The news of a significant banking crackdown on cryptocurrency coming out of the United States has left State-side investors wondering how to buy Ripple in the USA.
And it seems a little odd that media outlets in the US are not reporting on this!
Lloyds Group in the UK has also followed the lead of US banks and banned the purchase of cryptocurrencies via a credit card transaction. But as the old saying goes: “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
This article explains how to buy Ripple XRP from the USA – and at the same time defy the banks.
Apparently, cryptocurrency mania in 2017 motivated investors to use credit cards as a leveraging tool to buy cryptocurrency they could not afford.
Essentially the banks are using the threat of a burst bubble to implement a strategy that protects their interests in a faulty financial system they have control over.
Digital coins will gain momentum once again.
And in our view Ripple (XRP) is a prime candidate to be a premium contender – ironically because the banks are trialling the Ripple blockchain.
How To Buy Cryptocurrency In The US?
The usual way to buy cryptocurrency in the US was to visit a cryptocurrency exchange (i.e. Binance, Bittrex, Coinbase) and deposit US dollars into an online account.
A transaction of this nature typically required a debit or credit card payment attached to your bank account.
However, since financial institutions have prevented this process at a source, US bank account holders have to find an alternative solution.
The process of buying Ripple in the US will be more difficult than it was before, but the good news is, investing in XRP is not impossible.
Investors that have already invested in cryptocurrencies are best placed to buy Ripple.
All you need to do is head over to exchange and swap your Bitcoins, Ethereum or other altcoins to XRP.
Buy Ripple With Binance
By all accounts, the best exchange to trade currencies is Binance – as most exchanges, including US-based companies Coinbase, Poloniex and Bittrex charge increments which can cost anything upwards of $10.
We have a more detailed review on Binance for you.
Buying Ripple from these exchanges also requires transferring tokens to Changelly or Shapeshift and then to a digital wallet all of which incur fees.
Binance makes the entire process much easier.
Customers can go from the exchange directly to your digital wallet. However, the interface of the online exchange does not make it easy for customers to buy altcoins like Ripple.
What you have to do is click ‘buy/sell’ then select the ‘buy bitcoin with a credit card.’
When you do this, a list of options for XRP, together with other altcoins such as LTC and ETH appears. Then you’re ready to roll. All you have to do is purchase XRP and trade them in for your BTC.
Buy Ripple With PayPal
Would-be investors in the US that do not already own a cryptocurrency have to look or alternative solutions. The easiest way – online – is to go through PayPal.
Before you can purchase Ripple tokens, however, you will need to purchase Bitcoin or Ethereum than convert them to Ripple.
We also provide an article on the differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum.
At the time of writing, the banks have not issued restrictions on PayPal transactions.
Providing you have the funds in PayPal and are not using the platform as a middleman to merge a transaction from your bank account to exchange you will be able to purchase cryptocurrencies from a few sources.
However, customers in the US may still encounter problems trying to purchase Bitcoins with PayPal to convert to Ripple from the usual channels such as eToro.
Most exchanges have been banned from accepting PayPal in the US.
However, you can go through an intermediary that accepts PayPal such as Virwox – the Virtual World Exchange that sells Second Life Linden Dollars (SLL).
The system works because you buy SLL with PayPal and Virwox trade it in for Bitcoins which they then send to your digital wallet.
Another option is to purchase a Wirex payment card with PayPal.
Wirex is a company that is specifically involved with enabling customers to make money transfers around the world – in the same was as MoneyGram and Western Union, but with the high transaction fees.
Wirex customers essentially set up a digital wallet that enables you to purchase Bitcoin.
Once you have Bitcoin, you can head to an exchange that trades XRP and converts your BTC. As mentioned above, Bitstamp is the best exchange for US customers.
How To Store Ripple (XRP)
Although Ripple promises to be a lucrative investment, the only drawback is that XPR wallets cost 20XRP.
At the time of writing, that equates to just under $15. Given this protocol, it is not a good idea to have multiple wallets to store your XRP.
The best digital wallet to support Ripple at the moment is Ledger Nano S.
The Ledger is a hardware wallet which stores all the information about your cryptocurrency in an offline environment where cybercriminals can not access it.
Furthermore, the device has advanced security settings and a recovery key should you lose the device or forget your password.
For more details, you can read our Ledger Nano S review.
Conclusion
Of all the cryptocurrencies in circulation at the moment, Ripple promises to be the token that is adopted as the first mainstream currency.
That is why we provided a specific article about how to buy ripple from the US.
Banks are already trialing it and earlier this month, Dallas-based money transfer giant, MoneyGram announced they are piloting a service that allows online customers to buy products with Ripple.
No wonder the banks are worried.
