How to buy bitcoin, screen by screen.
Seven steps sit between deciding and owning. This site walks all seven in the order you actually meet them — what each screen wants, what it costs you, and what happens if it goes wrong. No price calls, no urgency. If you finish reading and decide not to buy, that is a fine outcome.
Entering this code does not add to what you pay. Whether it also discounts your trading fees is Binance's decision, not ours*.
* We no longer quote a discount figure. Binance's own introduction to its referral programme (checked October 2026) sets out the commission it pays us and no standing discount on your own fee rate; whether any of that commission is shared back with you is a setting fixed when the link is created, not a promise, and the rebate the page does describe for a new account is a conditional voucher rather than a lower rate. Whatever its sign-up screen shows at the moment you register is what applies — the full story is on how we make money.
Where it goesPaste it into the “Referral ID” field on the sign-up screen. Step 02 shows exactly where that field is.
A promotional link. It goes to Binance's own sign-up page with our code already filled in, and what that arrangement means — for you and for us — is set out in full on how we make money.
Do I need a whole bitcoin?
No — a few dollars buys a slice
The order screen shows the exact floor for your pair. What the minimums actually are →
How many fees am I paying?
Four — two of them hidden
Deposit fee, trading fee, spread, network fee. Only two show up as line items. Which ones are hidden in the price →
How long does verification take?
Minutes — or days
Automated checks clear fast; manual review does not. Both are normal. What decides which you get →
The seven steps, one page each
in the order you meet themWhat to sort out first
Money you can leave alone, a phone you control, an email nobody else reads. Ten minutes here saves a locked account later.
STEP 02Signing up
Email, password, referral field, phone number. The screen is short; the parts that trip people up are not on it.
STEP 03Verification
A document, a selfie, and a wait that has no fixed length. Four rejection reasons you can fix yourself, and what to change for each.
STEP 04Security — before you fund
Authenticator app, withdrawal whitelist, anti-phishing code. Doing this now costs ten minutes; doing it later costs whatever is in the account.
STEP 05Putting money in
Card is fast and expensive. Bank transfer is slow and cheap. On a small purchase, the gap between them can be larger than the trading fee itself.
STEP 06Placing the order
Market or limit, and how much of a bitcoin you are actually buying. Two screens, two decisions, no take-backs.
STEP 07Where the coins actually sit
They are in an account, not in your pocket. What that means, and what the withdrawal button does.
Everything else people get stuck on
18 guides · one question eachOr jump to the stage you are stuck on
five stages · every guide filed under oneTools
all run in your browser · what you enter is never uploadedChecklist · saves progress
First purchase roadmap
Ten steps from deciding an amount to closing the app, each with what it does, how long it takes, and where to go if it stalls. Ticks are remembered on your device.
Ticks saved on your device · not uploadedReference table
Payment method comparison
Seven funding routes side by side — where each works, how fast, what it costs, and the specific way each one tends to fail. No rates quoted, because rates go stale.
Checked 2026-08Lookup table
Fee impact table
What a cost structure actually takes at eight purchase sizes, plus how far the price has to rise before you are back to level. Find the row and column nearest your own numbers.
Arithmetic only · no rates quotedThree questions
Order type decision helper
Answer three questions about timing, whether you have a price in mind, and whether you will come back to check. Every suggestion states what it costs you as well as what it gets you.
Runs in the page · your answers are not stored90 words
Beginner glossary
Only the words you actually meet while opening an account and buying — no trading jargon, no industry slang. Each one says where on screen you run into it.
90 entries · A–ZThis site is paid for by the promotional link and code at the top — the arrangement is set out in full on how we make money. Our share comes out of the exchange's side of a fee you would have paid anyway, so using the code does not add to what you pay. Whether it also discounts your own trading fee is the exchange's decision, shown on its sign-up screen — we do not quote a figure for it.
Which is exactly why one of the guides here is “is it too late to buy bitcoin?” and refuses to answer it for you, and why the mistakes guide opens by telling you the interface is what pushed you into most of them. A site that only ever said yes, go on would earn more this month and be worth nothing next year.
If you read all of this and decide crypto is not for you, close the tab. That is a real outcome and we would rather you reached it here than three hundred dollars later.
the buypith desk · last full review 2026-08