How to buy USD Coin online
This page is an introduction to USD Coin and its uses. We explain how to buy USD Coin, the pros and cons of the currency, and the outlook for the future.
Compare where to buy USD Coin, and open an account
To buy USD Coin now, use one of the brokers in the list below. They have been carefully selected by our resident crypto experts, and they are definitely up to the task. If you aren’t ready to buy yet, keep scrolling down this page.
What is USD Coin?
USD Coin (U.S. Dollar Coin) is a stablecoin that is tied to the value of the U.S. dollar, and its market denotation is USDC. Running on the Ethereum blockchain and backed by reserved assets, it is issued by regulated financial institutions on a 1:1 basis for U.S. dollars. You can use USD coin for peer-to-peer payments, trading on cryptocurrency exchanges, and even as a currency to store your investments as during economic downtrends.
The currency was first announced the 15th of May 2018 by a company called Circle, and it launched in September 2018. Alongside Tether, it is one of the largest stablecoin markets and is a popular choice on major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase. It is intended to be a practical currency that can be used for everyday transitions because it is much less volatile than many other cryptos.
How does USD Coin work?
The cryptocurrency functions much like any other centralised fiat currency. To turn dollars into USD Coin, users send a number of dollars to a token issuer. A smart contract is then created on the blockchain, which mints a matching amount of USDC. These coins are then delivered to users, while the dollars are held in a reserve.
When users want to go the other way, and turn USDC into USD, the process is quite similar. First, users send a request to a token issuer for their USDC to redeem USD. The issuer sends a request to the USDC smart contract, and USD are redeemed while a matching amount of USDC is burned. These USD can then be sent off to the user, minus all incurred fees.
How to buy USD Coin online – a step-by-step guide
Step 1. Find an exchange to buy USDC
The best place to buy USDC is on an exchange. They come in a variety of different forms, but essentially, they are large marketplaces for cryptocurrencies.
We have reviewed plenty of exchanges to inform our users, and to save you some time, we have listed two of the best of them below:
- Binance: Binance has the largest amount of trading volume every day for an exchange, and with millions of transactions and users, it is a good place to buy USD Coin. Join Binance and buy USDC now >
- Bittrex: Bittrex has an impressive interface that is a personalisable way of buying USDC. This easy-to-use platform is a good choice for beginner’s and experts alike. Sign up with Bittrex to buy USD Coin today >
Step 2. Sign up and fund your account
Every exchange requires you to create an account before you make any trade. This is a simple process, and involves providing some contact details and a copy of your photo ID for verification purposes.
When funding your exchange account, you can commonly deposit fiat money like GBP or USD, or you can deposit a crypto like Bitcoin.
Step 3. Buy USDC
To purchase USD Coin on an exchange, simply log in and search for the correct ticker. If you’re using GBP, you need the USDC/GBP pair, whereas for Bitcoin, you will want the USDC/BTC pair.
Step 4. (Optional) Get a suitable wallet
For long-term holders of USDC, a wallet is advisable; this is a place where you can store your coins securely, and it can be either online of offline. While you can store your coins in your exchange account, a wallet gives you more security.
Here are two of the best USD Coin wallets:
- Guarda Wallet: Guarda is a flexible website and also comes in app form. It supports a large number of coins and even comes with an integrated exchange. Open a Guarda Wallet now >
- CoolWallet: CoolWallet is one of the most popular crypto wallets and is a good place to store USD Coin. It describes itself as the world’s best hardware wallet, and its many customers seem to agree. Get a CoolWallet to store USDC today >
How to trade USDC – a step-by-step guide
Step 1. Find a broker
If you want to trade quickly an often, an online broker makes this tactic hassle-free. Try to find one with low fees because they can quickly add up over time.
USDC is a popular crypto, but not every broker supports it. The two that are more likely to support USD Coin are eToro and Plus500, because they support a large variety of coins and regularly add new ones.
Step 2. Deposit money
Simply add fiat money to your account and you are good to go. You can expect to see different fees for varying platforms, and these will include – but are not limited to – deposit fees, withdrawal fees, trading fees and commissions.
Step 3. Decide how you’d like to trade
One of the most popular trading strategies with USDC is a CFD, and using one of these means you can speculate on the price of the coin without owning it outright. A similar strategy is spread betting, where you bet how the entire market will move. Whatever your strategy, make sure it is coherent and you stick to it.
Step 4. Start trading
A good idea before executing your first trade is to try a demo account, and you can usually find this in the settings of your broker account. Use this to make exchanges with virtual money, so you can learn about market behaviour before putting real money into the mix.
When trading USDC, you can take up a long position, and believe the coin will go up in value, or a short position, and believe the coin will fall in value. Both can be effective strategies if used at the right time in the right economic conditions.
You can also use something called leverage, uses CFDs to give you greater exposure to the price of USD Coin with no additional up-front expenditure. However, your exposure to a potential downside is also heightened, so exercise caution.
Still undecided?
If you aren’t quite ready to buy yet, don’t stress and take your time to mull things over. All investment decisions should be considered, and to help you make your mind up, find the pros and cons of USD Coin below.
Pros
- Brings the benefits of blockchain technology to the mainstream
- Minimal volatility, making it suitable for everyday transactions
- A good place to park investments during economic downtrends
Cons
- Centralised, going against many of the key founding principles of crypto
- Minimal investment prospects other than speculating on the value of the USD
- Smaller and less used than Tether
If you still aren’t ready to invest in USD Coin, here are some final questions for you to think about.
1. Is it a good time to buy USD Coin?
The answer to this question should be dictated by your own financial goals. If you believe the USD will rise in price in the long term, you may want to buy USD Coin from an exchange and store it in a wallet. Just make sure you have done your due diligence before parting with significant amounts of capital.
If you are a short-term trader, the long-term growth of USDC should concern you a lot less. You need to be much more bothered about the current price and conduct technical analysis to establish whether or not now is a good time to buy.
Whichever way you choose to go about things, make sure you read our latest news to stay in the loop about USDC:
2. What problem does USDC solve, and what are the coin’s investment prospects?
USD Coin makes everyday transactions possible with crypto by solving issues of volatility. It brings the benefits of crypto – namely encryption and privacy – the everyday users. If the coin can compete with Tether and continue to provide liquidity to the whole crypto space, it could be a reasonable and stable investment.
However, make sure you realise this is a stablecoin, and it won’t be skyrocketing in price any time soon like plenty of other small-cap cryptos; well, that’s unless that value of the USD rises in unprecedented fashion.
Now you know about the coin’s investment prospects, it is a good idea to check out the latest news below to see how things are developing in the financial markets:
Circle APIs just added support for ACH-based USDC payments
Visa partners to launch USDC payments
USD Coin (USDC) to expand to several new blockchains
3. Do you want to hold USDC for the long term?
It really does depend on how you want to invest. As a long-term play, USDC can be a good way to hedge against volatility, whereas in the short-term, it can be a great way to make secure and private transactions and add liquidity to your portfolio.
Considerations for a long term investment strategy
If you expect the value of the USD to go up in the future, so will USDC, and you should choose an exchange to buy some coins. You might also want to get a wallet to store them in.
Considerations for a short term trading strategy
If immediate results are on your mind, USD Coin may not be for you. However, if you want to trade USDC instead of USD, opt for a broker with low trading fees and get started today.
Crypto basics
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