How to Buy XRP UK – Beginner’s Guide

Looking to buy XRP UK? An ongoing court case in the US has Ripple’s crypto XRP delisted with some US exchanges right now, but you can still buy Ripple in the UK. Phew! 

The question is: how to buy Ripple UK? The answer is to seek out a reputable broker or exchange online. We review the top XRP vendors, assessing them for fair deals, regulation, ease of use and reputation. What we are looking for in particular is how to buy XRP UK with low fees — and we have found the answer. 

Where to Buy XRP

The best place to buy cryptocurrency in the UK depends on how advanced you want to get in your trading methods. Advanced investors might want to check out exchanges first, for example — but bear in mind that brokers are usually better regulated and simpler to use.

1. eToro – Overall Best Place to Buy XRP with Tight Spreads

What makes eToro stand out immediately is its regulation by the UK’s stringent Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Crypto exchanges like Coinbase and Binance do not benefit from this protection. With this regulatory oversight, it is no surprise that a whopping 23m investors are registered with eToro. And the eToro smartphone app — which allows you to trade crypto and other assets on the move — is the most downloaded trading app in the UK. It was downloaded 10m times in the first half of 2021 alone.

With beginner’s favourite broker eToro, you can buy XRP UK with a minimum investment of $10. That is handy to get started small. Best of all, although eToro charges spread fees on buying and selling crypto (as all brokers and exchanges do), eToro charges low fees. You can buy XRP UK in three main ways:  

• Deposit funds in your eToro account (using PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, bank transfer or debit card). Buy XRP as a single crypto and eToro will store it for you, or you can move it to your free eToro Money crypto wallet. Or you can trade the price of XRP against fiat currencies like GBP, AUD and EUR using a currency cross pair.
• Invest in one of eToro’s crypto Smart Portfolios. These are positions devised by eToro experts that allow you to get exposure to crypto using different investment strategies. This service is free. Spread fees apply and you will need to make a minimum investment of $1,000. Illustrated below is a full list of eToro’s crypto Smart Portfolios. Check out the annual returns they have managed:

• With eToro’s CopyTrader facility, you can let more experienced crypto investors make the tough decisions for you. A free service, CopyTrader allows you to review literally thousands of eToro traders and pick one (or many) whose performance you rate. Then CopyTrader will use funds that you allocate to match their trading activity in real-time. CopyTrader is part of eToro’s general commitment to social trading; the system is well-supported and works very smoothly. 

Suppose you decide to transfer Ripple (XRP) out of your main eToro account? The eToro Money crypto wallet has got your back with useful options. With your unique wallet address registered on the blockchain, you can send and receive your crypto as you see fit. You can exchange your XRP for other crypto on eToro’s dedicated crypto exchange, eToroX. Currently, crypto staking on eToro does not include Ripple — but watch this space.

A useful feature on eToro is the watchlist. This allows you to flag up crypto as well as other assets and keep an eye on them. You might choose to buy XRP UK with eToro. But there’s over forty other crypto on offer, meaning you can buy Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and more with ease. Additionally, there’s as a huge selection of stocks, 250+ ETFs, indices and commodities. February 2022 saw eToro bring more cryptos to its portfolio of digital assets including Bancor, 0x, dYdX, Ankr. 

UK investors can buy XRP with PayPal – as well as buy XRP with debit card – by topping up their eToro balance for free and executing the simple trade process. eToro accepts a broad range of deposit methods, making it the best app to buy Ripple UK. Almost 7m eToro users follow Ripple (XRP), with just under 25% holding a position. 

Cryptoassets are highly volatile and unregulated in the UK. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

2. Huobi – Top-Rated Crypto Exchange with 10M Users

Huobi is originally a Chinese exchange that is now headquartered in the Seychelles. It has 10m users. Like Binance and CEX (below), you can trade crypto with Huobi using a variety of methods. You can buy crypto direct using credit card. You can use P2P trading. Or you can trade crypto pairs. You can also swap one crypto for another. Commission on spot trades is 0.2%.

Overall, Huobi claims to offer 348 crypto as well as payment options in 57 local currencies and 60 payment options including Visa, Mastercard, AliPay and Faster Payments. You can use Faster Payments to deposit GBP. Currently, you cannot withdraw GBP but that is ‘shortly’ to change, says Huobi.

For security, Huobi follows the example set by Coinbase and stores 98% of client funds in cold storage. It also runs an in-house security fund which rewards users for reporting potential security issues. When it comes to crypto finance, Huobi is no slouch. Margin trading and crypto staking is offered, as well as crypto loans and a variety of auctions and draws. A free wallet and a smartphone app is available too.

Overall, Huobi offers a number of powerful trading tools and a good range of crypto. The $300 welcome bonus is worth looking into, as well as in the ongoing financial incentives to trade. A significant downside, though, for safety-conscious investors is that — unlike eToro — Huobi lacks UK regulation.

Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. No UK or EU investor protection.

3. Crypto.com – Reputable Crypto Exchange with Beginner-Friendly Mobile App

Another great option if you’re looking to buy XRP UK is Crypto.com. According to CoinMarketCap, Crypto.com is one of the ten largest crypto exchanges globally, regularly handling over $2.6bn in daily trading volume. The platform offers a wide array of cryptos to trade, including small altcoins, DeFi tokens, and ERC-20 tokens. Users can buy XRP (and any other crypto) with low fees, as Crypto.com only charges a 0.4% maker/taker fee.

Aside from the exchange aspect of the platform, Crypto.com also offers a handy mobile app, which is targeted more towards retail investors. This app enables users to instantly buy XRP with a credit card or debit card – with no fees for the first 30 days. After this period, each card purchase will accrue a 2.99% fee. Notably, Crypto.com also allows FIAT deposits via the app, although it doesn’t support FIAT currency on the exchange at present.

The Crypto.com app is also packed with a host of valuable features, including a crypto debit card that allows users to spend their crypto holdings as if they were FIAT currency. The app also has a ‘Missions’ section, where users can complete tasks and earn rewards in CRO – the platform’s native token.

Finally, XRP holders can store their holdings in the dedicated Crypto.com wallet app, which offers complete control over your private keys and biometric authentication.

Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. No UK or EU investor protection.

4. Coinbase – Popular Cryptocurrency Exchange with Huge Asset Portfolio

Coinbase is a crypto exchange rather than a broker like eToro. Despite numerous state licences in the US, Coinbase lacks the regulatory safety net in the UK that eToro offers. But the exchange remains a popular choice for UK crypto investors for three main reasons:

• Scope: Coinbase has 73m verified users. That’s reassuring! Coinbase came to market in April 2021, making it the first crypto exchange IPO on the NASDAQ. 
• Safety: Coinbase stores 98% of customer funds offline: ‘geographically in safe deposit boxes and vaults around the world.’ Against cyber-theft, this is the same successful strategy used by ‘cold’ wallets, which are only connected to the internet at times of transactions.
• Range: A sturdy selection of 50+ crypto is offered by Coinbase. This exceeds even eToro’s 45+ range of crypto.

What about fees? Coinbase has a great reputation for security. But, when it comes to fees, Coinbase users have often voiced gripes. The system combines flat fees and commissions, and can be confusing as well as expensive. We recommend that you steer clear of buying crypto with Coinbase direct with a credit card, as it will cost you a 3.99% commission. In 2021, Coinbase signalled good news about fees as CEO E. Choi said that a ‘compression’ of the fee system is on its way.

Just like eToro, a smartphone app is offered by Coinbase for crypto trading on the move. With crypto markets moving so fast, checking into the market is always a good idea. 1.6m reviewers on the App Store have given the Coinbase app a great average score of 4.7/5. 630k+ Google Play reviewers have lodged a slightly-lower average rating of 4.3/5. Coinbase also offers a free crypto wallet.

How to buy XRP with Coinbase? Right now, Coinbase has joined other US exchanges in delisting XRP until Ripple’s court case vs. the SEC is concluded. The court case is likely to be finished some time this year, perhaps as early as July 2022. We suggest you head over to eToro instead. Note too that, if you want to buy Ripple with Paypal (or any other crypto), Coinbase is not the place to do it. For UK investors, Coinbase only offers PayPal withdrawals. 

All in all, Coinbase offers a reputable service with many strengths. Like eToro, Coinbase is suitable for beginners to crypto.

Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. No UK or EU investor protection.

5. Binance – Leading Exchange to Buy XRP with Credit Card

Like Coinbase, Binance is a giant crypto exchange. Binance boasts the largest volume of crypto trading globally. It also boasts low trading fees: just 0.1% commission available on buying XRP, depending on how you do it. Another advantage of Binance is the large amount of crypto pairs on offer: 500 in all. Best of all, you can buy XRP UK direct with credit card at 1% commission, as illustrated below:

As with eToro, there are many ways to buy XRP UK with Binance. You can fund your account with fiat currency or credit card and use those funds to buy XRP directly. Or, if you are feeling a little more ambitious, you can check out Binance’s Peer-2-Peer trading system and trade crypto for crypto with other users. We only recommend this for more experienced investors.

Unlike eToro, newbie-friendly copy trading is not supported by Binance. In fact, what characterises Binance is that it is aimed at the more experienced crypto investor. The exchange offers many powerful trading options at the expense of an interface that can be a little daunting to newbies. You can get round this by signing up for the free Binance smartphone app. This allows you to simplify the normal interface by selecting ‘Binance Lite’. Good idea! 

