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Cryptolorium - ultimate crypto guide for beginners 2023

Learn about everything related to cryptocurrencies to become a better trader
Cryptolorium is all about crypto – discover the best cryptocurrency exchanges, learn what cryptocurrencies are, how to trade cryptos, find the cryptocurrencies with the most potential and much more. Whatever you're looking for in a cryptos exchange, Cryptolorium helps you compare the top crypto exchanges, and guide you through the entire process! Cryptolorium strives to become the best cryptocurrency site for beginners as well as advanced traders.
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Get started with cryptocurrencies with the help of Cryptolorium

Cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and by no means are there any guaranteed profits.

In that sense crypto markets are similar to any other financial market.

But unlike pretty much any other financial market (except possibly Forex), it is possible to make a lot of money in a matter of just days or maybe months.

And when we say a lot, we mean not earn back 100% profit, but 300%, 1000% and more. Top crypto traders are able to achieve that either by HODLing or by making smart trading decisions.

So if you haven't joined the crypto market yet, maybe it's time.

A word of caution

Before you continue your journey through the always growing crypto station called Cryptolorium, please keep in mind that trading cryptocurrencies involves significant risk, and you should only use money you can afford to lose.

Never invest your food money or the money you need for rent. Never take a loan to buy your favorite cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies can bring you big rewards, but big rewards never come without significant risks. So even if you need money quickly, stay sane and never take more risks than you are able to handle.

Before you get started you also need to find the safest platform to buy cryptocurrency and that's where Cryptolorium tries to help you a bit as well by providing you with a list of top crypto exchanges that include both most popular crypto exchanges as well as smaller altcoin exchanges.

Find the best cryptocurrency exchanges to buy cryptos

Which are the best cryptocurrency exchanges in 2023? What's the best crypto exchange for one person is not the best one for another.

When one person might be looking for an altcoin exchange with lots of variety, another trader might be more interested only in big crypto exchanges with high volumes. And another one might be interested in the best crypto exchange for beginners. Cryptolorium crypto exchanges page has it all - we share the most noteworthy on es in each category.

And when it comes to beginners in the crypto world, the easiest cryptocurrency exchange to get started in is definitely a fiat exchange. 

Fiat exchange is an exchange that allows you do deposit and withdraw money directly to the exchange. Not all big crypto exchanges offer that option.

Cryptolorium exchanges comparison page helps you compare the top crypto exchanges from different aspects - be it the size of their crypto listings, exchange volume, cryptocurrency trading fees, deposit or withdrawal fees, payment options or anything else.

We have put together nice page for you to help compare crypto exchanges in a simple manner, one topic at a time.

Cryptolorium crypto compare screenshot

Compare cryptocurrency exchanges here.

Top 10 cryptocurrency exchanges 2023

This is the list of the best cryptocurrency exchanges that we use ourselves. Go through Cryptolorium crypto exchange reviews to find the best trading platform for crypto that works for YOU.

While it's difficult to say if these are the safest cryptocurrency exchanges, they have all had their share of issues, they can definitely be considered safe cryptocurrency exchanges in general.

  1. Binance
  2. Gate.io
  3. Kucoin
  4. Coinbase
  5. Phemex
  6. Bittrex
  7. Bitrue
  8. Mexc Global
  9. Huobi Global
  10. Bybit

As mentioned, all of these crypto exchanges differ in some aspects and by the end of the day, the choice of the best crypto exchange depends on whether you are looking for the best place to buy crypto, the best place to keep crypto, the best exchange to HODL or anything else.

Some top crypto exchanges can have the best crypto selection but higher than average fees. Some exchanges might have low crypto trading fees but high crypto withdrawal fees. Just as one example.

If you are just looking for a big cryptocurrency exchange or just one of those most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, then go with Binance. That would be your safest bet.

If you're looking for US based crypto exchanges, then your choice would be Kraken, Coinbase, or Bittrex.

So the exchange you decide to go for really depends on what you are personally looking for.

If you want to buy just a few random cryptocurrencies, then the crypto trading fees don't really matter that much. But if you intend to use some crypto trading robot for trading there, even small trading fees can fast add up.

What is a cryptocurrency exchange?

Cryptocurrency exchange is a crypto trading platform where you can buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

These days, of course, the most reputable crypto exchanges offer you a lot more than that.

Cryptocurrencies & safety - is trading cryptos safe?

If you are looking for for a safe investment opportunity, then investing in cryptocurrencies is not for you. Crypto market is extremely volatile and pretty much anything can happen.

So if you are looking for safety, don’t buy Bitcoin, close Cryptolorium website, and just keep your money under the mattress. And while it sounds like an insult, it's not - that's how the case is. Although, these days even the mattress might not be a good idea, considering the rapid inflation.

​Even the best trading platform for crypto can't guarantee any income or make sure you won't suffer any losses.

Are cryptocurrencies safe in general? If you’re doing your due diligence and don’t invest in obvious scams, then yes, cryptocurrencies are safe.

The volatility part still remains high though.

If you’re looking to make fast money in crypto market, it’s definitely possible, but at the same time you shouldn’t count on it, as sometimes, during bear market, you might have to wait for years to get your money back plus earn some.

And even that is not guaranteed.

But based on historic price movements, if you’re able to HODL for years, chances or multiplying your money are good.

Choose safe crypto exchange and crypto wallet

When it comes to safety, then in addition to making sure you don’t fall for crypto scams, you also need to use reputable crypto exchanges and ideally store your crypto holdings in safe crypto wallets.

