How to Buy Bitcoin UK in 2024 – A Beginner’s Guide

Bitcoin continues to operate independently of the broader investment markets and as such, remains one of the most popular asset classes outside of stocks and ETFs.

The purpose of this guide is to explain how to buy Bitcoin in the UK. In addition to offering a step-by-step walkthrough of the investment process, we also explore where to buy Bitcoin in the UK in terms of low fees and low account minimums.

Scroll down to find a much more detailed guide on how to buy Bitcoin in the UK via the Kraken platform.

Where to Buy Bitcoin in the UK – Reviews of the Best Bitcoin Brokers and Exchanges 

Deciding where to invest in Bitcoin in the UK requires first-time investors to assess whether or not the platform is regulated and what fees will apply when depositing funds and completing the purchase. Below, we help clear the mist by reviewing the best places to buy Bitcoin in the UK.

1. Kraken – Established Crypto Exchange With Reputation For Security

One of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, Kraken has a reputation for safety and security. Founded in San Francisco in 2011, to date, Kraken has had not one security breach. This stellar record makes Kraken one of the most respected and trusted places to buy Bitcoin today.

The exchange has come a long way in its long history. Now, Kraken offer more than 250 different cryptocurrencies alongside other services such as leverage trading, NFT markets and token staking.

Buying Bitcoin on Kraken is straight forward. The platform accepts a wide variety of purchase methods such as debit and credit card, bank transfer and third party payment providers like Google and Apple Pay. It goes without saying that the platform also accepts crypto deposits.

Fees are competitive and purchasers can be expected to pay roughly 3.75% on debit and credit card purchases and 1.5% on bank transfers.

Kraken uses the maker-taker model to calculate trading fees and rewards traders who have a higher volume of trade with lower fees. Anyone trading up to $10,000 can be expected to pay 0.25% per trade.

Contrary to popular belief, Kraken does hold enough assets to cover user balances. In an effort to reassure its customers, Kraken regularly publish a comprehensive Proof of Reserves report.

Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more.

2. eToro – Platform With Copy Trading And Low Trading Fees

eToro accepts an assortment of convenient payment methods. This includes debit cards – which are processed instantly – and eToro also enables UK clients to transfer funds from their personal bank account, but this can take a couple of days to clear. Either way, eToro offers a way to buy Bitcoin with GBP deposit fees of 0.5%.

Furthermore, eToro charges a 1% fee when buying and selling Bitcoin. UK investors can start trading on eToro after making a minimum deposit of $50.

Past performance is not an indication of future results.

Although Bitcoin is one of the most traded assets on eToro, this broker also supports other cryptocurrencies. More than 70 options are available in this regard, from Ethereum, XRP, and Shiba Inu to Dogecoin, Cardano, and BNB.

eToro also supports copy trading which means that users can copy the investments of other experienced traders. eToro’s most distinctive feature is CopyTrader.

To start copying an investor, a minimum of $200 is required. The highest amount that can be invested in a trader is $500,000.

Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more.

3. MEXC – Low Spot Trading Fees And Over 1,000 Cryptos

MEXC is currently the best place to buy Bitcoin in the UK. It has zero spot trading fees and a vast range of over 1,600 cryptos. Its global reach extends to over 170 countries, catering to a more than 10 million user base.

MEXC stands out with its highly competitive fee structure, charging 0% for spot trading and just 0.02% as a taker fee for futures trading, with no fees on limit orders. 

Traders can access various trading options, including futures trading with up to 200x leverage and margin trading.

The exchange has a strong infrastructure capable of handling 1.4 million transactions per second, ensuring high performance and efficiency.

It provides advanced charting features, multiple indicators, drawing tools, and the option to use TradingView charts, catering to both technical and beginner traders.

The copy trading feature is particularly noteworthy, allowing users to replicate the trades of experienced traders or earn by having others copy their trades.

MEXC also introduces a Savings feature, allowing users to earn interest on crypto holdings with competitive APRs on various tokens. 

This feature offers the flexibility of a ‘flexible lock,’ enabling users to unlock their tokens whenever needed, which adds a low-risk investment dimension to the platform.

The MEXC platform is highly accessible, with options to purchase crypto via bank transfers, SEPA, credit and debit cards, and peer-to-peer transactions. Integration with third-party payment processors like Moonpay further simplifies the process. 

MEXC offers a comprehensive library of educational materials covering everything from basic crypto knowledge to advanced futures trading. 

The MX token, released in 2019, gives users governance rights, including voting on business decisions and accessing discounts and free airdrops.

76% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

4. Binance – Instantly Buy Bitcoin With a UK Debit Card

Binance is not only one of the best crypto exchanges in the UK – but globally. The platform supports hundreds of cryptocurrencies in addition to Bitcoin, alongside decentralized products such as interest accounts and yield farming.

It typically takes just five minutes from start to finish to buy Bitcoin via the Binance website. This includes the process of opening an account and uploading a copy of a passport or driver’s license for identity verification purposes. After that, UK investors can buy Bitcoin with a debit card at a fee of 1.8%.

The Bitcoin tokens will then be added to the Binance web wallet instantly. Alternatively, it is also possible to deposit funds into a Binance account via a UK bank transfer. The transfer usually clears in under five minutes and will cost just $1 in fees – irrespective of the deposit amount.

This option then requires the user to buy Bitcoin via the Binance exchange, which will cost just 0.1% in commission.

5. Bybit – Buy Bitcoin With 0.1% Fees and Trade With Leverage Up To 100x

Bybit is an excellent cryptocurrency platform, not only for buying Bitcoin, but for trading it as well. To buy Bitcoin, you need to open an account and deposit funds where you can grab BTC for 0.1% spot trading fees. Alternatively, use a more direct approach – such as Google Pay or a bank card, which use a third party provider like Mercuryo and Banxa – but it’ll cost slightly more, depending on which method you go with.

Those who don’t want to keep their BTC idle and try to make a profit out of market fluctuations can trade Bitcoin futures with up to 100x leverage. This means you control $100,000 worth of funds with $1,000. However, just as the profit potential is increased with leverage, so are the losses. 

For the risk averse, Bybit offers yield farming products that can return up to 4.50% APR on BTC holdings that are “staked” on the platform. These assets can be used as a collateral in case you need instant funds via Bybit’s crypto loans feature. BTC’s loan-to-value ratio is 80%, while liquidation threshold is 95%.

Overall, Bybit is an excellent platform for buying Bitcoin and storing it either on the exchange or withdrawing it to your personal wallet. But where Bybit shines is its additional features that let you profit from your crypto holdings.

6. Coinbase – Beginner-Friendly Broker to Buy Bitcoin Online

Coinbase is an established cryptocurrency broker that supports Bitcoin and dozens of other digital assets.

The platform is simple to use, especially when it comes to opening an account and making an instant payment with a UK debit card.

Coinbase charges 3.99% to buy Bitcoin with a debit card, however, so there are certainly cheaper options in this regard. Nonetheless, Coinbase remains popular with newbies and the broker’s native wallet app enables safe storage on the move.

Coinbase also offers two-factor authentication alongside other water-tight security features.

Offer: Sign up and get up to $200 in crypto¹

Terms: ¹Valid for new users who make a cryptocurrency purchase on Coinbase. Limited while supplies last or Coinbase revokes this incentive at its sole discretion. Coinbase reserves the right to change the terms, eligibility criteria, and payouts for all incentives at any time, for any reason. Void where prohibited or if Coinbase determines that the customer is not eligible for the offer. Terms apply.

What to Know When Buying Bitcoin in the UK 

The key takeaway when learning how to buy Bitcoin in the UK is that the investment process itself is no different from purchasing stocks from an online share dealing platform.

• For instance, the first step is to choose a suitable Bitcoin broker – such as eToro or Kraken.
• After that, an account will need to be opened with the online broker and a deposit will need to be made.
• And then finally, the Bitcoin purchase can be made by placing a buy order with the chosen broker.

That’s pretty much it. After buying Bitcoin from a broker, then it’s just a case of having an exit strategy in place.

• In some cases, investors in the UK will look to buy Bitcoin and hold on to the tokens for several years in anticipation that the price will continue to rise over the course of time.
• In other cases, an investor will buy Bitcoin with a short-term strategy in mind and perhaps cash out about a few weeks or months later.

Either way, there is no way to truly know what will happen to the Bitcoin price. On the contrary, the price of Bitcoin works just like stocks, insofar as its value is determined by market forces.

What is Bitcoin? 

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that was launched in 2009. It was created by an anonymous developer called Satoshi Nakamoto with the view of revolutionizing the global financial system. The core backbone of Bitcoin is the blockchain.

The blockchain is reminiscent of an accounting ledger, insofar as it displays each and every transaction that has ever occurred on the Bitcoin network. This is with the view of creating transparency. Another crucial feature of Bitcoin and its underlying blockchain is that the network is decentralized.

In its most basic form, this means that no single person has control over Bitcoin.

