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How to buy Dash coin online
This beginner’s guide takes you through everything you need to know about Dash, how it was founded, and its future prospects. Read on to get to grips with the basics of how it works and get tips on where to find some.
Compare where to buy Dash coin, and open an account
Use one of the links below to get started. These are the top brokers that offer Dash, and have been chosen by our team of experts. If you want more information before you dive in, just scroll down to keep reading.
What is Dash?
Dash is a cryptocurrency born out of a split with Bitcoin. While it can be bought and spent in the same way, it’s deliberately designed to improve on the original. Like Bitcoin, it also uses a public ledger known as a blockchain to record every transaction.
The DASH coin has been around since 2014, when it was created out of a fork from Bitcoin. In cryptocurrency, a fork is when one party breaks off from the main blockchain, duplicating its code and adding to it to create something fundamentally different. For Dash, the main issues were speed and privacy, and it was created to focus on those areas.
When it first split, the coin was known as Darkcoin and associated with the dark web. It rebranded to Dash – a portmanteau of ‘digital cash’ – in 2015 and shed its shady ties. Now, it’s one of the larger cryptocurrencies by market cap and accepted as payment by some online retailers.
How does Dash work?
Dash works by recording every movement of its coin on a blockchain. For the most part, it works just like Bitcoin, using miners to create new blocks and validate transactions to prevent anyone spending the same money twice.
Where it differs is with its use of ‘masternodes’, who are users that own more than 1000 DASH and run servers that host the blockchain. Masternodes have extra rights that let them vote on governance and decide how rewards are distributed.
While Masternodes serve to create a sort of aristocracy within the Dash system, they’re also crucial to offering features that Bitcoin can’t provide. They can bypass the blockchain and approve payments instantly, or mix transactions together to hide their original source.
How to buy Dash online – a step-by-step guide
Step 1. Find an exchange
Dash is available on most of the top cryptocurrency exchanges. As it’s one of the larger cryptos, you can buy it with fiat currency in a lot of places. Alternatively, you can use another cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, in a swap for it.
A couple of the top exchanges around are:
- Binance: With Binance you can trade more than 100 cryptocurrencies. Binance has more trading volume than any other exchange and so is a great place to find most crypto coins. Sign up for Binance >
- Bittrex: Bittrex is a beginner-friendly exchange with an intuitive interface. You can trade all the most popular cryptos and it offers hundreds of different crypto pairs. Join Bittrex now >
Step 2. Sign up and fund your account
Before you can buy cryptocurrency on an exchange you need to sign up for an account. To do so you need your contact details, like email address and phone number, along with some identification. Usually a copy of a form of photo ID is enough.
The top exchanges will accept deposits in fiat currency, while some of the others might only let you deposit another cryptocurrency. Check the rules before you sign up.
Step 3. Purchase
To find it on your chosen exchange, you need the ticker symbol which is, simply enough, DASH. Then look for the relevant pairing, so if you’re using Bitcoin then you want the DASH/BTC pair.
Step 4. (Optional) Get a suitable wallet
A wallet can be a great way of taking control of your coins and storing them in the most secure way. You don’t have to get a wallet as most exchanges will hold your coins for you, but they offer much more security. Here are two of the top wallet providers available:
- Freewallet: Freewallet is an online cryptocurrency wallet. Through the platform, you can hold more than 100 different cryptos, and use its in-built exchange to make trading your coins quick and easy. Sign up for Freewallet >
- CoolWallet: CoolWallet is a hardware wallet that holds your coins in ‘cold storage’ to keep them out of the reach of hackers. CoolWallets can be managed through Bluetooth connection through native Android or iOS apps. Get CoolWallet now >
How to trade Dash – a step-by-step guide
Step 1. Find a broker
Trading DASH means finding a broker with low fees. Trading fees can eat away your money very quickly if you make a lot of trades, so the lower the better. Likewise you want a broker where you can open and close positions quickly.