Reviewers of the Binance App on the App Store give it a high score of 4.7/5 (from 96k reviews). And 570k Google Play reviewers score it on average at 4.3/5. There seems to be a consensus amongst reviewers that Binance’s verification process can be frustrating (but not for everybody). Note that, like eToro, Binance offers a free crypto wallet called the Binance Trust Wallet. 

When it comes to Binance payment methods, PayPal fans will be pleased to learn that you can buy Ripple with Paypal – but only if you use P2P trading. Do you want to expose your portfolio to the XRP price but don’t want exposure to the uncertainty of Ripple’s current SEC court case? In a typically innovative move, Binance has introduced in January 2022 a wrapped version of XRP. This is a token that is pegged to the XRP price, but is not hosted by the XRP ledger blockchain.

Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. No UK or EU investor protection.

6. CEX – Trusted Crypto Exchange That Lets You Buy XRP With a Credit Card

An old-timer UK crypto exchange, CEX has gathered 4m investors since its launch way back in 2013. Like Binance, CEX offers an in-depth array of trading tools and different ways of buying crypto. You can deposit crypto or fiat currency in your account and trade XRP spot price using your funds. Or you can buy XRP instantly with credit card, as illustrated below: 

A purchase minimum of $20 applies, and your total credit card instant buy transactions are limited to $3k. A commission applies here, and the exact sum is shown to you at the point of purchase.

CEX is good for UK investors because of the wide range of deposit methods available: Epay, Skrill, bank transfer, credit card and SWIFT. There are no PayPal options but, on the plus side, UK investors currently enjoy a discounted commission rate of 1.49% on credit card deposits (rather than the standard 2.99%). It is worth bearing in mind, though, that brokers like eToro allow you to make credit card deposits without commission.

For trading fees, CEX uses a sliding maker-taker scale. For XRP purchases of less than $10k, for example, you will pay a taker fee of 0.25%. An impressive array of products and services is also offered by CEX: free ‘hot’ crypto wallet, a mobile app, debit card, loan options, margin trading and crypto staking. Try not to get overwhelmed by possibilities!

Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. No UK or EU investor protection.

What is XRP?

Like market leaders Bitcoin and Ethereum, XRP is a crypto with its own blockchain. Founded by a company called Ripple back in 2012, XRP is part of a settlement network that rivals the SWIFT system used globally by banks to move money around. Ripple is so much faster. SWIFT can take days to process a transaction; XRP takes seconds.  

XRP’s way of settling payments is unusual in the crypto world. It has been compared to the real-world Hawala system, whereby a series of middlemen work on a trust basis to process transactions. A stand-out feature of the Ripple blockchain is its tiny environmental impact compared to the Proof-of-Work protocol employed by Bitcoin.

XRP is the 8th biggest crypto with a market capitalization of over $30bn.

Should I Buy XRP?

Spike in price when Ripple court case ends?

XRP founder company Ripple is currently involved in a court case with the American Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is likely to end this year, perhaps as early as April. In the meantime, many US exchanges have delisted XRP, although you can still buy XRP in the UK. If the court case goes well for Ripple, it is likely that the price of XRP will spike. 

Bounce With the Rest of the Crypto Sector

The entire crypto sector has slumped by roughly 20%+ over January, 2021 after China banned cryptocurrency activity. Although there could be more loss to come, it looks like crypto stock in general is starting to find a floor. XRP is likely to follow market leader Bitcoin in the event of a general crypto price recovery.

Environmentally-friendly

Bitcoin mining has come under fire because it uses as much electricity as the whole of Sweden. The ongoing Ethereum fork aims to reduce Ethereum’s eco-drain by up to 99%. But Ripple has always been way ahead of the environmental game since its launch in 2012. All XRP is pre-mined, which means its environmental impact is negligible. This positions XRP well in the event of possible hostile crypto regulation in the future based on environmental concerns. And, of course, it feels good to be investing in an asset that is not burning electricity at a prodigious rate.

A Crypto Old-Timer

XRP is no novelty token like Dogecoin or Shiba Inu. Ripple’s crypto has its own blockchain and has been around since 2013. XRP boasts a market capitalisation of $30bn anchored on real-world usage by the global banking network. 

The Ripple Community

Ripple boasts an active community online – so active, that it insisted upon being enjoined in the ongoing court case in the US as an official ‘interested party’. People fight for XRP because they believe in it. This is a positive indicator for a crypto, as it means future political/regulatory attacks from any quarter will be robustly defended.

XRP Price

The price of Ripple’s XRP is currently $0.588.

XRP Price Prediction

The price of XRP has been hit by the mid-January crypto crash. This crash has been caused by China declaring crypto transactions to be illegal as well as outlawing Bitcoin mining in one its key provinces.

