How to Buy XRP in UK – Buy Ripple Beginner’s Guide

Ripple is the third-largest cryptocurrency in the world by market cap. While it largely hasn’t experienced the same attention from traders and investors as Bitcoin (BTC), Ripple is quickly growing in popularity and value.

So, what is Ripple and how do you get it? In this guide, we’ll explain everything you need to know about how to buy XRP in the UK and review five top UK crypto exchanges where you can buy Ripple today.

Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more

What is Ripple (XRP)?

Ripple is a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Ethereum (ETH), that’s made its way into the best Bitcoin alternatives list. This digital currency is based on blockchain technology and allows for instant, global payments to anyone around the world. However, it differs from these other popular digital coins in a few important ways.

Ripple uses a different mechanism from Bitcoin for generating coins. Whereas Bitcoin requires that miners commit time and computer power to validate transactions and generate new Bitcoin in the process, transactions with Ripple are validated by consensus. There is no computationally intensive mining process involved.

Thanks to this unique blockchain system, transactions with Ripple proceed much faster than transactions with Bitcoin or Ethereum. Whereas it could take a few seconds for a Bitcoin transaction to proceed, users can send and receive Ripple anywhere in the world instantly. This makes Ripple much more suitable for widespread use on the scale of fiat currencies like the US dollar.

Notably, the term ‘Ripple’ refers to both the cryptocurrency – which is officially named XRP – and to the company, Ripple Labs, which founded the blockchain system for XRP. Ripple Labs not only operates Ripple but also coordinates a global network of more than 200 financial institutions that facilitate cross-border payments using Ripple.

Where and how to buy XRP?

Wondering where to buy Ripple in the UK? There are dozens of cryptocurrency exchanges that let you buy cryptos under £1, but not all options are equally good. When considering what crypto exchange to use, you need to look closely at factors like cost, trading tools, regulation, and more.

To help you find the best place to buy Ripple in the UK, let’s take a closer look at five of our favourite crypto brokers:

• Coinbase
• Huobi
• Crypto.com 
• Binance

1. Coinbase – Advanced Cryptocurrency Research Tools For Trading XRP

Coinbase is a US-based cryptocurrency exchange that offers trading on more than 3,000 top digital assets. The exchange was one of the first major players in the cryptocurrency trading space and is considered highly trustworthy. In fact, Coinbase is one of only a few entities to hold a specialised e-money license from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority.

What’s great about Coinbase is that it provides a ton of tools for cryptocurrency traders and investors. With this platform, you can create a diversified portfolio of digital currencies and manage recurring investments over time. You can also set up a self-managed crypto wallet on your smartphone, which is great if you want to use Ripple or Bitcoin to send money or pay for everyday purchases.

Our favourite thing about Coinbase, though, is Coinbase Pro – the exchange’s cryptocurrency trading platform. This platform is very advanced, with dozens of built-in technical studies and drawing tools for you to analyse Ripple’s price movements. Coinbase Pro also takes advantage of the open nature of blockchain technology to show you the entire trade history and order book for Ripple. While this information isn’t essential for long-term investors, it can make a big difference for short-term traders.

The downside to Coinbase is that these tools don’t come cheap. Coinbase charges a 0.50% spread for every Ripple transaction, plus a flat fee based on how much you trade. The fee can range from £0.99 to £2.99 per Ripple trade, which can be up to 10% of your transaction value and can add up pretty quickly. Thankfully, Coinbase doesn’t charge any account fees.

Coinbase allows you to deposit and withdraw funds using a bank account, debit card, or credit card. You can instantly withdraw funds to a credit card, but note that this carries a 2% fee.

Your money is at risk.

2. Huobi – Best Exchange to Buy Ripple (XRP) with Low Trading Fees

We’d also recommend checking out Huobi. Huobi is one of the top ten cryptocurrency exchanges globally when it comes to trading volume, regularly handling over $1.3bn each day. The platform provides over 350 cryptocurrencies for users to trade (including XRP), with a selection of derivatives markets on offer, too. If you’re looking to buy Ripple, you can do so for a fee of only 0.2% – which can be reduced by 50% if you hold HT.

In terms of the trading experience, Huobi offers a web-based platform and a mobile app. The former has lots of information on offer, including built-in TradingView price charts and depth-of-market data. Furthermore, there are four different order types to utilise and a dedicated section for daily price statistics. The mobile app offers a sleeker version of the web-based platform, with less information but a more straightforward trading experience for beginners.

Huobi users can also download the Huobi Wallet app for free, available on iOS and Android. This wallet is ideal for storing your Ripple holdings as it offers complete control over your private keys and supports multiple blockchains. Finally, Huobi even has a valuable ‘Huobi Learn’ feature, where users can earn cryptocurrency for completing educational courses.

