How to Buy Bitcoin and Altcoins on Bittrex?
When playing on the cryptocurrency market, we try to choose the best trading platform. What criteria are essential for you? As for me, I think that a good crypto exchange should be first of all reliable, with high security level, and secondly, I like when I can trade as many assets as possible within one brokerage website. I am John Ryan, my profession is to teach people what is cryptocurrency and how it works. I also write articles for https://bitcoinbestbuy.com/. This review is about one trading platform that has gained huge popularity in recent years. It has both characteristics that are important to me, and lots of users ask me about it lately. The name of this crypto exchange is Bittrex.
Bittrex: What Type of Exchange Is This?
Bittrex is registered in the USA, their main office is in Seattle, Washington. It was founded by three computer security specialists in 2014, and since then it has never been hacked. Hence, I can say that those three really know their job. Their names are Bill Shihara, Richie Lai, and Rami Kawach. Before opening their crypto trading center, they worked for Amazon, Blackberry, and Microsoft, which attests to their high competence in matters of cybersecurity.
Let’s see what they say about their brainchild. According to Bittrex team, it is an innovative and leading blockchain platform that works under the U.S. jurisdiction. They point out their several features that make this exchange the best one:
using a multi-stage wallet strategy, Bittrex encourages its customers to keep their assets in cold storage. The trading platform employs two-factor authentication (2FA), and many other features to secure the funds of its users from stealing and loss;
Bittrex’ elastic and custom-designed trading engine enables real time execution of orders. The exchange also provides the possibility to use algorithmic trading and other trading centers with the help of its powerful API (short for application program interface);
Bittrex developers claim that their clients enjoy the fastest operations currently available;
one of the policies of this trading platform is to support as many blockchains and digital assets as possible;
residing in the USA, this company strictly adheres to all regulations and recommendations of American legislators, making it next to impossible to use Bittrex trading platform for illegal purposes.
This marketplace works all over the world, except those countries that have banned cryptocurrencies by their laws. The design is user-friendly, it is good both for beginners and skilled traders. Till recently, Bittrex belonged to the type of trading centers that supported exclusively crypto-to-crypto operations. However, in spring 2018 the developers have introduced the support of USD in order to decrease the use of stablecoins, such as tether and TrueUSD.
The commissions charged by the crypto exchange are comparatively low and flat — 0.25% for all trades. As for the deposits and withdrawals, Bittrex does not apply any fees for these operations. However, they warn their clients that blockchain networks may take the so-called miner fees for moving cryptos from one wallet to another. The same works for operations with USD, you do not have to pay any commission to deposit or withdraw US dollars, but this does not mean that your bank will not want to levy any charges.
Method to Buy Bitcoin for Dollars (USD)
First of all, you can operate USD on Bittrex only if you live outside USA, or in particular states and territories of the U.S. At the moment of writing, December 2018, there are 35 U.S. jurisdictions where Bittrex users can have USD accounts on this trading platform. The residents of such states as Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, and others, are offered to participate in Tether, Bitcoins, and Ethereum markets, until the exchange adds more states where USD operations are allowed.
Okay, let’s see how to buy bitcoin on Bittrex. I proceed from the assumption that you are already a member of this trading center. If not, the process of registration is very easy, they ask you to type in your email and password, then you’ll have to verify your home address, phone number, and identity. Do not forget to set up 2FA, it is necessary to enjoy the full functionality of the exchange. Now we need to put some dollars on your Bittrex account.
If your profile was created before 4 September 2018, then you should be able to trade US dollars. In case you have a newer account, you have to do a couple of clicks to enable this option:
on the homepage, find the “Support” link at the bottom of the screen;
there you’ll see the “Submit a request” button. Click on it, and choose “Fiat (USD) Trading Request” from the dropdown menu;
you’ll have to fill in all forms carefully, do not forget to select “USD trading, deposits, and withdrawals” option, and link your bank account.
In order to check if the request was granted by the broker, go to “Wallets” and see if the buttons for depositing and withdrawing USD are green and orange correspondingly. In case they are gray — wait a little, the validation may take a couple of days. You’ll get the detailed instructions on how to use wire transfers to put USD to your account with the email. Keep in mind that if you are not a corporate user, the incoming sum should not be less than $1000.
Now you are ready to trade bitcoins for US dollars. Here is what you need to do:
go to “Markets” and find the pair USD-BTC, click on it;
you’ll see the chart and the order book below. Tap “Buy,” type in how much cryptocurrency you need, select “Ask” from the “Bid Price” menu, push the big green “Buy Bitcoin” button;
in the pop-up window you’ll want to confirm the order.
Then you’ll have to wait till your order is completed.
If you are not going to use these bitcoins for further trading, I strongly advise you to send them to your offline storage. Hardware wallet is much better for storing your funds, as it is better protected from hacking. It is very easy:
copy the BTC address of your cold storage;
click on “Wallets” on Bittrex;
find Bitcoin and the orange round icon with an arrow directed upwards;
press it and enter the recipient's address and the amount of bitcoins;
press “Withdraw BTC.”
The funds will be in your wallet shortly after you confirm the transaction.