As Dash has been around for a while, you can trade it with many of the top brokers. Here are two of the best ones to choose:
- eToro: One of the most popular brokers, eToro has lots of features to help beginners get started. You can trade CFDs on all sorts of assets and it’s expanding its offerings all the time. Sign up with eToro >
- Markets.com: Markets.com is another popular broker that you can use on the go thanks to its mobile app. Trade CFDs on a range of assets from cryptocurrency to stocks and forex. Join Markets.com now >
Step 2. Deposit money
Almost all brokers only let you fund your account with fiat currency. There are usually fees for deposits and withdrawals, so check those before you start. You can use our crypto broker reviews to find the best option for you.
Step 3. Decide how you’d like to trade
Trading with a broker usually means trading contracts for difference (CFDs). All the top brokers offer CFD trading, and CFDs are a way of speculating on the performance of an asset without needing to own the asset itself. CFDs are particularly popular with cryptocurrency so might be the best way to go when you start.
Step 4. Start trading
Before you start trading with real money, your broker might have an option to use a demo account. Demo accounts can be great for beginners, a way of learning about the market without putting your own money at risk.
When you trade crypto you’re speculating on price movements by taking a short (sell) or long (buy) position. If you think DASH is going to fall in value, you should take a short position. If you think it’s going to go up, you should take a long position.
You can choose to use leverage to trade as well. Leveraged trading lets you to make bigger trades by only putting up a fraction of the trade’s value as a deposit or ‘margin’. This strategy is best left to experienced traders, as you remain liable for the whole value of the trade so losses can grow just as fast as your profits.
Still undecided?
Don’t worry if you can’t decide whether to buy yet. You should always take time to consider any investment, and that’s especially true of cryptocurrency. We’ve summarised Dash’s pros and cons here and followed it up with a few questions to help you decide.
Pros
- An alternative to Bitcoin with more flexible options
- It’s well-established after being formed in 2014
- DASH is already accepted by over 500 online retailers
Cons
Finally, here are three more questions that might help you decide if you should invest in Dash.
1. Is it a good time to buy Dash?
It depends whether you want to buy it to spend or as an investment. If you’re going to use Dash for things like online purchases, then you want to get some sooner rather than later. As an investment, however, there are more things to think about.
You want to look at the DASH price and decide what you think represents good value. The wider state of the crypto market is important, as is any developments in the pipeline that could cause a price swing. Here’s our latest market analysis to help you:
Dash, Chainlink, IOTA price analysis roundup
Up or down? Dash (DASH) price prediction for November
Up or down? Dash price prediction for November
2. What problem does Dash solve, and what are the coin’s investment prospects?
Dash offers additional features that aren’t available with Bitcoin. Its focus on speed and flexibility mean there are alternative payment options that bypass the blockchain and it has more of a focus on privacy as well.
Bitcoin is the top cryptocurrency but there’s still room for other coins to jump into mainstream use. Dash is already accepted as a means of payment by more than 500 online retailers, and more uptake would be a really good sign for its investment prospects.
One thing you should consider with all cryptocurrencies, but particularly with something like Dash, is that the whole market can be impacted by Bitcoin’s movements. So you need to track its performance as well that of Dash. All the latter’s news is available right here:
Dash launches DashDirect to let holders spend DASH at over 155K stores
Dash price analysis: is now a good time to buy this cryptocurrency?
Church’s Chicken Venezuela starts paying staff’s bonus salary in DASH
3. Do you want to hold Dash for the long term?
If you plan to spend Dash then you are going to want it for the long term. If you think digital currency is going to see wider uptake then that might also be a reason to buy and hold for the long term. Here are a couple of final points to help you depending on your investment horizons.
Considerations for a long term investment strategy
If you think DASH is going to gain more widespread acceptance in the future, long term investing is the way to go. In that case, use the guide above to take you through how to buy Dash in the UK. That means finding an exchange, and possibly getting a wallet to store your new coins.
Considerations for a short term trading strategy
Short term investing is about taking advantage of volatility to try to make money. To trade Dash with this in mind, sign up for a broker with low trading fees. You might want to research some trading strategies to time your entry into the market.
Fact-checking & references
Our editors fact-check all content to ensure compliance with our strict editorial policy. The information in this article is supported by the following reliable sources.
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