You want your money to be safe, so make sure you do it in the safest possible way.
  • Invest only money you can afford to lose
  • While searching for cryptocurrencies to invest in, before buying random crypto coins (altcoins) make sure to do enough research. Using Cryptolorium is a good start! 
  • Additionally, it’s safer to choose crypto coins that are traded a lot (high volume).
  • Choose the safest crypto exchanges where to buy cryptos
  • Don’t store your large crypto holdings in crypto exchanges, but use an external safe crypto wallet for that

We try to review only safe crypto exchanges on Cryptolorium, since we only review cryptocurrency exchanges where we have an account ourselves as well. But even the safe crypto exchanges can sometimes have issues, so you need to do your best from your side as well.

Can cryptos be hacked and how to protect yourself from crypto theft

In most cases cryptocurrencies can be hacked or your cryptos can be stolen only if someone manages to get access to your digital wallet.

So make sure to use all the safeguards the crypto exchanges and crypto wallets are offering you.

Your crypto wallet should always have two-factor identification set up. But in some cases even that might not be enough.

It is very important to consider all aspects and think logically.

Keeping your crypto safe – what are we talking about here?

Imagine having a two-factor identification set up. In order to access your account hackers or thieves need your username and password, they need access to your phone (as security codes are sent there) and they need access to your email address (as security codes are sent there as well).

At first glance seems like a safe setup, right? Because in order to steal your cryptos they need access to so many different things. Right? Well…

But now imagine that you also have a crypto wallet or crypto exchange app installed in your phone and your phone gets stolen.

Normally you don’t need to log in every time you want to open the crypto app on your phone, so you are already logged in.

And these days your main email address is connected to your your phone and doesn’t require a password to log in.

So all somebody needs to do to get access to all your cryptos is your phone.

So in order to make things more secure:
  • Keep your phone safe
  • Use another level of protection, such as an additional password for crypto withdrawals
  • Don’t connect the email address you used for the crypto site to your phone
  • And again, make sure you choose a safe cryptocurrency exchange!

Cryptolorium's guide to to keeping your cryptos safe!

Keep your cryptocurrencies safe and don’t fall for crypto scams!
  1. If someone is offering your an “opportunity of a lifetime” like doubling your money in a matter of X days, it’s an obvious scam. Don’t fall for it. Same goes for anyone offering you free money for “absolutely nothing”.
  2. Don’t answer stupid questionnaires online which ask for your favorite bands, foods, mother’s maiden name or anything like that to discover what type of personality you are. Those are meant for learning more about you in order to be able to hack your accounts.
  3. Take advantage of all the safeguards the crypto exchanges and crypto wallets offer you.

​Can crypto transaction be traced?

Crypto transactions are definitely way more anonymous than any bank transfer. But this doesn’t make cryptocurrency untraceable.

Every transaction leaves a mark somewhere and by the end of the day, cryptocurrencies are not untraceable.

Are cryptocurrencies regulated? Who regulates cryptocurrencies?

The regulation part of cryptocurrencies is still in sort of limbo. In some countries cryptocurrencies are pretty much regulated while in others it’s still wild west.

The main thing though – cryptocurrency is not centrally regulated – instead, all countries do it their own way (if they do it at all).

Cryptocurrencies were created to exist in their own bubble with no government oversight, but things are slowly moving towards more regulation.

And this is good and bad at the same time.

More regulation complicates things and slightly changes the idea of it all. Plus of course, the more oversight, the more important it is to start thinking about crypto taxation by the government who regulates your cryptocurrencies..

But crypto regulation and oversight also makes investing in cryptocurrencies safer.

As always, there are two sides to everything.

Crypto legislation around the world

As already mentioned, the crypto regulation and legislation of the crypto world depends a lot on the exact country we are talking about. And in most countries so far cryptos are not legal nor illegal. With just a few exceptions.
Countries where cryptocurrency is legal
El Salvador is the first (and currently only) country to adopt bitcoin as a legal currency starting from September 7, 2021. OF course, their timing wasn’t perfect as the day Bitcoin became a legal currency in El Salvador, the price plummeted more than 10%.
Countries where cryptos are illegal
The list of countries that prohibit the use of cryptocurrencies entirely or prohibits financial institutions* from facilitating Bitcoin transactions is slightly longer.
  • Algeria
  • Bolivia
  • China
  • Colombia*
  • Egypt
  • Indonesia
  • Nepal
  • North Macedonia
  • Russia
  • Turkey   
  • Vietnam (HODL and trading is ok, payment is banned)
Note that in case of China the issue is sort of different. The country wants to launch its own digital currency that would be fully under the government’s control. Making the idea of cryptocurrencies sort of void.

What is cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrecy is a digital currency that exists only in the internet, but which can these days be used as means to pay for products or services. If I was to write a book for myself called „Crypto for Dummies”, this is probably the easiest definition I would share there.

When crypto started back in 2009 with the coming of Bitcoin nobody could predict how big crypto market will grow. Today the total value of cryptocurrency market is between one and two trillion dollars.

Difference between crypto and fiat

In financial markets fiat is the term used for “real” currencies like euro or dollar. If we compare crypto vs fiat money, the main difference between crypto and fiat is the fact that fiat money is government-issued and controlled. And it has no intrinsic value.

Cryptocurrencies have been created by a ‘random guy’, cryptocurrencies are digital assets that allow direct transactions between parties without any intermediary.

Cryptocurrencies can be spent or transferred anywhere in the world without any involvement of any bank or government.

While both fiat and crypto have their place in the world today, in a way cryptos make more sense.

The value of a crypto depends on its trust factor while the value of fiat, in big part, depends on what the governments say they are worth.

