Before buying your first Bitcoin on Coinbase you need to open an account as described in How to Open a Coinbase Account to Buy Bitcoin (2024).

After that you will have an account page that looks like this – with 2 of 4 steps complete:

Click on Add a payment method to get to the next screen:

Here for simplicity we’ll add a debit card:

Fill in the details and press Add Card. That will add the card as a new payment method and you’ll be returned to the main account page, now showing 3 of 4 steps complete:

Next select Buy crypto then Continue and trade crypto:

At this point you will be required to pass a quiz on crypto to show you understand what you’re doing – rather ‘nanny state’ but that’s where we are. It’s best to select Read our crypto guide and then learn the basics about crypto:

There are then a dozen screens like the following to read through:

On the last one select Take the test:

There are then half a dozen quiz questions like the following – in most cases you will be right if you choose the most pessimistic or negative response!

Once you’ve passed, select Continue and trade crypto:

You’ll finally get to the Buy screen – in future you can just select this from the main account page menu. Here the £ option has been selected (to spend so many pounds sterling on Bitcoin, e.g. £100) but you can instead select the BTC option (to buy so much Bitcoin, e.g. 0.1, and be told how many pounds this will cost). Enter the amount required. Note the card you entered will be shown at the bottom, with a credit limit:

Press Preview Buy, note here that the exchange rate changes live:

Press Buy now:

And you’ve bought your first Bitcoin! Note that the value of your Bitcoin will be shown at the bottom, and it will be less than you asked for – there are always trading fees, for buying and selling, so you’ll have to get used to this. Coinbase fees are quite high (here £100 bought £95 of Bitcoin, so nearly 5%!). There are ways to reduce this – but that’s beyond the scope of this article (if you’re going to spend a lot of money, do investigate Coinbase One – but you will have to learn how to do trading).

A short time later the Bitcoin will appear in your account. The subject of how Bitcoin is transferred and how long it will take is a big topic in its own right (essentially the speed depends on how large the fee is that Coinbase spends on the transaction). Suffice to say it should arrive within 10 minutes but may be much faster. Conversely, if there’s a lot happening in the Bitcoin market (e.g. the price is changing fast and lots of people are buying and selling) then it could take longer – I have known it take more than an hour when the network is very busy.

Click on View details to get taken to the Bitcoin Primary balance page (in future you can select this from your main account page):

This shows your current holdings of Bitcoin and the pound sterling equivalent. For a more general overview, return to Home:

Also note that if you buy multiple cryptocurrencies (e.g. Ethereum, USDC, etc.) you can see the balance of each coin, plus the total value of your portfolio, via the My assets menu and page:

Welcome to cryptocurrency and Bitcoin – you are no longer a Nocoiner! There will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin in existence so you own something that no-one else can own (that’s part of the reason why its value is trending upwards).

Further blog posts will cover how to securely store, lend and trade Bitcoin. Welcome to the crypto community!