some exchanges, they won’t hold the crypto for you, you would buy it directly through your own wallet. Although it depends which exchange you opt for.
Getting a bit technical now, so feel free to skip this section if you want to.
Staking crypto is where you can earn a return (like interest) from your crypto by locking it away for a certain period of time. By locking it away you are effectively pledging it as security for Coinbase¹ to use as a deposit to then help a crypto network operate by providing computing power, which in return, you get more coins (or part of a coin) back.
That was complicated wasn’t it? To put it another way, if you help a crypto network with computing power, in order to prove you are a good actor and not a bad actor (such as a hacker) you would deposit some coins too, which would be lost if you were to try and hack the system.
As a reward for this computing power, you earn crypto, and this is called staking rewards. This is typically a percentage per year, such as 5% return per year on the crypto you deposit.
You still own the coins, and they can still rise and fall in value, you just earn rewards too.
With Coinbase, this is called Coinbase Earn, and you simply opt into staking and start earning rewards, as simple as that. Coinbase provide the computing power. You can currently earn up to 14% depending on which coin you stake. Ethereum is one of the most popular coins to stake, and this generally earns around 2% per year.
The customer support with Coinbase is great too. There’s a big help centre on the Coinbase website¹, with pretty much every question answered, but you can also speak to a virtual assistant who can help with certain questions, and there’s real people over live-chat who can help too. Customer support runs 24/7.
For when you’re ready to step up your trading a bit, Coinbase offers an advanced exchange. This is aimed at those with experience trading and professional traders (and it’s very popular). There’s a huge range of features to help you with your trading strategies, such as different order types, chart features, background on coins, and more. Of course, you’ll benefit from the security of Coinbase, and the huge volume of traders and trades of Coinbase, making trading fast and reliable.
Check out Coinbase. It's super popular, widely used, trustworthy and reliable.
If you think you might trade a lot, Coinbase¹ also has a monthly plan option. This is a set monthly fee (for instance £4.99) and instead of paying fees when you buy and sell coins, you get zero trading fees (up to a limit). You also get extra benefits, such as earning a return on stablecoins (coins which represent real currencies like US Dollars), boosted rewards when staking, access to more early access tokens, and loads more.
Alongside crypto, in the UK, you can actually save your hard earned cash and earn interest. Yes, real pounds (GBP). Coinbase has a real savings account, similar to one you might open with a bank, where you can deposit money from your bank account and earn interest. The interest rate is one of the best out there too. Check the Coinbase website¹ for the current rate. It’s an easy access account, so you can get your cash back when you need it, and you can start saving with just £1.
The first thing you need to do is get set up on Coinbase. To do that, head over to the Coinbase website¹, add your details and register for an account. Just as a heads up, you’ll need to be over 18, and provide some evidence of who you are, such as a passport or driving licence.
It’s very straightforward with Coinbase, and you’ll be set up in no time.
Once you’re set up, you can search for the crypto you’d like to buy (if you have any in mind), such as bitcoin, or simply browse around the huge range of options available with Coinbase.
Navigating the app is simple with Coinbase (which is one reason why we picked it for beginners), and all you need to do is select ‘Assets’ to find coins you want to buy. Within assets, you’ll also see your crypto balance, cash balance and stablecoin balance (again, they’re the crypto version of real currencies, such as US Dollars).
We’re big fans of all the information provided to you on Coinbase when searching for assets (coins). There’s pretty much everything you need to know about a coin, such as the market cap (its total value), number of coins in circulation, background about the coin, historic prices and trading volume. There’s even insights about what other traders are doing, such as buying bitcoin currently, or if the market is selling a coin.
Once you’ve found the coin you’d like to buy, click buy. You can either set up a one-time order, or a recurring buy (to buy each month for instance). Buying regularly in crypto is very much a thing. That’s because the price of a cryptoasset can fluctuate a lot, so long term crypto investors tend to ‘average in’, which can smooth out the overall price they buy at, rather than buying a lot one day and it falling in value the next.
There’s a good range of payment options with Coinbase. You can use a debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, direct bank transfer and even PayPal. There’s different fees for each option, but in the UK, a direct bank transfer works well and doesn’t have any deposit fees.
Finally, you can store your crypto in your Coinbase account. It will actually appear there straight after you buy it, so you don’t need to do anything. It’s ready for when you want to sell in future, and you can immediately stake it if you want to, to earn rewards (explained above).
Alternatively, if you are more advanced, you can send it to your own crypto wallet, and this will be sent from Coinbase and appear in your wallet after a short while. You’ll need to be more responsible with this option and look after your wallet and private keys (like a long password for your wallet).
Check out Coinbase. It's super popular, widely used, trustworthy and reliable.
Yes, it’s safe and legal to buy, sell and trade crypto in the UK. And using an exchange like Coinbase¹ is one of the most secure and reliable ways to invest.
In the UK, crypto exchanges need to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). They’re the same people who make sure banks and things like investment companies look after your money and other assets (like shares).
Make sure you use a crypto exchange that is authorised, so they have been reviewed and approved to look after your cryptoassets. Coinbase is authorised.
However, that doesn’t mean you can’t lose money. Crypto investments can go down in value, and by a lot. So you need to be prepared to lose money if an investment doesn’t go your way.
That’s our guide to getting started with crypto, and using Coinbase¹, which we think is an excellent option for beginners (and also advanced traders). Coinbase is one of the easiest exchanges out there to use, and it’s very well trusted.
It was one of the very first crypto exchanges to be created, and has maintained an excellent reputation since. It’s now well over 10 years old, and is one of the largest companies in the world, and certainly the largest crypto company. It’s so large, it’s actually traded on the stock exchange (so you can buy shares in Coinbase).
Alongside being intuitive, there’s a huge range of coins to trade, so you don’t really need to trade anywhere else after you’ve set up your account, and it has pretty much every crypto feature you might want or need, such as staking your coins (to earn rewards), looking after your coins in your own Coinbase account, send and receive crypto to other people and wallets, and a whole load more.
It’s also a great place to learn how to trade crypto, with an excellent educational section on their website, called Coinbase Learn.
There’s an awesome advanced exchange too, for when you’re ready to step up your trading (if you want to), with a huge range of advanced features.
And, there’s Coinbase One, where you can benefit from zero trading fees (up to a limit), and tonnes more benefits, by paying a monthly fee.
The customer service is great too, and runs 24/7.
Overall, we think Coinbase is a great place to start your crypto journey. If you’re keen to learn even more, check out our Coinbase review. Otherwise, head over to the Coinbase website¹ to get started.
We’d love to hear from you, and it will help others too.
Edward Savage is a leading expert on money, with a background of 8 years working in financial services in London, has a business, accounting and finance degree, runs an investing community, and teaches people about money. He writes about all aspects of personal finance, including pensions, investing, mortgages and insurance.
This article was written, reviewed and fact checked by the expert team at Nuts About Money. You’re in safe hands. Learn more.
We're experts in all things crypto, with several years of combined experience writing and talking about crypto, blockchain and investing. We’ve lived the ups and downs of the bull and bear markets, and know our bitcoin from our blockchains, and are keen to see how the industry grows.
More than 8 years of combined experience researching and writing about crypto
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Check out Coinbase. It's super popular, widely used, trustworthy and reliable.