Crypto vs fiat

Fiat currencies
Cryptocurrencies
Fiat refers to currency that is controlled and supervised by government and bank
Cryptocurrency is a digital currency that works as a medium of exchange
Fiat transactions (and senders, receivers) can be tracked very easily
In case of cryptocurrencies it’s not that easy to identify the sender and the receiver
Fiat money is government sanction and government-issued
Cryptocurrencies are not backed by governments, nor regulated by central authority
The price and supply of fiat money can be controlled by governments
Central authorities can not influence the price
Elon Musk can influence fiat value a bit if he wanted to
Elon Musk can influence crypto prices a lot, and he wants to
Fiat money market has mainly institutional players
Cryptocurrency is owned in big part by individuals
Fiat money is in a form on paper cash or coins
Cryptocurrency can’t be ‘touched’, it only exists electronically
Fiat can be stored in your wallet, bank or online payment systems
Cryptocurrency can only be stored on blockchain in your digital wallet
Fiat money can be transferred physically and digitally
Cryptocurrencies can be transferred only digitally
Supply of fiat money is pretty much unlimited
Supply of digital currencies depends on the currency, in case of Bitcoin the supply is not unlimited

Differences between cryptos and stocks

While cryptos have only been around for slightly more than a decade, stocks have been traded for ages. But is cryptocurrency better than stocks? There’s no simple answer. As they are sort of very different things.

Stocks are generally considered a rather solid long-term investment and price of stocks is as a general rule way less volatile than cryptos.

Crypto vs stocks

Stocks
Cryptocurrencies
Stocks are a type of investment
Cryptos are a type of investment
Stocks have been around for centuries
Cryptos have been around since 2009
Stocks give you a small ownership of some company and also in hopes the value will increase
Cryptos can be used as payment or you can keep them hoping the value will increase
Stocks are traded in stock exchanges
Cryptos are traded on crypto exchanges
Investing in stocks is risky, but nowhere near cryptocurrencies
Crypto investments are very risky
Stocks have potential - the S&P 500 grew 42% last year
Crypto potential is very high. For example the price of Ehtereum grew 1,200% during the last year
Stocks are not very volatile
Cryptos are very volatile
Stocks can pay dividends
Holding cryptos can earn you interest or crypto airdrops
Stocks can't be used as payment for random goods
Cryptos can be used as payment
Stocks are not decentralized
Cryptos are decentralized

How many cryptocurrencies are there?

The very first cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, but now, just shy of 14 years later, there are between 4000 and 11 000 cryptocurrencies in total. We say "between" as some are crypto currencies, some are crypto tokens, some are something else.

The main cryptos - top 10 cryptocurrencies

All prices are in EUR.
CryptocurrencySymbolVolumeCurrent Price
BitcoinbtcEUR1296750000034066
EthereumethEUR144222000001853.63
TetherusdtEUR264337000000.913289
BNBbnbEUR614336000209.2
XRPxrpEUR9114290000.554622
USDCusdcEUR76900000000.910584
SolanasolEUR113418000051.2
Lido Staked EtherstethEUR222400001845.04
CardanoadaEUR2379160000.346289
DogecoindogeEUR7138350000.070675

What is best crypto to invest in 2023?

With all those thousands of cryptocurrencies around, which is the best crypto to invest in? That's one question nobody can answer you. As otherwise everyone would be making the best crypto investment and based on just pure logic, life doesn't work like that.

So when it comes to the best crypto to invest in, there are multiple ways to go here.

You could choose the oldest cryptocurrency out there, the one and only best digital currency even today,  Bitcoin (BTC).

Or you could go through every possible crypto list out there, do your own thorough crypto research, and decide yourself, what is the best digital currency today in your opinion.

Obviously, crypto research is not easy. Especially considering there are new cryptocurrencies being launched pretty much daily.

To see how many new cryptocurrencies are created, just check the top of Cryptolorium front page - you will most likely see a number of digital currencies launched just today.

Altcoins – what are they?

The term altcoin is used a lot when discussing cryptocurrencies and it the term simply refers to all cryptocurrencies that are not Bitcoin.

So whenever you see a cryptocurrency that is not Bitcoin – it’s called an altcoin.

Of course, these days some people don’t consider the other huge coins like Ethereum an altcoin anymore, but think about it as a major coin. But in essence, still, even Ethereum is an altcoin.

Although in the minds of most investors altcoins are smaller simply coins with lower trading volume and with higher potential short term gains and losses.

If you're looking to invest in some low price crypto, then altcoins are normally what you're looking for.
Are altcoins worth it? Are altcoins a good crypto investment?
As a rule of thumb, all altcoins are influenced by the price of Bitcoin. This means that they usually move in together with Bitcoin. Obviously there’s enough exceptions, but that’s sort of the general rule.

But what’s noticeable is the fact that if Bitcoin price goes up by 2%, some altcoins might go up 10, 20, 50%.

Identical idea applies also to times when Bitcoin price plummets 10%, the altcoin prices might go down way more.

For example, you can check Cryptolorium Index, which at the time of writing, stands at 22.94. The index contains roughly 70 altcoins, and it started from 100. So the prices have gone down quite a bit since the creation of the index.

So owning altcoins is definitely worth it, but you do need to be aware of the potentially extreme volatility.

Bitcoin is very volatile, but compared to smaller altcoins, it’s nothing. Altcoins are way more volatile.

We suggest only buying altcoins for long term investment, as short term anything can happen. There are altcoins with 1000x potential, meaning there’s potential for them to go up 1000x in price, but this not very likely to happen. Or if it will happen, it takes many years.

One of the best exchanges, top cryptocurrency exchange to discover new altcoins is Gate.io. Another exchange to find low price cryptos is Yobit.