This means that when buying and storing Bitcoin, no third party can access the funds when the tokens are held in a private wallet. As a result, there is no risk of the Bitcoin tokens being frozen by a bank or confiscated by a government agency. With that being said, Bitcoin is considered a commodity and as such, it has real-world value.

The value of Bitcoin functions like any other commodity – such as gold or oil, insofar as the market forces of demand and supply will dictate its price.

Therefore, most people buy Bitcoin in the UK as an investment product rather than for its decentralized features. Crucially, Bitcoin is not a tangible asset as it operates digitally. This makes it perfect as a store of value, considering that just 21 million Bitcoin tokens will ever exist.

The Basics of How Bitcoin Works 

From an investment perspective, there is no requirement to understand the intimate details of Bitcoin.

After all, it’s just a case of buying Bitcoin from an online broker in the hope that its value increases over time. And if it does, then this will enable the investor to sell their Bitcoin tokens back to pounds for a profit.

Nonetheless, it still makes sense to understand the core features of how Bitcoin works – especially when it comes to storage.

The basics of Bitcoin are as follows:

Decentralized Transactions

Bitcoin can be transferred from one person to another without going through a third party, such as a bank. The decentralized nature of Bitcoin means that it employs a framework that operates independently from any other financial system.

With that said, in order to keep the Bitcoin network safe and subsequently verify that transactions are legitimate, the blockchain utilizes the services of ‘miners’.

Miners connect specialist hardware to a device, which has the capacity to solve complex mathematical equations. Every 10 minutes, one miner will be successful in solving the equation and as such, will be rewarded with newly minted Bitcoin tokens.

Right now, the reward amounts to 6.25BTC – which is worth approximately $130,000 as of writing. In 2024, the mining reward will be halved to 3.125 BTC. This process is known as ‘halving’ and it often spurns a rally to the upside for Bitcoin’s value.

Public Addresses

After buying Bitcoin, some investors in the UK will look to withdraw their tokens to a private wallet. This is usually an app that is compatible with smartphones, albeit, desktop software and even hardware wallets are an option too.

Either way, the wallet will store the Bitcoin tokens safely without a third party. Moreover, the wallet will have a ‘public address’, which is not too dissimilar to a bank account number.

This enables other people to send Bitcoin tokens to the wallet and therefore, can be shared.

Private Keys

When electing to buy Bitcoin in the UK and withdraw the tokens to a private wallet, it is important to understand what ‘private keys’ are.

In a nutshell, this is not too dissimilar to an online banking password and secret passphrase  – rolled into a long string of characters.

Most importantly, the private key grants access to the wallet storing the Bitcoin tokens. Therefore, it is crucial to key the private key safe to avoid having the Bitcoin funds compromised.

Should I Invest in Bitcoin? 

Here’s what to consider when exploring how to invest in Bitcoin in the UK:

Only 21 Million Bitcoin will Ever Exist

The first benefit to consider when investing in Bitcoin is that just 21 million tokens will ever exist. As of writing, there are just over 19 million BTC tokens in circulation, which is about 90% of the overall supply.

As Bitcoin is finite, this means that the digital asset is somewhat similar to other commodities, such as gold and silver. And, as long as demand for Bitcoin remains in place, its finite supply makes it a great store of value.

Huge Returns Since 2009

As noted earlier, Bitcoin was launched in 2009. There was no trading marketplace for Bitcoin in 2009, but just two years later, the digital currency surpassed the $1 level.

This means that by investing $100 into Bitcoin back in 2011, this would have resulted in a purchase of 100 BTC tokens. Those very same 100 BTC tokens today would be worth over $2.4 million.

Still Plenty of Upside

As of writing, Bitcoin is priced at approximately $24,000 – which gives it a market capitalization of $480 billion.

To put this into perspective, the largest company on the FTSE 100 by market capitalization is Shell – which is valued at approximately $144 billion.

This means that Bitcoin is worth more than any company on the London Stock Exchange. With that being said, Bitcoin, according to many, is still undervalued and as such, has plenty of upside to offer.

For example, gold has a market capitalization of many trillions of dollars. If Bitcoin is able to solidify itself as a global store of value, its value still has a long way to go.

Minimum Bitcoin Investment is Just a Few Dollars

Bitcoin is a risky investment and its value is largely driven by speculation. And as such, investors should never risk more than they afford to lose.

The good news is that there is no requirement to buy a Bitcoin in full for over $50,000. Instead, as Bitcoin can be split into small units.

Different Ways to Buy Bitcoin Online

Bitcoin is a digital asset and as such, the investment process can be completed from the comfort of home.

