Buying Crypto Currency in the USA

Crypto currency in the US has hit the mainstream, now that trading altcoins is more profitable than the NYSE for low entry fee’s to start trading. Finding a good exchange to trade anonymously is increasingly bringing people to binance, one of the top exchanges in 2017.

For USA crypto purchases using credit cards with Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan, Capital One and Discover Financial Services, unfortunately they have all blocked transactions for purchasing crypto currencies. Wiring funds from your bank account or purchasing a bank draft are the only options regulators policing the “legal” crypto currency exchanges appear to allow currently. How long that lasts is anybodies guess.

Luckily, their are the anonymous crypto exchanges American’s can use, as well as the larger bitcoin and altcoin exchanges started years ago in the US.

The top crypto exchanges in the US currently are:

Top Exchanges	Known For	Popular in	KYC	Currencies
	Large Global Exchange	Global	Yes	BTC, ETC, Alts	Continue
	Large Global Exchange	Latin America, Europe, UK, China, Russia	Yes	BTC, ETH, Alts	Continue
	P2P Trading	Global	No	BTC, ETH, Alts	Continue
	Trading Platform	Global	Under 2 BTC No	BTC, ETH, Alts	Continue
	Credit Card / Exchange	America's, Europe, Asia	Yes	GBP, USD, EUR, BTC, ETH, Alts	Continue
	Anonymous Purchases	Global	No	BTC, ETH, Alts	Continue
	Decentralized Anonymous Exchange	Global	No	BTC, ETH, Alts	Continue
	Person to Person Trades	Global	Yes/No	BTC, ETH, Alts	Continue

Anonymous Exchanges to Buy Bitcoin from the USA

Trusting an online crypto exchange (or US bank), to secure peoples personal information always appears to end badly for customers. There were little to no consequences for banks or employee’s at TD Bank, Citigroup or JPMorgan after customers personal information was breached. The IRS and Pentagon have also been unable to secure private data, leading many to prefer not giving any data to third parties or relying on their security methods.

Regardless of which government claims that privacy is wrong, it’s actually a right people should value.

Much like Napster brought torrenting music and movies into peoples lives, decentralized exchanges like bisq allow people to trade currency, bitcoins and altcoins anonymously, peer to peer on their platform. Payment methods accepted include Chase QuickPay, US Postal Money Order, Western Union, Interac E-transfer and bank transfers. Foreign exchange kiosks at airports should start closing once people become more aware how much lower fee’s can be through applications like bisq.

License for Virtual Currencies (BitLicense) Scandal

BitLicense is the regulatory framework all crypto currency exchanges that want to do business in New York are required to follow.

The former New York State financial superintendent who created the bitcoin laws in New York, Benjamin M Lawsky, currently offers his law firms services to bitcoin and blockchain businesses wanting to do business in New York. Being able to create the regulation and then sell services to companies who have to follow it, might make people suggest Benjamin Lawsky is a hypocrite. We would never suggest that because anyone involved with Ripple now has to be legit….right?

The aggressive stance Lawsky took when creating the BitLicense forced many exchanges to pull out of New York and America to offer their services. The current New York regulators have proposed bills to replace the BitLicense requirements as there are currently less than 10 BitLicense holders.

Many companies are also pulling out of Washington State and ShapeShift (a good exchange) said it best:

Under this interpretation of the law, we would now be required to ask permission from Washington before we buy and sell our own property for our own account. Moreover, we would be required to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain a license, only to extract our users’ personal information and store that information for hackers to steal.

This is why our belief that decentralized anonymous exchanges like bisq will only become more popular in more countries over time. We see no problem with using an anonymous exchange like ShapeShift for Americans in the other 49 states. Over time companies profiting from fee’s to sell currencies will decline if Peer to Peer Exchanges and anonymity are available.

Kraken, Poloniex, Bitfinex, LocalBitcoins, Genesis Mining, BitQuick and others removed their services from New York and other states after the regulators made doing business too expensive and bureaucratic in the state.

Popular US Crypto Exchanges

For those looking for an online exchange to wire funds or use a credit card to deposit, US residents have very few options, especially on credit cards. Since the major banks started blocking credit card transactions for crypto currency, gift card visas, amazon gift cards on peer to peer exchanges are the most common way around the credit card changes.

American Express (apparently) works, with others using Revolt and Square’s cash app for digital money.

Bisq

Our favorite new anonymous exchange, peer to peer and decentralized, the way Satoshi always intended. Deposit options using the bisq exchange range from gift cards to major bank transfers worldwide. Many American’s are already using the exchange for bitcoin and ethereum selling anonymously in the US, this is one of a few exchanges that we have high hopes seeing it grow.

Binance

Binance is everyone’s favorite exchange this year it seems. Partially due to the easy account creation allowing new sign ups to trade bitcoin for altcoins, or altcoins for bitcoin, whatever you prefer. Depositing under 2BTC will allow traders to avoid the pesky KYC process and start trading immediately. The exchange does not trade in fiat so users looking to purchase crypto currency for the first time would need a different exchange.

Gemini

Gemini will allow US customers to deposit using bank wire or linking your bank account to your Gemini account. If you have to get your first bitcoins from an exchange linked to a bank, this would be one to try over Coinbase and Poloniex currently.

Coinmama

For those buying less than $150 of crypto currency, CoinMama has been selling crypto currency to users with no identification requirements below that amount. Visa gift cards are commonly used at this exchange for anonymous purchases.

Changelly

For anonymous purchases of altcoins, you need a crypto currency to trade with at Changelly and transactions will be done within a few minutes most days. Perfect for grabbing a hot altcoin that you want to buy for bitcoin from time to time.

Bitcoin ATM’s

Check the Bitcoin ATM map and purchase your first crypto next to a Slurpee machine in style. Always best to double check what the machine type is at the location, the fee’s taken and avoid the ATM’s that ask for identification uploads.

GDAX

GDAX is huge and popular enough with their customers to mention. After confirming your bank information with them you will need to wire funds to start buying crypto currencies.

Exchanges to (probably) Avoid

Bitfinex has stopped serving US customers as of November 9, 2017, and still has many haters after they were hacked in 2016 for $72 million worth of bitcoin. All customers affected were given a token (BFX), representing their stolen bitcoin shortly after the hack. Bitfinex purchased the BFX tokens back from all of their customers in April 2017, essentially paying back all customers affected by the security breach. This is one of the many reasons we suggest everyone own a hardware wallet to store their crypto currency and not keep it on an exchange.

This may not be a scam exchange like Mt. Gox but customers can definitely find a better exchange than Bitfinex currently.

OKEx, Coinbase, Poloniex, CEX.io, BitStamp and LocalBitcoins have fairly strict KYC (know your customer) requirements that give more than a few customers headaches. The delays to send identification and verify your identity with exchanges, when all you want is to buy a hot alt before it moons, can be frustrating. There are also the LibertyX bitcoin sales from stores, that require much of the same KYC, which we try to avoid due to the data leaks so many financial companies have these days.

Crypto Gambling has information on bitcoin, altcoins and trading crypto currencies along with bitcoin poker, casino and sports betting sites available worldwide.