But even with altcoins the potential is not unlimited as some people might want to believe. If the price of crypto is currently $0.000001 and you buy it in hopes the price will go up to $1, it’s not likely.

Rather it’s often impossible, as for that to happen it might have to move past Bitcoin’s market cap 1000-fold.

So how can we know it? If you want to know any altcoin potential, it's possible to make a simple calculation.

How to calculate the maximum possible price for any altcoin?

Let me give you an example (the prices are random, not today’s crypto prices):
  • Price of currently Best performing crypto (BTC): $45 000
  • Current Supply of the best performing crypto (BTC): 18.67 million
  • Current supply of the crypto you chose (BTT): 659.95 billions
Now that we have the basics written down, the equations to use are these:

Supply ratio: Supply of BTT/ Supply of BTC
Max possible price for BTT: BTC price / supply ratio.

So the actual calculation would look like this 659 950 000 000/18 670 000=35 348 and 45 000/ 35 348=1.25.

This means that the maximum price of Bittorrent, currently priced $0.004175, would be $1.25.

So that’s the potential, if it would become as good performing cryptocurrency as is Bitcoin today. Obviously in theory it could also pass the value, but then this would mean that there’s a new best performing cryptocurrency in town.

If you don't feel like making all those calculations yourself, just use Cryptolorium max potential calculator.

Which should you buy - BTC or altcoins?

This is a good question. Before you decide to buy cryptocurrencies, you should make a plan.

In general it is actually suggested to diversify your crypto portfolio as much as possible. It’s a very good idea not to invest more than 5% of your entire capital in any coin. So instead of thinking whether you should buy altcoins or bitcoin, you should buy both.

And when it comes to the question how many altcoins you should own, again, in general it’s the safest idea not to invest more than 2-5% of your capital in any individual crypto coin.

How do cryptocurrencies work?

Cryptocurrencies sort of works very similar to some e-wallet like Skrill. The only difference is that instead of EUR or USD there are digital assets (cryptocurrency) there.

In order to send crypto to someone else, you both need to have a crypto wallet. Again, it could be compared to thinks like Skrill or Neteller – you both need to have an account. But with cryptos you don’t have to have the same wallet.

In case of cryptos the wallet is only used to make transactions, your “money” is actually stored on blockchain.

To make a transaction to someone, you need to know their private key. The private key is like a bank account number. For each different crypto you own, you own a different “bank account” and of course, you are not limited to just one bank. You might have accounts in many banks.

So in a sense cryptos have similar basic idea as banks or other online payment providers. Obviously it’s not that simple, but this is the easiest way to explain it.  

This is pretty much how crypto works.

How do crypto prices change?

As for how crypto price increases or decreases then it’s all about the market. While some people would say that crypto is nothing like real estate or stocks or even fiat, it is actually all very similar. At least in a way. At least when we talk about how crypto prices change.

It’s all about demand and supply. More buyers than sellers in the market means it’s a buyers market and the prices are likely to rise and vice versa.

And this simple idea – supply and demand.

What do you need to get started with cryptocurrencies?

So what do you need to get started with cryptocurrencies?

1. Extra money

As with any kind of risky investment, put aside some money to invest in cryptos. This is your risk capital. Money you can afford to lose. While the earning potential here is high, nothing is guaranteed. As such you should only use money you can afford to lose, money you are willing to keep in cryptos for years to come should bear market arrive.

2. Familiarize yourself with cryptos

Do your homework! Cryptolorium can help you with that, but you should still do your own homework as well. Look at the market as a whole, read the crypto news, what’s the current expectation? Does it make sense to start investing in crytos right away or should you wait for crypto prices to go down first? Which crypto coins do you want to buy? Make sure they are not dead coins and that they have potential.

3. Find the best crypto exchange for you

Now it's time to decide where to buy cryptocurrencies. The general answer to that is that you should do that using one of the most reputable crypto exchanges. But obviously, it's never that simple.
  • Different crypto exchanges differ from each other in multiple ways.
  • First you need to decide what do the best crypto exchanges mean to you. If you don't know much about crypto trading yet, you want to find best crypto exchange for beginners, ideally a fiat exchange. Cryptolorium crypto exchange reviews and exchange comparisons page can help you a lot here as well.
  • Are people from you country accepted?
  • What are the deposit and withdrawal option?
  • What are the exchange fees like? Best crypto exchange fees start from roughly 0.1% per trade. In our opinion one of the best low fee crypto exchange is Gate.io. But Cryptolorium low fee exchanges page can help you find more exchanges with low fees.
  • How many cryptos does the cryptocurrency exchange have? How long is their crypto list? Do they often add new cryptocurrencies?
  • Is it a reputable crypto exchange? Meaning, is it safe to deposit money there? Where your hard-earned money is involved, you want to use only the safest platform to buy cryptocurrency.
  • What other features does the exchange offer you? Do they offer you quant trading option? Can you do margin trading? Can you earn free crypto?
  • Does the exchange have a good crypto app as well? Just in case you want to trade cryptos using your smartphone.

4. Decide on where to store your crypto!

While it is possible to keep your crypto on the exchange, it’s often suggested that it’s safer not to do that, just in case. 

Cryptolorium team suggest you do the same.

Create yourself a special crypto wallet and transfer all the cryptos you buy on the exchange in there. And when it comes to crypto wallets, decide whether you want to have your crypto in hot wallet (online crypto wallet) or you are willing to complicate things a little further and have your crypto in a cold wallet (offline crypto wallet).

The benefit of a cold wallet is that it’s a lot safer as nobody can hack it. The downside of a cold wallet is that it’s normally slightly more complicated to use and it can also cost you a bit.

