Coinbase Exchange Tutorial - How To Buy Bitcoin On Coinbase

How To Sign Up To Coinbase For The First Time | Step-By-Step Beginner Walkthrough To Coinbase Registration (With Screenshots And Pictures)

Coinbase is, by far, the best place to buy Bitcoin because of its combination of simplicity, security, and ease of use for the average citizen.

For those readers who don’t know, Coinbase is a company based in San Fransico, California where you can buy, store, and sell digital currencies.

It currently offers Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin.

It is offered in over 30 countries and complies with all laws and regulations with each country in which it operates.

Coinbase is seen as a very trusted company with the best-of-the-best technology in the centre of Silicon Valley.

It is where most people start, because of its very straightforward platform and simple steps to start buying bitcoin virtually right away.

Here is where you should start.

Coinbase Step-By-Step Process On Making Your First Bitcoin Purchase

In a nutshell, all you have to do is sign up to Coinbase, submit some documents to become verified (they do this to comply with law), then connect your credit or debit card and make your purchase.

There is really nothing simpler than this.

And for a limited time, if you sign up through this link, Coinbase will give you $10 in free bitcoin after your first $100 purchase.

$110 BTC for the price of $100.

Yet another incentive to buy here right away.

So, here are the steps (with screenshots and pictures) showing step-by-step how to make your first bitcoin purchase on Coinbase:

1. Click this Coinbase registration link, and you will be taken to this page:

Enter your first name, last name, email, password, and sign up.

Now that you have signed up through our link, you are eligible for the $10 in free BTC.

2. Register your Coinbase account.

Once you click the sign-up button above, a verification email will be sent to your email address to ensure you are the correct owner and it was not a spam sign up.

Go to your email inbox and find the email.

The contents of the email should look like this:

Click the “verify email address” button.

Once you do, it will open up a separate tab and ask for your phone number.

This is mandatory.

The reason for this is so that you can protect yourself with a 2-factor authentication (2FA) system.

Meaning, when you sign into your account, you not only have to enter your email and password, but, once you do, a seven-digit PIN will immediately be sent to your phone number, where you then have to enter this number into your Coinbase account as well in order to gain access.

Hence the name “2FA” – you need two factors of sign-in authentication in order to be granted approval.

This is a security feature included so that if your email or password is compromised, a hacker still will NOT be able to access your account because they will also need access to the PIN sent to your phone in order to get into your Coinbase account and access your funds.

This is one of the great benefits of Coinbase: they take security VERY seriously.

So, enter your phone number and click “send code.”

This page will then show up:

Grab your phone and look for the SMS message that was just sent by Coinbase.

You should see a message along the lines of: “You code is: _ _ _ _ _ _ _. Thank you.”

Enter this code above and click “Submit.”

Once you have successfully verified your seven digit PIN, you will then be taken to your Coinbase dashboard.

3. Complete Your Account By Verifying Your Identity And Adding A Payment Method.

On your Coinbase dashboard, scroll down until you see the “complete your account” area.

Here, you will see that the “confirm your email address” and “add your phone number” steps are in blue.

This is because you have already completed them.

So now you have to verify your identity by uploading a piece of government-issued ID, and add a payment method so you can make your first purchase.

Click the yellow “verify your identity” option.

The “Select ID type” page should appear as follows:

Here, you can choose between 3 separate types of IDs: passport, driver’s license, or photo ID.

Although Coinbase is secure, people typically don’t trust putting their passport online like this.

We understand this, and we ourselves did not choose this option either.

We also didn’t choose the “photo ID” option, because sometimes if you pick a photo ID where they believe there is not enough information to verify you as a person – ie. a library card, etc. – then they may reject your card.

This would be time-consuming, as you’d have to come back and upload a different form of ID.

This is why we recommend your driver’s license.

Most people would rather put their driver’s license up than their passport, and a driver’s license is a government-issued ID that has enough information for Coinbase to verify you.

Which means you have to only upload it once.

So once you click the “driver’s license” option, you will then see this page:

Here, you must upload two pictures of your driver’s license: both the front AND the back of the card.

One of the fastest ways to do this is to take both photos on your phone and email them to yourself.

Or you can log into your Facebook account and send both photos to yourself via Facebook Messenger.

Either way, you then take the photos from either email or messenger and upload them to your Coinbase account.

Just make sure to take the photos in clear, bright lighting where there is no reflection of any sort on the card and the pictures come out crystal clear.

We want to get verified as fast as possible, so making sure we get it right the first time is imperative.

Depending on how busy Coinbase is at the time you submit your photos, identity verification can take anywhere from a minute to a couple of days.

Yet another reason to sign up ASAP.

Now, once you have successfully uploaded both photos, go back to the “complete your account” area on your dashboard and click the yellow “add a payment method” option.

You should then be brought to this page:

Depending on your country, you will then have the option of selecting your credit or debit card as a payment method.

For example: in Canada, you only have the option of buying Bitcoin on Coinbase with your credit card, while in the US you can use either your credit OR debit card.

Whichever country you are from, it will inform you what methods are available to you.

Click the “credit/debit card” option and fill in your details.

The details page will look like this:

Fill in your information and click “Add Card.”

Once this is done and you have confirmed your email address, added your phone number, verified your identity, and added a payment method… you account is now complete.

You can now make your first ever bitcoin purchase!

We provided a step-by-step walkthrough of how to sign up to Coinbase, but if you would like to see a video of this as well, here is a great video going through exactly how to do this:

4. Perform Your First-Ever Bitcoin Purchase With Your Newly Registered Coinbase Account

Now that your account is good to go, it’s time to make your first-ever purchase of bitcoin.

Here is what you do.

First, go to the “buy/sell” tab in your account:

Next, you’ll see a screen where you’ll have the option of buying either Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, or Litecoin.

Choose which one you would like to buy.

Next, you’ll see that your payment method is already populated with the card you submitted.

Now all you have to do is put in the amount in your currency you’d like to purchase – in this case, $100 CAD.

The equivalent amount of bitcoin will also automatically populate based on the current rate at which your fiat currency is worth in the desired digital currency you selected.

In this case, it is shown that $100 CAD will give me 0.00846932 BTC.

Next is the final step.

All you have to do is click the “Buy Bitcoin Instantly” button.

With this, you will now have officially purchased your first amount of Bitcoin ever!

Notice that we selected to but $100 CAD worth of Bitcoin.

This is because now that we have done this, we have received an EXTRA $10 worth of Bitcoin – meaning we now have a total of $110 in BTC (minus fees)!

Please note that Coinbase and all other exchanges include fees for using their platform.

This is unavoidable.

The amount of fees that Coinbase takes from your purchase is minuscule compared to the amount that this investment can grow in the coming years as bitcoin continues to explode.

Now, last thing to do is double check your account.

Go to the “accounts” tab in your Coinbase account and look at your BTC wallet (or the wallet for whichever of the 4 available cryptocurrencies you purchased).

You can view your total balance here:

Please note that ours is currently at zero, as we didn’t actually purchase any BTC, but merely used the previous screenshots as an example (we already got our $10 in free BTC long ago).

For you, however, your wallet will show the total amount of bitcoin that you have, and the current value of it in Canadian dollars (or whichever fiat currency your country uses).

And that’s it!

You have officially made your first bitcoin purchase of $100, and received $10 in free bitcoin to go with it!

Your funds are now safely stored in your Coinbase account, and can be accessed by signing into your account using your newly set-up 2-factor authentication details.

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