Bitcoin Exchange Rate

Buying BTC

Buy Bitcoin

Compare the live dollar price, open an account at a venue that serves your country, fund it, and place the order. The sequence is short. The fees are where people overpay.

Start with the listed price

The Bitcoin exchange rate table sorts venues from the lowest listed BTC price to the highest. That number is a last trade or a spot quote. It leaves out the trading fee, the cost of a debit card, and the withdrawal fee if you move the coins.

Size the order in the BTC calculator at the reference spot, then read the row for an exchange you can actually use. A $20 gap on one bitcoin is easy to give back on a card purchase. If you want the recent range before you commit, the 7-day price history is CoinGecko's BTC/USD line for the last week.

Open an account you are allowed to use

Fiat on-ramps in the United States and most of Europe require identity checks: legal name, date of birth, a government ID, and often a selfie. Do that before you transfer money. Type the exchange domain yourself. A search ad is a common place to land on a copy of the real site.

Availability is geographic. Coinbase serves US customers. BloFin and several of the USDT markets in the table do not serve every country. If the signup form rejects your address, use another row.

Fund it the cheaper way

A bank transfer — ACH in the US, SEPA in Europe — is usually the low-cost path and the slow one. Cards and instant payment apps settle immediately and bake a fee, or a worse rate, into the purchase. New accounts often have a low limit for the first week. Read that limit before you send a large wire.

Place the order

A market order fills against the current book. A limit order waits for your price and can sit there unfilled. For a first purchase of a small amount, a market order is the one people finish. Check the pair on the confirmation screen: BTC/USD is dollars, BTC/USDT is Tether. The table marks stablecoin quotes as USDT≈USD because those dollar figures are approximate.

Decide where the coins sit

Leaving bitcoin on the exchange is convenient, and it is someone else's balance sheet. For a longer hold, withdraw to a wallet whose keys you control. A hardware wallet keeps those keys offline. You still buy the coins on an exchange first. Send a small test withdrawal, confirm it arrived, then move the rest. Network fees apply, and some venues add their own withdrawal fee.

Venues linked from this site

Kraken, Bitstamp, Gemini, Binance, and the other names in the price table go to those companies' own BTC pages. The three below are the ones we also surface on the homepage.

Prices and steps here are general information. Read the disclaimer before you send funds.

Questions

Is the lowest listed price the cheapest way to buy Bitcoin?
Only before fees. The exchange rate table sorts last trades and spot quotes. A trading fee, a card fee, or a withdrawal can erase a small gap between venues. Check the fee schedule for the payment method you will actually use.
Do I need to verify my identity to buy Bitcoin?
On a fiat on-ramp in the US and most of Europe, yes. Expect a legal name, date of birth, a government ID, and often a selfie. Have those ready before you send a bank transfer.
What is the difference between BTC/USD and BTC/USDT?
BTC/USD is priced in dollars. BTC/USDT is priced in Tether, a stablecoin that usually trades near $1 but not always exactly at $1. The price table marks those rows USDT≈USD.
Should I leave Bitcoin on the exchange?
An exchange balance is convenient and it is the exchange's liability. For a longer hold, many people withdraw to a wallet they control. Send a small test amount first. Withdrawals have a network fee and sometimes a platform fee.