The most common ways to buy Bitcoin in the UK are as follows:

Buy Bitcoin With a Debit Card

All of the Bitcoin brokers discussed earlier accept UK debit cards. There is, however, a disparity in how much UK investors will need to pay when using a debit card to buy Bitcoin.

For example, at Coinbase and Kraken, there is a debit card fee of 3.99% and 3.75% respectively. At Binance this is much lower at 1.8%.

Most Cost-Effective Way to Buy Bitcoin in the UK

When attempting to find the cheapest way to buy Bitcoin in the UK, there are a variety of fees to consider.

For example, many Bitcoin brokers and exchanges in the UK support fee-free bank account deposits. But this can take a few days to clear, which won’t be suitable for investors that wish to buy Bitcoin instantly.

Debit cards and e-wallets are usually processed instantly, but fees will vary from one Bitcoin provider to the next.

How Does the Bitcoin Price Work?

Unlike the traditional stock markets, Bitcoin trades globally on a 24/7 basis. With that said, the vast majority of trading volume is witnessed Monday through Friday. Nonetheless, the price of Bitcoin will rise and fall in line with broader market conditions.

• When there is strong demand for Bitcoin and subsequently more buyers, its price will increase
• When there is low demand for Bitcoin and subsequently more sellers, its price will decrease

The most successful Bitcoin investors are those that hold onto their BTC tokens over a long period of time.

For example, Bitcoin was priced as low as $5,000 in early 2020. By the end of 2021, Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $69,000. This represents gains of over 1,200%. During this period, however, the price of Bitcoin witnesses many highs and lows. But those that held on were able to achieve the most notable gains.

Another thing to note about the Bitcoin price is that – as we have done ourselves throughout this guide, BTC is usually quoted in US dollars. This is no different from trading other commodities like oil – which is also priced in USD.

As such, it’s a good idea to get used to analyzing the price of Bitcoin in USD as opposed to GBP. In doing so, investors will be more aligned with the broader market.

Bitcoin Price Forecast for 2024 and Beyond

The future price of Bitcoin will, as noted several times, be dependent on market forces. For Bitcoin to continuously grow in value over the course of time, it will need a constant influx of new buyers. This is much the same as investing in a blue-chip stock, like Johnson & Johnson or Apple – or any asset for that matter.

In terms of where Bitcoin could be trading by the end of 2024, there is still hope that the next bull market could resume. Not only has Bitcoin been stuck in a bear market since early 2022, but the next halving event is expected to take place in 2024. And as such, this often results in increased buying pressure.

Over a longer period of time, some analysts believe that Bitcoin will surpass $100,000 within the next couple of years. After that, there is no knowing how valuable will become. But crucially, there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin in exitance, so in theory, there is no limit to the growth potential of the de-facto cryptocurrency.

Full Step-by-Step on How to Buy Bitcoin in the UK 

We have covered the benefits and risks of investing in Bitcoin in the UK. The final part of this guide will explain how to buy Bitcoin via Kraken.

Step 1 – Create A Kraken Account

To begin, visit Kraken to set up your trading account. Provide your email and use a strong password. Next, verify your account which requires proof of ID. 

Step 2 – Select a Direct Purchase With a Card or Fund Your Account With Bank Transfer

Once you’ve successfully opened your account you can either buy BTC directly with a card or deposit funds via bank transfer.

Direct purchase with a card is faster but comes with slightly higher fees of around 4.75%.

For this option, visit the “Home” tab in your account and select “Buy Bitcoin.”

For the second option, visit the “Transfer” tab in your Kraken account and use Kraken’s bank account information to make a bank deposit. 

Step 3 – Buy BTC

With a direct purchase, enter the amount you wish to spend, select the order type: whether you want to buy now at the current price, wait for a certain price to be reached or do recurring purchases.

Select your payment method and review the order. Confirm the order if it looks good.

Step 4 – Complete Your BTC Trade on The Spot Market

If you chose to make a bank deposit, wait for your funds to clear. You can use the same tab to buy BTC as you did with a card purchase, except this time you select “Convert”. Convert your fiat for Bitcoin.

Alternatively, select Kraken Pro. This is the advanced trading platform where you can set an exact price or even use leverage of up to 5x.

Select BTC/USD from the list of cryptocurrencies, and enter the amount you wish to spend. Select the order type, such as limit or market, and select leverage. Confirm the order when ready.

Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more.

Conclusion

In summary, we have covered everything there is to know when asking the question – How do I buy Bitcoin as a crypto investor?

To buy Bitcoin, open an account with your desired crypto platform and deposit funds. Our choice is Kraken.

Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more.

FAQs