How to buy crypto

Now that you’re ready to go, let’s talk about how to buy crypto. How to buy Bitcoin and altcoins.

We already mentioned where to buy cryptocurrencies, but knowing how to buy cryptocurrencies is the next important step for you.

Assuming your have found the best place to buy crypto, i.e. a good and trustworthy crypto exchange, learn how to buy cryptocurrency.

At first glance, after joining a crypto exchange, even the top cryptocurrency exchange might look very complicated at first. And some of them actually are.

In our case, we have found that in case of crypto exchanges like Binance, buying cryptos through a mobile crypto app can be actually easier than using your computer. That’s because Binance has simple and advanced mode in their crypto app. Meaning they have thought about beginners as well.

But in essence, to buy bitcoin or any other crypto coin, this is what you need to do:

Join the best cryptocurrency exchange you find and go through their crypto KYC process. While it is usually possible to buy cryptos without doing the latter as well, at some point it will definitely be needed.

So it’s better to go through the KYC process right away to avoid negative surprises in the future.

A few fairly big crypto exchanges offer the option to trade crypto without KYC, but on those crypto exchanges and cryptocurrency platforms please be more careful as this often means there’s not much oversight there.

So even when you do join an exchange where it’s possible to buy and sell crypto without SSN or any kind of KYC process, make sure you do your research and join only the most reputable cryptocurrency platforms.

Decide on which crypto you want!

Go to crypto exchange trading section and find that crypto. In case of Binance the easiest way to do it is click on Trade → Classic. This is (almost) the easiest way of trading cryptos there, but at first glance even that might look complicated. So before actually buying anything, look around without buying anything. Just to familiarize yourself with the environment.

After that you see the option to either use “limit” or “market” option.

In case of limit option you set the price you want to buy the crypto for and the amount you want to buy. Executing this order might take time as sellers have to be ready to sell for that exact price.

In case of market order the order is normally executed momentarily as market order means you are willing to pay the current market price.

And you’re done. You have just bought your first cryptocurrency.

Note that only a limited number of cryptos can be bought in fiat (i.e. USD or EUR). Many other cryptos can only be bought for major cryptocurrencies, i.e. BTC or ETH, not fiat money.

So in order to buy those cryptos you first need to buy Bitcoin or Ethereum and then use that cryptocurrency to buy the crypto you actually wanted to buy.

Which payment methods can you use to buy crypto?

As mentioned earlier, before you join an exchange, make sure they offer the payment options that are available to you. But what are the main payment options?

Fiat exchanges make it possible to deposit and withdraw fiat money. Some, let's say, half-fiat exchanges, allow you to directly buy cryptocurrencies with your card, but you never see any fiat on your exchange account. And some top crypto exchanges only accept crypto deposits and withdrawals.

So when deciding on the best platform to buy cryptocurrency, you do need to pay attention to the payment methods as well as choose the exchange that works for you.

Buy crypto with credit card

One of the most popular payment options is credit card. With credit card can be used in two ways to buy cryptocurrencies.

Some crypto platforms offer the option to buy a certain crypto directly using your credit card or it is possible to deposit fiat with your credit card and then buy cryptos on the exchange later.

Note that in some top crypto exchanges only the direct buy option is available.

It’s also important to mention that pretty much all big cryptocurrency exchanges as well as small ones take a fee from every deposit and withdrawal. The size of the fee can be anywhere between 1 and 10%.

Buy crypto with Paypal

Paypal entered the crypto market just recently and they offer just four different coins -  Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.

Please note that the Bitcoin that you buy in Paypal can not be transferred out of your digital wallet in Paypal.

That’s the situation at least for now.

Paypal crypto transaction fees are as follows:
  • 50 cents for purchases under $25
  • 1.5% of the transaction for crypto buys over $1,000
In April of 2021 Coinbase announced that they will be accepting Paypal payments as well for buying crypto in their exchange. Also xCoins and eToro offer that option.

Buy crypto with Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies

Some exchanges don’t deal with fiat currency at all. Meaning sometimes your only option to buy crypto there is if you already have Bitcoin or any other supported cryptocurrency in your crypto wallet somewhere.

Besides big crypto exchanges, where can you buy crypto?

In order to buy crypto you don’t necessarily need to join an exchange to do it. But these options often come with limitations.

We just mentioned Paypal where only a small number of of cryptocurrencies is listed and there are other strict rules in place.

Another option to buy cryptocurrencies is e-wallet Skrill. They also have only a handful of available crypto coins and they also have similar rules as Paypal – you can only sell the cryptos back to them.

One can also buy Bitcoin in Revolut and altogether they have actually 44 different coins listed. With Standard Revolut account the trading fee is 2.5% and unless you have Metal Plan you can’t transfer crypto out of Revolut.

Revolut is fast and easy way to buy crypto, but the downsides don’t really make it worth it.

You can also buy crypto or exchange your existing cryptos in different crypto wallets. For example Exodus Wallet has an exchange wallet. Although it is not possible to buy crypto for fiat there.

Then there’s also Luno Wallet which can be used to deposit and withdraw fiat and you also have a small crypto exchange with 25 crypto trading pairs there.

Verifying your identity - what does the KYC process look like?

KYC stands for Know Your Customer and you normally need to go through it before you buy Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrencies. And you generally need to do it in all cryptocurrency platforms, all cryptocurrency exchanges and crypto trading sites. Unless it’s a crypto platform that promotes itself with crypto without kyc phrase. But we mentioned the no KYC crypto sites above and they are generally less trustworthy. Then again, not necessarily, and they to give you more anonymity.

During the KYC process you are normally asked for a copy of your ID card (front and back) or passport, a photo of you holding your ID or passport (sometimes together with a hand-written note of some sort) and they can also ask for proof of address. This would be in a form of a recent utility bill with your name and address on it.