How to Purchase Altcoins with Bitcoin on Bittrex?
So, we have bitcoins on our Bittrex balance, and we want to get some altcoins. The choice of offered cryptos is huge, for example, there are 213 Bitcoin pairs traded currently on Bittrex. You’ll find such tokens as:
DOGE, or Dogecoin;
ETH, or Ethereum;
XMR, also known as Monero;
Bitcoin Cash (BCH);
Litecoin, shortened as LTC;
XRP, or Ripple, and dozens of other less known crypto assets.
Previously mentioned USDT (tether) and TrueUSD are also in the list.
So, here is how you can purchase other cryptos for BTC:
press “Markets” and scroll down to the list of Bitcoin markets;
find the pair you are interested in, and click on it;
as well as with USD trading, you’ll see the order book, where you’ll have to indicate the amount of the coins you intend to buy, and choose the “Ask” bid price;
the system will do the math, and you’ll have to press the big green button, and then “Confirm.”
When your buy order is completed, you’ll see a pop-up notification at the lower-right corner of the screen. Again, it is better not to keep cryptos on the wallets provided by the exchange. Despite their high security level, the offline storage is much more reliable and protected from swindlers.
Is It Possible to Buy Alternative Coins Without Bitcoin or USD?
When you enter the “Markets” section, you will see that Bittrex has four types of trading pairs — USD, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT markets. This means that you can buy and sell any assets for these currencies. Crypto users who want to trade altcoins, can do that for BTC on most trading platforms. There are also many places where you can use fiat money, like US dollars, euros, or pounds. Bittrex developers decided to widen the list of supported trading pairs. They did it to comply with the needs of those customers who want to trade altcoins without involving Bitcoin or USD.
Let’s say you would like to purchase some Monero, but you do not have USD or BTC on your balance. On Bittrex, you can go to Markets section and find the pairs ETH-XMR and USDT-XMR. There, you can buy the desired crypto for ether or tether, respectively. Unfortunately, if you want to convert your Monero into Litecoin, you cannot do this directly. First, you’ll have to sell XMR for Ethereum, and only then you’ll be able to get LTC. Knowing the strategy of Bittrex to add as many markets as possible, we can hope that there will be much more trading options in the near future.
Can I Get Bitcoin from Bittrex Using Coinbase on PC?
No, you cannot buy bitcoins on Bittrex using another cryptocurrency trading center on PC. So, if you have some coins in your Coinbase wallet, and would like to exchange them to BTC on Bittrex, you’ll have to make several steps:
let’s assume you have litecoins. Go to your Coinbase “Accounts” section;
find LTC there and press “Send”;
open Bittrex, go to “Wallets” section there. Press the little green circle beside Litecoin with the down arrow, generate the address and copy it;
now return to Coinbase and paste it, complete the transfer;
go back to Bittrex, find the pair BTC-LTC, and place a sell order. Once the altcoins are sold, you’ll see BTC on your balance.
That’s it, you’ve bought your bitcoins for litecoins from Coinbase.
Сommon Problems with Buying
Bittrex website has an informative support page, where you can find all necessary information and instructions. One of its sections is devoted to common problems and pitfalls which may occur on the way of crypto traders who use this trading platform, its title is “Common Errors and Troubleshooting Tips.” Here are the issues from there I would like to mention in this article:
Bittrex users sometimes experience problems with 2FA. Check if the clock in your gadget is set correctly and synced with the network time. Secondly, when using a new mobile phone, you’ll have to install Google Authenticator, and enter the same keys you used before;
some cryptocurrency users are too impatient, and scrimp on identity verification. Remember, that your selfie should not be the photo from your passport. The photocopy of the document should be readable, and passport in it should not be cropped. Make sure that your ID does not have any non-latin letters;
when entering the amount of funds for withdrawal, do not exceed the total sum you have on your balance, neither should you surpass the limits set by the exchange. For the accounts with 2FA enabled the maximum limit is 100 BTC daily. There are also minimum buy quantities for each trading pair;
now and then, you might not receive the letters from Bittrex system, which are necessary to log in or confirm payments. Check your spam folder, most probably those letters are there;
be attentive when you place an order, the sum should be greater than zero;
some users type in the wrong address when sending coins;
withdrawals may not work before you whitelist the new IP address.
The system will give you the error messages in case you do something wrong with the explanation of the problem so that you could fix it. If something else happens, which is not listed in the FAQ section, you can always submit a request, or use the live chat service in the support center. Personally I do not think you will face any troubles, the Bittrex website is very well-designed, user-friendly, intuitive, and easy-to-use. All you need is little patience and attention when you configure your account, or send, receive, and trade tokens.
Main Conclusions About This Exchange
Bittrex has definitely entered the club of leading cryptocurrency exchanges. Its team has successfully implemented the best and latest security technologies. The new web interface is great, everything works fast and smooth. I literally have no negative comments about this trading platform. If you have had serious troubles with it, you can share your concerns here. Who knows, maybe together we’ll be able to find a solution. Anyway, I hope this review was helpful for you. Write comments, tell me what other crypto exchanges are interesting, and I will try to tell you about them, too.