Buying & selling crypto
Learn how buying and selling crypto works, step by step, before you spend any money. These guides cover choosing a payment method, passing an identity check, reading the price and fees, and sending coins to a wallet you control. They also explain what affects how long a purchase takes, how to avoid common scams and what to think about before you sell, including tax. Crypto transactions cannot be reversed and prices can fall sharply, so read the risks first.
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What should you check before you pay?
Check the payment method, the price quote and the total cost before you confirm. The payment methods you can use depend on your country and on the provider that processes your purchase.
How does selling crypto work?
Selling turns crypto back into money such as dollars or euros, and tax may be due on any gain. These guides explain the common ways to sell and the tax questions to check first.
What should you know about buying on Coinmama?
Coinmama is a cryptocurrency exchange. Coinmama does not add its own fee. Fees are set by Banxa, the provider that processes your purchase, and are shown before you confirm.
Key terms
- Crypto Fees Explained: Spread, Card & Network Fees Crypto fees are the costs of buying, sending or swapping crypto, from processing fees and spreads to network fees paid to miners or validators.
- Network Fees A network fee is the charge for processing a transaction on a blockchain, based on block space and demand, not on the amount sent.
- Spread A spread is the gap between the highest price buyers bid for an asset and the lowest price sellers ask.
- Fiat On-Ramp A fiat on-ramp is a service that lets you exchange government-issued money, such as US dollars or euros, for cryptocurrency.
- Verification Verification, often called KYC (Know Your Customer), is the identity check a crypto provider carries out before you can buy.
- SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) is the group of European countries and territories where euro bank transfers work across borders as they do at home.
- ACH Transfer (Automated Clearing House) An ACH transfer is an electronic payment between US bank or credit union accounts, sent in batches through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network.
- Wire Transfer A wire transfer is an electronic payment that moves money directly from one bank account to another, often for large or urgent amounts.
- 3-D Secure (3DS) 3-D Secure (3DS) is a security check for online card payments that lets your card issuer confirm it is really you before approving the payment.
- Cash Advance Fee A cash advance fee is a charge a credit card issuer may add when it treats a payment as cash, which can include buying crypto.
Frequently asked questions
What do you need to buy crypto?
You usually need an account, an identity check, a payment method and a wallet address where the crypto will be sent. On Coinmama, identity checks are carried out by the third-party provider that processes your purchase.
Does Coinmama charge a fee?
Coinmama does not add its own fee. Fees are set by Banxa, the provider that processes your purchase, and are shown before you confirm. Your bank or card issuer may also charge its own fees.
How long does it take to buy crypto?
It varies. Times depend on the provider, the payment method and the identity check, and the blockchain has to confirm the transfer before the crypto shows in your wallet.
Where does the crypto go after you buy it?
Crypto is delivered to the wallet address you provide. Check that the address is correct and on the right network before you confirm, because blockchain transactions cannot be reversed.
Is it safe to buy crypto?
Crypto carries real risks. Prices can fall sharply, blockchain transactions cannot be reversed and scammers target new buyers. Crypto assets are at risk of losing substantial (or all) value, so only buy what you can afford to lose and never share your recovery phrase.