Crypto trading bots

Another big topic when it comes to cryptocurrencies is crypto trading bots, also referred to as quant trading.

What is a crypto trading bot and do crypto trading bots work?

Crypto trading bot is a bot that trades for you. Without your intervention. There are several different types of crypto bots you can choose from.
  • Spot trading bots
  • Margin trading bots
  • Futures trading bots
  • Smart Rebalance bots
  • ...and others
If your goal is to get passive income through HODLing, but you want to increase your crypto holdings while you're doing it, the best crypto trading bots are probably Smart Rebalance bots. This is also the best crypto trading bot for beginners, due to low downside, and you don't need to know pretty much anything about cryptos to use it.

If the market trend is either downwards or upwards, the best crypto bot might be margin trading bot. Margin trading bot is also good for short-term gains. Same might apply for Spot bots.

Which is the best crypto trading bot? That depends a lot on what's your goal. As you probably already guessed, we at Cryptolorium.com like the smart-rebalance, and also margin trading bots the most, but the choice is really yours.

Why would you use a crypto trading bot?

Crypto trading bots help you earn passive income. That's the main reason. Instead of manually making hundreds of trades a day, you can use a trading bot to do it for you.

Just make sure you choose the right bot based on your knowledge and risk tolerance. And if you're a beginner, don't choose anything else than the best crypto trading bot for beginners. Which, just to remind you, is Smart Rebalance bot.

Cryptolorium's Tips for investing in cryptocurrencies

Before you start investing in cryptocurrencies, we suggest you put together a plan and later on stick to it!

First of all, of course, before you buy Bitcoin or any other currencies, think about the money you are going to invest.

Can you afford losing this money or the very minimum, keep it in cryptos for years to come if needed?

If the answer is no, don’t invest in cryptos. The money you invest you should be the money you can afford to lose.

Secondly, answer this question - how many altcoins should i own? In general it is suggested that you don’t invest in more than 2 to 5 percent in any individual cryptocurrency. But obviously that depends a lot on your decision. And if you go for Bitcoin, I guess it’s okay to hold a bit more of that.

Set up the rules for when you sell the cryptos. All of us want to get a 100x boost in our capital, but this is not likely to happen, at least not in a month or a year. So you will need to decide when will you sell a crypto and how much of it.

For example, you could decide that you will sell 10% of the crypto when the price doubles, 30% when it triples and so on. That’s just a suggestion from our side though. And when you do sell, what will you do with the money? Will you withdraw it and spend it? Will you invest it in cheaper cryptos? Or you invest a certain percentage and take out the rest? Whatever you decide to do, make a plan and stick to it.

Pros and cons of investing in cryptos

What are the main pros and cons of investing in cryptocurrencies?
Pros
Cons
Easy to buy
Cryptos are very volatile
Easy to sell
Can result in huge losses
Crypto investments have lots of potential
Exchange & payment fees can be high
Elon Musk can raise crypto prices with one tweet
Elon Musk can crash crypto market with one tweet

Freeballers - can you get cryptos for free?

When someone offers you something for free, often strings are attached. With cryptos it’s not necessarily so, but because of that it is important to be even more careful here.

It is possible to get free cryptos, but you still need to consider the popular saying – when it sounds to good to be true, it’s not true.

So when someone or some new crypto site tells you to make a deposit to double your money instantly, don’t do it, it’s a crypto scam.

But from the positive side, it actually is possible to get cryptos for free.

Earn free crypto by staking

Crypto staking in essence is locking up certain amount of a certain cryptocurrency for a specific period of time. This crypto is then used by the crypto exchange/wallet to help make the blockchain more secure and help validate crypto transactions.

And you earn interest from doing this.

How much crypto can you earn by doing that? This depends a lot on the exchange, cryptocurrency, timing and so on.

But APY can be as low as 0.X% or as high as over 100%.

Of course, normally you only lock up your crypto for 15, 30 or 90 days, so even if the APY is 100% (which doesn’t happen to often), your actual income will be (APY/365)*(number of days).

So in case of 15 days with 100% APY it would be roughly 4%, 30 days 8%, and 90 days around 24%.

The most common APY, however, is between 2% and 8%.

During the time your crypto is locked you cannot sell it. Or sometimes it might be possible to sell it, but then you lose all the interest already earned with it.

Get free crypto through crypto airdrops

Crypto airdrop is basically a way for a new virtual currency to promote itself. During the crypto airdrop you get a certain amount of certain crypto into your wallet for doing nothing.

Airdrops come with specific requirements – such as owning some other base crypto in your wallet. Sometimes you also need to sign up for the airdrop while sometimes just having some specific coin in your crypto wallet is enough.

The airdrop value in fiat is normally rather low. But as you get it just for owning a certain crypto and more often than not you don’t even need to sign up for it, it’s a very welcome extra.

Cryptocurrencies and the environment

In the past years there have been lots of discussions about cryptocurrencies and the environment.

Or to be more precise, how bad cryptocurrencies are for the environment.

Crypto transactions take a lot of power and the energy it takes to complete just Bitcoin transactions is 81.51 terawatt hours (TWh) annually. Or at least that was last year. If Bitcoin were a country, it would rank 39th based on its annual energy consumption.

Not to mention about the hardware that is produced for just Bitcoin mining.

So cryptocurrencies carbon footprint is definitely high.

However, the situation is not as bad as it seems as crypto mining companies have started thinking about it a lot more now.

Just during the last year Bitcoin’s carbon footprint has been slashed with more and more miners using renewable energy.

