How to buy Ethereum
step by Step

Ethereum is probably one of the best future investments we can make today. The easiest way to buy it is currently by creating an account on the Coinbase online exchange.

You will see that Coinbase is similar to an online investment bank: it has strong security measures, an insurance policy in case of theft, it allows you -once registered- to buy and sell the amounts you want of different cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, and its interface and use are very simple.

It currently serves 103 different countries, to see if yours is in the list click here.

Before you start, it is a good idea to have all the material you will be asked for ready, to make the process shorter and simpler.

What will we need?

It may seem like a lot of requirements and that your privacy is going to be exposed when you have to send them a copy of an identification document and card or bank account, but Coinbase is a huge company and takes the privacy and security of its customers very seriously.

You can watch here a 5min video with all the steps that we’re going through in the article:

Create your Coinbase Account

We will enter first Coinbase on our browser:

We will automatically see their home page:

Página de inicio en Coinbase

Then we go to where it says “Register” (top right) and click.

1. Add our data

This will open a screen where you have to fill in the boxes with your data:

Añadimos nuestros datos

After filling in our “Name”, “Surname”, “Email” and the chosen password, we must click on the box where it says “I am not a robot” until a green tick appears (✓).

We must also click on the box where it says “I certify that I am 18 years old and accept the User Agreement and Privacy Policy”.

Once followed all these steps, we can click on the blue button “Create Account“.

*Important note: it is recommended to choose a very secure password, mixing numbers, uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and some other special character of the type ‘$’ or ‘&’ that are allowed. We can not forget that this is a service in which we will deposit a part of your money. To save this password, it is always a good idea to use the LastPass password manager.

Hacemos click en ‘Crear cuenta’

We have already filled in the data and we are creating the account.

2. Email Verification

We will now receive an email at the address we entered in the previous step. This email contains the link to verify that we created the account:

Aviso de correo enviado

What we need to do now is go into our email inbox. A Coinbase email will have arrived instantly in which we must verify our email address. We click on the blue button that shows that message:

Verificación desde nuestra bandeja de entrada

By clicking on the blue button, automatically will redirect us to the Coinbase website again. On this occasion, it is to link our phone number to the account created.

3. Linking the phone number

This step is necessary because every time we log in, we will send a code via SMS to the phone, which we will have to put on the web to access our account.

This security method is called “Two-step verification”: account password and a security code sent to your own mobile phone.

This page will appear, in which we will put our country and mobile phone number. Verify that the prefix of the phone is correct:

Pantalla para añadir nuestro número de teléfono

Once we click on “Next →”, we must wait a few seconds and we will receive in our mobile the SMS of which we talked before, which contains a random code of 7 digits:

This code that we will receive we must write it in the new page that appeared to us after linking our telephone. Then click on “Verify phone number →“.

verificación con el código recibido

Once the phone number has been verified, we are happy: we have created our Coinbase account! 🙂

But not everything is done yet to be able to buy Ethereum. Then we will take a look at the Coinbase home screen and continue following the steps for buying our first Ether:

Pantalla de inicio de Coinbase

We can see the ‘Control Panel‘ screen, but there are more screens: Buy / Sell, Accounts, Tools and Settings.

We can also see that the Bitcoin cryptocurrency is selected by default, but next to it appears Ethereum and Litecoin, three cryptocurrencies that can currently be bought and sold in Coinbase, although they have more coins and they plan to add more in the future.

One of the submenus below the main graph shows us the portfolios of these three cryptocurrencies with the quantity we have (bottom right, as we have not yet bought anything their quantity is 0). The other submenu shows us the necessary steps to complete our account definitively (bottom left).

The ones we see with a round green tick are the steps we have already done:

The other two are missing:

So, let us go for the next step:

4. Verification of our identity

If we click on this section, a window will appear to select the type of identification that we want to use to verify us. We can choose between:

1. Passport.
2. Driving license.
3. Identification with a photograph.

Whichever option you choose, you will be asked for photographic proof which can be via webcam or via mobile camera. All we have to do is take a photo of the document, following the instructions that indicate us to verify the identity.