Your money is at risk.

3. Crypto.com – User-Friendly Exchange to Buy Ripple Easily

Another of the best crypto exchanges UK to consider is Crypto.com. Crypto.com was founded in 2016 but has grown to over 10 million users in the last few years. The platform offers around 150 cryptos to trade, including a selection of DeFi tokens and ERC-20 tokens. Crypto.com utilises a maker/taker model in terms of fees, which will be set at 0.4% per trade for retail traders.

Deposits are easy to make with Crypto.com, as the platform allows users to fund their accounts for free with crypto or FIAT currency. Notably, Crypto.com allows instant deposits in GBP via Faster Payments – ideal for UK-based traders. If you do not wish to deposit, you can skip this step and buy Ripple directly using a credit or debit card. Usually, this comes with a 2.99% transaction fee, although this fee is waived for the first 30 days of using the Crypto.com platform.

Users can trade on the web-based exchange or the Crypto.com app, with the latter being ideal for beginners. The app has a straightforward interface with price charts and real-time data and offers the ability to set price alerts. Finally, Crypto.com even provides a ‘crypto VISA card’, allowing users to spend their crypto holdings as if they were FIAT!

Your money is at risk.

4. Binance – Lowest Spreads for Buying Ripple

If you’re looking for the cheapest way to buy Ripple in the UK, Binance may be the best cryptocurrency exchange for you. This trading platform offers incredibly low spreads that start at 0.10% per trade. If you hold Binance’s proprietary BNB cryptocurrency, you can also get discounts that bring your spread down to as little as 0.06%. Binance doesn’t charge any account fees, so you won’t find a better deal in the UK for buying Ripple.

Binance is a little more complicated to get started with than platforms like Coinbase. But the exchange has a ton of tools and features to offer, including three different trading platforms. If you just want to make a one-time purchase of Ripple, you can use the Basic or Classic interfaces. If you want detailed technical charts and access to Ripple’s full order book, the Advanced web trading platform offers a comprehensive look at the market for XRP.

One thing we like about Binance is that it provides more educational resources for new cryptocurrency traders than other exchanges. This exchange offers dozens of video explainers to help you understand blockchain technology, how Bitcoin works, and what to watch for when investing in digital assets. There is also a trader forum where you can ask questions and quizzes to help you test your knowledge.

Binance allows you to fund your Ripple investment with a bank transfer, credit or debit card, or several popular e-wallets. You can also migrate Bitcoin from any existing wallet to Binance and use that to buy XRP.

Binance is regulated in the US and by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. It is one of the most well-established names in the cryptocurrency trading space, and its security measures have proven durable in the past against attempted hacks.

Your money is at risk.

Is Ripple a good investment?

Ripple has attracted increasing attention from traders and investors in the UK and around the world. The price of this coin is still modest – around 46 pence, compared to over £14,000 for Bitcoin – but there is so much XRP on the market that it is actually the third-largest digital currency by market cap. Today, Ripple is worth more than £20.7 billion.

Price alone doesn’t make Ripple a good investment, though, especially since you can buy fractional Bitcoin and Ethereum if you only have a small amount to invest. But there are several reasons why we think Ripple is worth a look for UK cryptocurrency trading and investing.

The most important is the payments system underlying Ripple. One of the biggest challenges limiting the widespread adoption of digital assets by the mainstream public and by financial institutions is that they cannot handle the firehose of transactions that happen in the global economy every day. Credit card companies, for example, routinely process 5,000 transactions per second or more.

As we noted, transactions using the Ripple payment system are far faster than those using Bitcoin or Ethereum. In fact, Ripple can handle roughly 1,500 transactions per second compared to 7 for Bitcoin and 15 for Ethereum. So, Ripple offers the liquidity needed for traditional financial applications, and the XRP coin could stand to benefit as a result.

In fact, Ripple has already proven that it can compete on a global scale. Ripple has been adopted by more than 200 global financial institutions to facilitate cross-bank accounts and cross-border payments. Banks using Ripple to facilitate payments that normally take a significant amount of time to process are saving over £400,000 per year on average.

How Much Does It Cost to Buy XRP?

You can buy XRP in the UK through most cryptocurrency exchanges. The fee structure can vary widely between exchanges, so it’s important to read the fine print.

In general, you should expect to pay a spread of anywhere from 0.5% to 1.5% per Ripple transaction. That means your total cost for buying and selling Ripple can range from 1% to 3% of your total purchase.

