You must have been living under a huge rock if you haven’t heard of the most famous, and most valuable, cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Bitcoin launch way back in 2010, and could have been bought for $0.0008 a Bitcoin, which is roughly 0.0006p converted to GBP.
Considering that, at the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at around £32,000 a Bitcoin, the return on investment from early investment in 2010 until now is simply mind-blowing.
Let’s put it another way.
An investment into Bitcoin of just 1p (one penny) in 2010 would be worth £533,333 today!
Investing just £1 into Bitcoin in 2010 would be worth £53million today!!
Before we get too carried away, I do have to tell you that investing £100 today into Bitcoin today will not be worth £5.3billion in 10 years.
It won’t even be close, but as the most recognisable cryptocurrency in the world is now available to be used in a growing number of retailers plus has just become a legal currency in El Salvador, the popularity continues to grow.
In this article I will show you how to invest in Bitcoin for as little as £100, where best to invest and where to avoid investing if you are a UK citizen – plus how to manage the fees, and how to monitor your investment.
How to invest £100 in Bitcoin in the UK
One of the best ways, right now, of investing £100 into Bitcoin is to use cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase.
Coinbase is used by millions worldwide.
It is a trading platform I have used and have always found the experience as straight forward as cryptocurrency trading can be today with all its complexities and abbreviations.
If you are just getting started, and stepping into the world of cryptocurrency trading, you will undoubtedly have more questions than you can fit on to an A4 sheet of paper.
I will do my best to take away the jargon, and simplify the process as much as possible, whilst also letting you know what the terms mean, and which ones you need to pay attention to.
Buy Bitcoin on Coinbase
Although Binance is considered one of the biggest cryptocurrency trading platforms in the world, you may (or may not) have seen it come under scrutiny as of late in the UK and Europe.
There are many reasons for this scrutiny – many around concerns of security and fraud – but as a result many of the UK banks have restricted UK customers from depositing funds on to Binance.
And Binance are temporarily restricting withdrawals to UK banks too.
Enter Coinbase.
Coinbase are nothing new to crypto scene, having been around for nearly ten years now.
They have 68 million users worldwide and trade over $400 billion every 3 months on its platform, with over 2000 employees.
To get started you will need to set yourself up with a free Coinbase account, and get your crypto wallet to store your coins.
This setup will require you to validate yourself and could ask you to upload a scan of your passport, or driving license, as well as taking a selfie. This is all to help improve security and reduce fraud.
The approval process may also take a few days, but you will be alerted by email once your account is set up and ready for trading.
Once you log in you may feel a little overwhelmed by the large number of options, and flashy graphs.
Cryptocurrency investors love data!
As cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, can be traded 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, it means there is always new data to review.
To get started though you simply need to click on the Trade menu option.
Bitcoin should be the first cryptocurrency you see, but if it doesn’t appear (as it does in the screenshot above) then search for it in the ‘Search All Assets’ box.
From here all you need to do is click on the large Buy button beside the Bitcoin name and logo, enter how much you would like to invest and follow the onscreen instructions to make your purchase.
Once the trade completes and the purchase made, you should see your £100 Bitcoin investment in the ‘Portfolio’ menu, which will show you all your crypto assets and their current value.
That’s it – you’re now a cryptocurrency holder!
How to check the Bitcoin price?
Once you have purchased your £100 in Bitcoin you will want to keep an eye on the price, and whether your asset has increased or decreased in value.
All you need to do is check the Portfolio menu option on Coinbase.
This will give you not only the current Bitcoin price in real time, but also a real time value of your investment.
It will also tell you how many Bitcoin you have (hint: a £100 investment will give you around 0.003 Bitcoin).
You can check your Portfolio balance at any time, day or night, by either visiting the Coinbase website or you can also download the Coinbase app on both Apple and Android, and check your portfolio via the real time app.
Can I buy part of a Bitcoin?
It is possible to buy part of a Bitcoin. If the value of investment is less than 1 Bitcoin, a portion of a Bitcoin will be the value of the asset provided based on the value of the investment and the value of Bitcoin. This value will be stored within the user’s wallet as an investment to hold, trade or withdraw.
For example, as of today a Bitcoin has a value of around £32,000 a coin.
A £100 will not buy 1 Bitcoin of course, but it will buy 0.003 of a Bitcoin. So as an investor you would hold 0.003 of a Bitcoin.
If the value of Bitcoin rose to £50,000, and you held 0.003 of a Bitcoin, it would be worth £150.
If though the value of Bitcoin fell to £24,000, and you held 0.003 of a Bitcoin, it would be worth £72.
Is investing in Bitcoin safe?
Cryptocurrency is notoriously high risk. No cryptocurrency is a safe investment.
It isn’t like holding money in a bank account and earning interest every month, you are investing your money on a cryptocurrency coin and hoping the value of Bitcoin rises.
If more Bitcoin is purchased than sold, the price rises. If more Bitcoin is sold than purchased, the price will fall.
It is a similar principle to stocks and shares, although cryptocurrency has no ‘real’ basis other than pure speculation.
You should only ever invest an amount into cryptocurrency that you can comfortably lose without losing any sleep over.
Can someone in the UK buy Bitcoin on Binance?
Due to trading concerns over security and fraud, many UK banks have restricted the purchase of cryptocurrency on Binance, and Binance have equally but temporarily suspended withdrawals.
Although it is possible to move cryptocurrency between a Binance wallet and over to a Coinbase wallet for withdrawal, it is not an easy process and for advanced cryptocurrency traders only.
It’s best to stick to a cryptocurrency trading platform that can be successfully traded from within the UK.
In Conclusion – Invest £100 in Bitcoin in the UK
Investing in Bitcoin is easier than you probably think.
Platforms such as Coinbase are trying to make it as smooth and easy a process as possible, although almost everyone who invests in cryptocurrency has no idea how it actually works!
That doesn’t matter as much as knowing that any investment in cryptocurrency is extremely high risk and you could lose all of your investment.
Remember investing in cryptocurrency is high risk and you could end up with less money than you invested