One view from analysts is that XRP needs to dip a little lower before it will bounce. With the price currently at $0.588, the word is that big investors have stop loss levels set around the $0.518 mark. This means it is possible that market makers will push the price down to reach this point and unlock the liquidity there. A similar situation exists with crypto leaders Bitcoin and Ethereum. But it is also possible that XRP will bounce before it reaches that point.  

Ways of Buying XRP in the UK

UK investors have many options to buy XRP UK.

Buying XRP with PayPal

With eToro, you can fund your account with PayPal and withdraw funds to it. With some exchanges (but not Coinbase) you can buy XRP directly with PayPal. Watch out for any fees!

Buy XRP with credit card or debit card

Exchanges like CEX, Huboi, Coinbase and Binance allow you to make ‘instant buys’ of crypto with a credit card. But, again, watch out for eye-watering commission-fees. With eToro, on the other hand, you can deposit funds into your online account for free with a debit card, and then buy XRP in seconds.

Buy XRP with Neteller or Skrill

Global broker eToro offers payment providers Neteller and Skrill as means of funding your account and buying XRP.

Choosing an XRP Wallet

Crypto wallets are digital versions of the wallet you might have in your back pocket. You use them to store assets and move them from one place to another. On the blockchain, that means you can send and receive crypto to pay for things and get paid. What are called ‘gas’ fees apply, which is a fee charged by blockchains to make transactions. The best wallets, like eToro’s Money crypto wallet, do not charge fees for transferring crypto. But most wallets charge commissions for exchanging crypto and staking crypto to earn rewards.

The best thing about crypto wallets is that they are generally free to acquire. The worst thing about crypto wallets is that there is always the risk — as with conventional wallets —​ that your assets will get stolen.

Different types of crypto wallet offer different pros and cons. ‘Cold’ wallets, for example, offer enhanced security because they are only connected to the internet at times of transaction. For convenience, ‘hot’ wallets are connected to the internet the whole time and generally thus can provide real-time updates and trading opportunities.

A wallet authorised by a regulatory authority is a real find. And this is why we recommend the free eToro Money crypto wallet as your XRP wallet. eToro’s wallet is authorised by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission and offers a range of powerful options, including an unloseable key.  

XRP Video Analysis

How to Buy XRP UK – Tutorial

It is getting easier and easier to buy crypto in the UK. Below we use broker eToro as an example of how to get verified with a regulated broker and buy XRP UK:

Choose a Broker to Buy XRP

Where to buy XRP is a decision you should take based on your level of experience. If you know what you are doing, try out an exchange like Coinbase, DEX or Binance and see if you can find new ways to trade, as well as benefit from your Ripple purchase. If you are a newcomer to crypto, or simply want a hassle-free trade, we recommend global broker eToro.

1. Sign up with eToro

Head to eToro.com and open an account. Supply a few personal details to create your account. Or proceed with your Google or Facebook login. You will then be asked a few questions on investing (this is a regulated part of the process that all decent brokers must insist on). 

2. Verify your ID with eToro

Like all regulated brokers, eToro must check your ID. You will need to supply scans proving who you are and where you live. Use a passport for quickest ID verification. For proof of address, you can use utility bills, rent bills, and a range of other documentation. If you only have a digital ID, eToro will accept screenshots.

3. Deposit Funds with eToro

Depositing funds with eToro takes seconds. UK investors are spoilt for choice when it comes to deposit options. You can use bank transfer, debit card or a range of payment providers including PayPal, Skrill and Neteller. Trustly and Rapid Transfer online banking is also available. No deposit fee is charged. 

4. Buy XRP UK with eToro in Seconds

You can find XRP by entering ‘XRP’ in the top toolbar. 

Press on the logo to access the XRP homepage. Here you can review stats, research and powerful charting options. Or press the blue ‘Trade’ button to set up your trade. The minimum trade on eToro is just $10.

Once you have opened your trade, you can review your purchase in your portfolio. Looks like you have nailed how to buy XRP UK!

Conclusion

Above we have looked at where to buy Ripple UK, what the crypto XRP is, and where XRP stands in the crypto sector. All eyes are currently on XRP. It is at the very centre of a US legal case that will determine the extent of SEC intervention in the crypto sector in future. Despite being mostly currently delisted in the US, the good news is that you can still buy XRP in the UK. We recommend the newbie-friendly eToro as the broker to try out first.

Since its launch in 2006, eToro has honed a supportive and easy environment for trading, with low fees on standard crypto purchases as well as transparency about all other non-trading fees. 23m investors use eToro globally, and almost 7m follow XRP with eToro. The icing on the cake with eToro is the free eToro Money crypto wallet and the eToro smartphone app which allows you to trade crypto on the move.

Cryptoassets are highly volatile and unregulated in the UK. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

Frequently Asked Question when Buying XRP in the UK