How to Buy Bitcoin with PayPal (2021 Update)

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re looking to start trading Bitcoin using your PayPal account. Fortunately for novices, this popular cryptocurrency has become a lot easier to obtain than when it was just a few short years ago when the only way to get it was to mine it yourself. Nowadays, people can easily trade Bitcoin with no previous trading experience whatsoever. Regardless of your trading skills and expertise, in this article, we will go through how to buy Bitcoin with PayPal.

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80.5% of retail CFD accounts lose money

*CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Why buy Bitcoin with PayPal?

As one of the most popular online payment methods worldwide, PayPal has long been hailed as one of the quickest and most secure ways to send and receive money as well as to complete an online transaction.

One of the main advantages of buying Bitcoin with PayPal includes fast and secure online payments, which is appealing for most of its users. However, if we’re listing disadvantages, here it’s well-worth to mention PayPal’s fees.

In November 2020, PayPal officially announced that US users can use their PayPal accounts to buy Bitcoin. This means that the US users will now be able to buy and sell Bitcoin using their PayPal accounts. However, they won’t be able to transfer cryptocurrency to other digital wallets. Currently, the platform offers only the top cryptocurrencies including Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, or Litecoin, however, this might change in the future. This article will mostly look at how to buy Bitcoin with Paypal via cryptocurrency exchanges.

How to get started with buying Bitcoin with PayPal

Millions of people from all corners of the world have realised the potential this digital currency holds when it comes to trading and investment. Unlike fiat currencies and other financial trading instruments, Bitcoin’s highly volatile nature and huge spreads have helped its popularity skyrocket over the past couple of years. 

If you’re just starting out in your Bitcoin trading adventure, then the first step is to get your hands on some. You can easily purchase Bitcoin through a secure online platform known as a cryptocurrency exchange. There are now hundreds of these exchanges available online but beware – only a handful are actually worth your time and money! It’s essential to do some research before you start using a digital currency exchange to makes sure it is trustworthy and fully licensed and regulated by relevant authorities.

Once you’ve found yourself a reliable exchange to start trading Bitcoin, your next move is to create an account with them so you can start depositing funds via Paypal to purchase some Bitcoin of your own.

Using a Cryptocurrency Exchange that Accepts PayPal

While most popular cryptocurrency exchanges accept various credit/debit cards and bank transfers, unfortunately, there aren’t that many which accept PayPal as a payment method for buying/selling Bitcoin. The reason for this is that PayPal lets buyers request a chargeback in the event of a fraudulent transaction. This might cause unnecessary and false disputes where people request a refund while still keeping their Bitcoins. For PayPal being customer-oriented, such transactions are nearly impossible to verify therefore currently the options to buy Bitcoin with PayPal are very limited.

Unfortunattely, scammers have found a way to buy/sell Bitcoin using PayPal then claim not to have received anything, leading to chargeback cases, which are highly unfavourable for Paypal. Nevertheless, there are some great options to buy/sell Bitcoin with PayPal, three of which will be discussed below.

eToro

Pros: Good amount of different payment methods

Cons: Hard to withdrawal cryptocurrency profits

As a well-known social trading platform, eToro has built a name for itself in the traditional asset trading environment. So why choose eToro? There are quite a few valid reasons, here are just a few:

• Users can buy cryptocurrency with PayPal.
• It is a global platform expanded to include several cryptocurrency trading services.
• The platform also supports advanced trading instruments, including the higher-risk crypto CFDs .
• It’s an easy-to-use platform which is suitable for both beginner and more advanced traders.

Plus500

Pros: User-friendly & two-step login

Cons: Costly

Plus500 offers a range of popular cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ripple, and Dash. The platform also offers:

• Detailed crypto graphs 
• The option to trade using advanced instruments, including CFDs.
• These instruments allow trading on margin, which have the potential of considerable gains (but also significant losses).

LocalBitcoins

Pros: Dealing with large network

Cons: High fees

As a P2P platform, LocalBitcoins allows you to trade Bitcoin directly from other users. While not all users accept PayPal, you can filter your search to include this payment method, and then select a seller from the ones on the list.

Conclusion

When buying Bitcoin using PayPal as the payment method, prepare yourself for hefty pricing and fees. As fast and convenient it might be, we still recommend looking into another payment method that would not be so limited in cryptos and had lower fees.

If you still would like to buy Bitcoin with PayPal, be cautious of not so well-know exchanges that accept PayPal as a payment method the reason being a high risk of a possible scam. Go with one of the 3 exchanges listed above as they have a good reputation and would not scam their customers.