So compared to just last year, the consumption is now around 70 terawatt hours of energy per year. This equals to around 0.33% of the world’s total electricity usage.   

Bitcoin is now committed to becoming more environmentally sustainable.

However, Bitcoin is just one cryptocurrency and at this time the one that uses pretty much the most energy per transaction.

But not all cryptos use a lot of energy, below you will find cryptos with extremely low energy consumption as well. We'll talk about the most environmentally friendly cryptos in a moment.

But before we do, do Bitcoin transactions really use that much energy?

Bitcoin transaction energy consumption

When you read crypto reviews online, when you try to find how much energy Bitcoin transactions consume, roughly 99% of the reviews claim that Bitcoin uses 707 kWh (or more) of energy per transaction.

However, this is not true.

I can't give you the exact true number, because I don't know it.

But the reason why it's not true is simple - Bitcoin energy use per one transaction has been calculated based on the entire Bitcoin-related energy usage and then this has been divided by the number of transactions in a year.

In reality, Bitcoin transactions are not the least energy energy consuming, but they actually don't need much energy at all.

Most of the high energy usage that has been attributed to Bitcoin transactions is actually not coming from the transactions themselves. Most of the energy is actually being used by Bitcoin mining.

"Many journalists and academics talk about Bitcoin’s high “per-transaction energy cost,” but this metric is misleading. The vast majority of Bitcoin’s energy consumption happens during the mining process. Once coins have been issued, the energy required to validate transactions is minimal. As such, simply looking at Bitcoin’s total energy draw to date and dividing that by the number of transactions doesn’t make sense — most of that energy was used to mine Bitcoins, not to support transactions. And that leads us to the final critical misconception: that the energy costs associated with mining Bitcoin will continue to grow exponentially." (Nick Carter, Harvard Business Review)

Cryptos with low energy consumption

Bitcoin uses roughly 707 kWh (kilowatt hours) of energy per one transaction. Allegedly. But keep in mind what we just mentioned above.

NANO uses 0.000112 kWh per transaction. That’s low even compared to each VISA card payment, which uses around 0.003 kWh.

Here are cryptocurrencies with the lowest energy consumption per transaction:

Cryptocurrency
Energy usage per transaction
Bitcoin Cash
18.957 kWh
18.522 kWh
0.5479 kWh
0.12 kWh
Chia Network (XCH)
0.023 kWh
Ripple (XRP)
0.0079 kWh
0.001 kWh
0.000112 kWh
0.00011 kWh
0.00003 kWh
0.000008 kWh

Note that those number might vary slightly. As even in case of bitcoin we have seen numbers between 656 kWh and 1560 kWh.

And another crypto that doesn’t use too much energy is Holo (HOT), but we don’t have a specific figure for it.

Cryptocurrencies and taxes

These days you need to pay taxes from everything. But are crypto gains taxed?

That depends a lot on the country. But countries where cryptos are already regulated in one form or another you do need to pay taxes from your crypto gains.

These rules change all the time and everywhere.

What are the exact crypto tax rules in your country, that you’ll need to figure out yourself.

Can you use crypto as money?

When Bitcoin was launched, it was a neat virtual currency, but you couldn’t really do anything with it.

Today cryptocurrencies are accepted as payment across the world.

Obviously, there aren’t as many shops where crypto is accepted as shops accepting fiat money, but the numbers grow every day.

Crypto can be used for shopping, buying flight tickets, or pay for beers in bars!

What cryptocurrencies are accepted as payment

A number of cryptocurrencies that are accepted as payment, but the main one is obviously still Bitcoin. Also Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash are very common.

But for example, when we talk about the main cryptocurrencies for gaming, then there a great number of cyurrencies accepted in crypto casinos. The list includes Monero, Ripple, Funfair, Stellar and many (I mean, loooooads) others.

Crypto for beginners – 10 things to do before getting started with cryptos

  1. Bookmark Cryptolorium.com website
  2. Learn about cryptos. Make sure you understand the basics of trading cryptocurrency.
  3. Put aside some money
  4. Find the best site for trading crypto, best crypto exchanges through Cryptolorium crypto exchanges page, and sign up
  5. Find a wallet and install it
  6. Make a plan and decide to stick to it
  7. Read crypto news and keep doing it
  8. Find top crypto Youtube channels and subscribe to them
  9. Make sure you’re comfortable with the risk involved
  10. Create Cryptolorium account, if you want to keep track of all your investments in different cryptocurrency exchanges as well as crypto wallets. If you don't want to do that, or you have a better place for that, no need for that account.

Before you invest in new cryptos – what to look out for?

If you already own a number of cryptocurrencies, but are looking for new cryptos to invest in, what should you consider?

I can’t say it enough – do your homework! I have been burned ourselves by not spending a minute to learn a bit more about a specific crypto and this ended up losing more than 95% of its value. During bull market.

Had I actually learned about the crypto before, I would have found out that:
  1. The volume for this crypto coin is very low
  2. The development ended pretty much a year ago and nobody is doing anything with it anymore
  3. Binance delisted the crypto due to no trust in it
So before you buy a new crypto, do your research:
  • Check the crypto trading volume
  • See how many crypto exchanges it is listed on
  • Search the crypto coin in google and see what results you get
  • See the crypto reddit page (most crytos have it)
  • See the crypto Twitter page
  • See the crypto official site
This should already give you at least some sort of idea what the crypto is about and whether you should even consider investing in it.

Additionally (and I do mean additionally, not as a main thing) you should also think what kind of returns you are expecting and choose your coin based on that. If you want to HODL Ethereum (ETH) and at the same time are hoping for 100x gains, that's not very realistic. Why? You can check my maximum altcoin potential page here.