This can be a somewhat cumbersome step, as sometimes the image takes a while to be recognized and accepted by Coinbase or, if the photo is taken without being clear, you may be asked to upload it several times until it is clear enough. Don’t get desperate! 😉

Once our identity is confirmed, we will go for the fourth and final step to complete our account: add a payment method to be able to buy Ethereum.

5. Add payment method

Same as before, we click on that section. We will also get a window like the previous ones, but this time is to give us the option to add as a payment method a bank account or a credit card:

Which of the two should be chosen? We recommend a credit/debit card, as its confirmation is simpler and faster.

Bank Account

If you want to add a bank account, you are asked to make a small transfer to a specific account number. The amount can be 0.01€ (the minimum allowed by your bank).

It is very important to put the reference code (in the following image it appears in red) so that they can identify that the transaction comes from your bank account. You will receive the confirmation within 1 or 2 working days.

Credit/debit card

If you have chosen the credit card option, the following window will appear to fill in the billing address of the card:

Once you have completed the data and clicked on the blue button, we will move to the next window where we must write the data as they appear our credit card.

Once you have filled in the fields you are asked for, click on “Add card“:

If we have followed these steps correctly and the information has been verified, we will see the message “Your card has been linked correctly”:

This was the last of the four steps required to complete the Coinbase account. Congratulations! Now we can move on to buying cryptocurrencies.

Paypal

At the moment, Paypal is not supported as a payment method through Coinbase, but through eToro and without verification of your profile, you can invest up to $2,000 USD and if you verify it -uploading a legible copy of your national ID or passport- there will be no limit on the amount you want to invest.

It is very important to keep in mind that this platform is recommended only for experienced investors, as it is possible to use leverage (invest more money than you really have).

How to buy Ethereum?

Once created and verified our account, we can continue the process of buying Ether.

If we remember correctly, we previously commented that there were a number of tabs at the top of the page, among which was “Buy / Sell” page.

We click on it and go to the next screen:

First, we see two clear tabs: buy and sell.

In second place we can observe the cryptocurrencies that we can operate with such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin. Our payment method appears by default -in this case, Visa card-, and just below we have two cells: one with Euro (EUR) and another with Ether (ETH).

These cells work in such a way that, if we want to buy the equivalent of 100€ in Ether, we write ‘100’ in the box of euros, and automatically according to the price of the Ethereum at that time, Ether’s cell will put its amount equivalent to those 100€, as we can see below:

As we have explained, that 100€ are converted in this case into 0.23954533 Eher (ETH). In the right-hand side, we see more detailed the operation, which includes the Coinbase commission (3,84 €).

To buy Ethereum, simply click on the blue button “Buy Ethereum instantly“.

If on the other hand, we want to buy an Ether, what we should do is write “1” in Ether’s cell and see which is the equivalent in dollars or euros.

We can see that buying an Ether is not worth 401.47 € as mentioned above. We also must add 16.05 € commission that Coinbase takes for the transaction.

Even so, the amount in the second image is 402.25€. The reason why is because the price went slightly up during the time to take booth screenshots.

Now you can invest the amount you prefer and control your investment every day.

As a final tip, if you want to regularly buy cryptocurrencies and avoid the high commissions that Coinbase charges, you can send a bank transfer there instead of using the credit card and then use the same service of the company called Coinbase Pro (formerly known as GDAX) a trading platform through which the commissions are very low or sometimes even zero.

You will not need to create a new account, as your Coinbase’s account will be valid and will permit you to transfer quickly your money from one platform to the other.

Conclusion

The world of cryptocurrencies is growing and will not stop: no one can stop it. Does not depends on any central entity. Just depends on each user who buys or invests in one or more cryptocurrencies and whoever is part of this ecosystem and actively supports it.

Many people have already jumped on board to invest in these digital assets that continue to revalue each month. With this detailed guide what we want is that you also take advantage of all the benefits that the cryptocurrencies bring us now and in the near future.

Even so, we recommend that you get the best possible information when making any investment and never risk more money than you can afford to lose. You can, for example, explore this website and learn everything you need to know about Ethereum in order to invest more rationally and with greater knowledge, as well as create different Ethereum wallets to secure your investment.

Do not miss the opportunity to buy Ethereum now – in a while you might regret not having earned hundreds of dollars!