The most popular places for U.S. investors to buy and sell cryptocurrencies are still the big centralized cryptocurrency exchanges: Coinbase Global (NASDAQ: COIN), Kraken, and Gemini (NASDAQ: GEMI).
But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of other places to buy and sell popular cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH). Here are four of the most popular alternatives.
Decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges
Decentralized exchanges grew in popularity after the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto exchange in 2022, and are now major players in the world of crypto trading. Two of the most popular options are Uniswap (CRYPTO: UNI) and PancakeSwap (CRYPTO: CAKE).
However, you’ll need a personal blockchain wallet to connect to these decentralized exchanges, and a bit of familiarity with how to navigate between different cryptocurrency pairs and different blockchains.
While trading on centralized crypto exchanges feels much like buying and trading stocks, trading on decentralized exchanges feels much more like buying and selling foreign exchange. That makes sense, given that cryptocurrencies are, indeed, currencies.
Robinhood
If you are only planning on buying and selling the most popular cryptocurrencies (and not cryptocurrencies with tiny market caps), you might be better off sticking to a crypto trading platform such as the one available from Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ: HOOD).
On Robinhood, it’s now possible to buy or sell 43 different cryptocurrencies on a 24/7 basis. Just make sure you’re clicking on the tab for “tradable crypto,” to make sure they can be traded on Robinhood.
Best of all, if you’re also using Robinhood for stock trading, you can see the value of your portfolio, all in one place. That makes it easier to get the right portfolio blend, and also makes it easier when it comes time to do your taxes. Robinhood generates all of your tax forms for you, so it’s a no-brainer to upload them to your favorite tax preparation software.
PayPal
In October 2020, PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) began offering a very limited set of crypto trading options for customers. The two primary options were Bitcoin and Ethereum. But you can now also buy and sell Solana (CRYPTO: SOL), Chainlink (CRYPTO: LINK), Litecoin (CRYPTO: LTC), Bitcoin Cash (CRYPTO: BCH), and the new PayPal stablecoin, PayPal USD (CRYPTO: PYUSD).
