Buy Stellar Lumens on Crypto Exchanges
Lumens are Stellar’s currency. At the start of the project, the “coins” were also referred to as Stellar, with the name change it should now be easier to distinguish between the project and the currency. Stellar Lumens are traded on crypto exchanges under the symbol XLM.
Anyone who wants to buy or sell Stellar Lumens can do so on crypto exchanges such as Kraken, Poloniex, Binance or Bittrex, among others. To buy cryptocurrencies, you usually need US dollars, Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH), it is rarely possible to buy online currencies directly with euros. You can trade any cryptocurrency for Stellar on the changelly.com exchange. If you want to believe various crypto forums, then an exchange there is also safe and reliable, but we at finanzen.net advisers recommend buying Stellar Lumens via well-known crypto exchanges.
If you have decided on a crypto exchange and want to start trading Stellar, you must first set up a customer account. Since you only get Stellar in exchange for Bitcoin or Ethereum, you should transfer BTC or ETH to your web wallet in advance – you can find out how to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum in the corresponding guides Buying Bitcoin and Ethereum.
For example, you can trade both Bitcoin and Ethereum for Stellar Lumens at bittrex.com. After opening an account, send BTC or ETH from your wallet on bittrex.com and click on the right Markets icon (with a bitcoin sign). Then click on XLM, after all you want to exchange Bitcoin for Stellar Lumens. As soon as the exchange process has started, the further steps are self-explanatory. As with buying other cryptocurrencies or securities, you now have to enter how much Stellar Lumens you want to buy and how much Bitcoin you want to pay for it. You need to be guided by the current Stellar price and be guided by supply and demand – note that cryptocurrency prices are very volatile and the price can change quickly.
Buying internet currencies through crypto exchanges costs a small fee. The presented platform bittrex.com, for example, charges 0.25 percent per Stellar purchase, the US stock exchange Kraken charges a little more at 0.26 percent. The Chinese crypto exchanges Binance and Okex are cheaper, where the fee for a Stellar purchase is 0.10 percent. Binance was only launched in July 2017 and is now one of the four largest crypto exchanges alongside Bitfinex, Bittrex and Bithumb.
Important: The global crypto exchanges are not always subject to the same strict rules as in Europe. For example, a vulnerability on Japanese bitcoin exchange MtGox.com caused the price to plummet to one US cent per bitcoin after a hacker penetrated Mt.Gox’s network. As an investor, you should always be aware of this risk.
Tipp: To minimize this risk, we recommend using well-known exchanges. In addition, transfer the exchanged “coins” directly to your wallet after purchase and thus secure your “crypto assets”.