Some exchanges charge cheaper spreads but include other fees that can raise the cost of buying Ripple. For example, Coinbase charges a spread of around 0.50% when you buy XRP, but adds a flat fee of £0.99 to £2.99 depending on how much XRP you buy.

How to Buy Ripple with PayPal

PayPal recently introduced a new cryptocurrency service that supports exchange between fiat currencies, Bitcoin, and altcoins like Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin. Notably, PayPal’s new service doesn’t support Ripple. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t indirectly use PayPal to buy Ripple in the UK.

Many top crypto exchanges allow you to fund your account with PayPal. So, you can simply transfer funds from PayPal to your exchange account and then buy Ripple as you normally would. This is the same process you would use to buy XRP from an exchange using a bank transfer, except that you replace your bank account with your PayPal account.

It’s also possible to buy Ripple using some other payment providers, like Neteller and Skrill.

How to Buy XRP with Bitcoins

If you already own Bitcoin, using this digital currency to buy Ripple is simple. Almost every UK Bitcoin exchange allows you to convert Bitcoin to Ripple (or any other cryptocurrency) and pay just a spread, with no additional fees.

To convert Bitcoin to Ripple, just go to your exchange account and buy Ripple as you normally would. If you only have Bitcoin in your account, it will be used automatically to fund your Ripple purchase. If you have Bitcoin and fiat currencies in your account, you can select which currency to use to buy XRP.

Buying XRP Safely

Although Ripple is a relatively trustworthy cryptocurrency with a massive global user base, safety should always be on your mind when buying and selling cryptocurrencies. The best way to buy Ripple in the UK safely is to use an established cryptocurrency exchange. Make sure that the exchange you use is overseen by financial regulators like the UK Financial Conduct Authority.

Keep in mind that in order to hold Ripple, you will need a cryptocurrency wallet. Most cryptocurrency exchanges provide you with a managed wallet, which works just like a traditional brokerage account. Make sure that whatever exchange you use has strict security measures in place to protect clients’ wallets. We recommend against creating and managing your own wallet, as self-managed wallets are much more prone to attack, theft, and loss.

Risks of Buying Ripple in the UK

As with Bitcoin investment or any other cryptocurrency, buying Ripple involves risk. The value of Ripple is based solely on what traders and investors are willing to pay for it, which varies widely based on market news and developments in the cryptocurrency world. Ripple is highly volatile and can experience sharp price swings with little notice.

Over the long term, there is no guarantee that Ripple will live up to its promise. While this digital asset has a head start over competitors in building a network of mainstream financial institutions, there are many startup cryptocurrencies that promise faster cross-border payments. In addition, although Ripple offers much faster payments than Bitcoin, Bitcoin still has much wider name recognition and is accepted as payment by many small and large businesses.

Given all this, UK traders should be cautious about buying Ripple. There is a lot to like about Ripple and it is quickly gaining attention and popularity. However, if the cryptocurrency world has demonstrated anything, it’s that no coin’s future is a guarantee.

Selling Ripple (XRP)

When you’re ready to sell Ripple (XRP), the process is largely the same as buying it. Any cryptocurrency exchange that allows you to buy XRP also allows you to sell it for Bitcoin or fiat currency. Simply log into your exchange account and open a sell order for your Ripple coins.

One of the nice things about trading Ripple is that this cryptocurrency has relatively high liquidity. So, you should have no problem selling your XRP instantly at the quoted market price.

Recent crypto news you need to consider before buying Ripple (XRP)

Last updated: 24/05/2023 – Ripple is a significant player in the crypto space because their project enables cross-currency transactions at fast speeds and low prices. This means they could play a role in the establishment of a global financial network that includes cryptocurrencies. Banks and corporations already use Ripple to quickly convert different currencies, meaning it acts as a bridge between major financial institutions. The technology is still young, however, and cryptocurrencies are highly volatile. Consider the following before making an investment decision:

• Altcoins including XRP and LTC have benefited from negative market sentiment towards Bitcoin. Around $32 million BTC was sold by investors last week whereas XRP and LTC saw inflows of $0.5 million over the past 7 days. Overall, trading volumes on crypto exchanges have significantly declined as investors are moving their funds to alternative assets.
• The Japanese government have given the green light to a new rule that will prevent crypto assets being used for money laundering. The Travel Rule requires crypto service providers to share originator and beneficiary information alongside virtual asset transactions.
• BTC’s recent downtrend threatens to hit $26,000. This price action suggest a strong bearish momentum in the market and has sparked fear amongst investors. Many investors are selling BTC in exchange for alternative assets.
• Litecoin halving event is just 70 days away. News of he upcoming event has bought positive sentiment to the asset with many believing that it could hit $1000 in 2023.

Frequently Asked Questions on Ripple (XRP)