How can Cryptolorium help you?

I created Cryptolorium initially just for myself – it all started with just the account area, because I wanted to always have more information about our crypto holdings that any crypto exchange offers.

So what does Cryptolorium offer?
  • A free Cryptolorium crypto account which allows you to keep an eye on all of your cryptos, their initial value, their current value and much more. Want to keep an eye on the price of some crypto coin? Add it to your watchlist.
  • Exclusive crypto lists – Cryptolorium offers you a variety of cryptocurrency lists. All these lists have been put together because I felt I could use them myself. From penny cryptos to cheap cryptos to top cryptos to cryptos, that haven’t followed the price pattern of the rest of the market. Or maybe you want to see the list where we have calculated the maximum price each altcoin could theoretically reach? Or maybe you only want to see the list of cryptos in each cryptocurrency exchange? Cryptolorium crypto lists page offers you that, and much more.
  • We publish crypto news, we write crypto exchange reviews. Cryptolorium crypto exchanges page as well as the crypto comparison page helps you decide which exchange to use.
  • Sometimes we also review crypto wallets, you can find these the wallets tab on top.
  • We even review gambling sites that accept crypto deposits. For example, you can check out our Tiger Gaming Review or Betcoin.ag crypto casino review. But these are just two examples. We have actually reviewed dozens of different crypto casinos here in Cryptolorium.  Or you can find all the best the crypto casino bonuses out there.
  • We offer (near) real time crypto prices and on each crypto page we list similar cryptos based on price, or change or even crypto exchange.
So we do offer you quite a bit. Learn a bit more about Cryptolorium here.

And yes, we know, we could even offer you more, and we’re working on it!

Cryptolorium Cryptocurrency Guides 2023 - beginners guide to crypto

As I'm myself sort of a dumbuser when it comes to cryptocurrencies, or at least I was before I got started with cryptocurrencies roughly a year ago, I have written a number of cryptocurrency guides for Cryptolorium while I learn about cryptos myself. Cryptolorium is sort of a full blown crypto guide in its entirety. With lots of bells and whistles, of course.

Getting started with cryptocurrency is not easy. At least not at first glance. Initially it can all look and sound like Chinese (well, unless you are Chinese). So going through a beginners guide to cryptocurrency is sort of a must.

So these Cryptolorium crypto guides are there you help you on your road. Whether you're looking for crypto trading guide or crypto investment guide (yes, there is a difference), Cryptolorium has you covered.

There are cryptocurrency guides that help you choose the best crypto exchange, guides to help you with crypto deposits and withdrawals as well as many other beginners guides to cryptocurrency investing.

Here's the initial list of crypto beginners guides I have put together:
And these are just a few beginner's guides to cryptocurrency investing to mention here.

I'll be writing a lot more specific crypto guides and publishing them on Cryptolorium as much as time allows and as I learn about cryptos myself.

Some other things that are still in my todo list are things like digging even deeper into the topic of crypto trading bots, writing a guide for Cryptolorium to help you better understand of what liquidity farming is and how to do it in a smart way.

Recently I also finished the beginners guide to crypto Pump & Dump. This is one topic you should definitely be aware about. Either to use it in a smart way or to stay away from it.

I have also put together a guide about No KYC cryptocurrency exchanges, or in other words, crypto trading exchanges where identity verification is not necessary. What are their plusses and minuses?

Cryptolorium - jack of all trades...

I'm aware that the saying isn't really a positive one, considering it ends with "master of none", but Cryptolorium is meant to be that from the beginning. We dig deep, but only up to a point where it makes sense. Whichever topic we talk about. Cryptolorium is meant to be useful, but not wikipedia.

All in one, we hope you will find enough important and/or interesting information here, and we wish you all the best on your crypto journey.


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Siim Einfeldt photo
Author: Siim Einfeldt
I became interested in cryptocurrencies only a bit more than two years ago. Since then I have been in investing in cryptos using different exchanges. And I also launched Cryptolorium.com when I started trading, just to share my crypto journey and my results.



Quick answers to frequently asked questions

What is the main cryptocurrency today?
It all started with Bitcoin and today Bitcoin could be considered Gold in crypto market.

Other very popular cryptos are Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple.

By no means are these the only popular ones though.
Can I buy cryptocurrencies using Cryptolorium?
Not directly. Cryptolorium provides you information about cryptocurrencies, trading, crypto wallets, the best crypto exchanges, etc.

And then you need to decide what exchange or platform to join and buy cryptos there.
Can I buy cryptocurrencies with USD or EUR?
Yes. There are two ways you can buy cryptos for USD, EUR or any other fiat currency.

1. Use Fiat exchanges. In these exchanges you can deposit fiat money using your credit card, bank account, or any other payment method.

2. Use quick buy method. Most of the exchanges that don't offer fiat deposit option offer you the chance to buy crypto directly using your credit card or bank account. Not that in case of this type of direct buy option fiat money never lands your account.
Can anyone guarantee that I won't lose money with cryptos?
No. Cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile in value and while the price of any crypto can go up 2, 5, 100 times, it can also lose value as fast.
What is the best crypto exchange?
Currently the best crypto exchanges that I use the most are Binance Gate.io, and Phemex.
How long does it take time to get started with cryptos?
You should be able to get strarted with cryptos in a matter of minutes.

You just need to join a crypto exchange, make a deposit and buy some cryptos.
How much money can I make with cryptos?
Based on experience, the sky is the limit. Even just in 2021 Bitcoin has risen around 4-5x.

There are several altcoins which have grown their value 25-100x.
Can anyone make money with cryptos?
Yes. Getting started with cryptos is available with absolutely everyone.