How Do I Buy XRP on Coinbase?

If you live in the U.S. and are interested in cryptocurrencies, you may be curious about XRP and want to trade it.

Problem is, XRP is not traded on the most popular cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase.

If you have a Coinbase account, the following instructions will help you save time when trading XRP while leveraging your Coinbase account.

What is XRP?

XRP is a cryptocurrency that powers transactions on a financial settlement network called Ripple.

Ripple is poised to disrupt multi-trillion dollar interbank payments market, as well as the $500 billion market for remittances. Ripple makes it easy for banks and businesses to quickly transfer money from one currency to another (i.e. dollars to pounds to yen to pesos).

For banks and businesses, the benefit of using Ripple is that they can reduce interbank transfer fees when moving money from place to place. Ripple estimates that banks can save as much as $3.76 per transaction, when compared to legacy banking transfers, by using the Ripple protocol.

XRP floats in value like any currency. In December 2017, XRP increased significantly in value, over 300%, from around $0.22 cents to $0.74 cents.

You can get a real time quote for XRP at CoinMarketCap.

Can Consumers Buy XRP?

Yes. Even though XRP is meant to be a business to business transaction tool, consumers can speculate on it and purchase the currency or trade it.

How Do I Trade XRP as an Individual?

XRP is not traded on Coinbase the most popular U.S. cryptocurrency exchange for individuals (why not?¹)

However, as an individual you can buy and trade XRP through many other exchanges. A partial list is below (the full list is available at Ripple).

• Kraken (U.S./San Francisco)
• Bitstamp (U.K./London)
• Gatehub (U.K./London)
• Coinone (Korea)
• Bitso (Mexico)
• Coincheck (Japan)

In the U.S., Kraken is the most well known cryptocurrency exchange after Coinbase.

How to Use Coinbase to Buy XRP Through Kraken in the U.S.

Coinbase accepts credit cards which makes it very easy to get started trading cryptocurrencies…

Unfortunately, Kraken does not.

So you will need to use dollars or another cryptocurrency (such as Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ether) to buy XRP.

If you want to use U.S. dollars, you need to jump through some serious verification hoops on Kraken. The company is required by law to verify who you are and where you live.

To add U.S. dollars to your Kraken account requires a multi-step verification process with supporting documentation including verification of email address, physical home address, photo ID, a photo of your face, and photo of you with your ID, and your signature on a virtual contract.

This can be a pain.

And Kraken handles verification requests on a first come, first served basis and if any of the information you submit is not the correct format, they will reject it.

Kraken also seems to have some issues with availability, such as 502 and 520 errors, etc. perhaps due to overwhelming demand, causing the site to be unavailable when you want to trade, which can cause even more hiccups and delays.

How Do I Buy XRP Through Coinbase?

An easier way to trade XRP without all the verification headaches is:

1. Create an account on Coinbase.
2. Buy some Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ether.
3. Transfer it from Coinbase to Kraken.
4. Convert it to XRP.

How to buy XRP using Coinbase:

1. Create a Coinbase account and purchase some Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ethereum. Coinbase accepts credit cards as well as bank transfers.²
2. Create an account on Kraken
3. Get verified. Kraken is required by law to verify your account by verifying some things. For transferring Bitcoin from Coinbase to Kraken, you just need to verify a few things, not upload supporting documentation.
4. Transfer some Bitcoin from Coinbase to Kraken. This will take about an hour to execute and confirm.
5. Log onto your Kraken account and use your Bitcoin to buy XRP.

How Do I Send Bitcoin From Coinbase to Kraken?

Once you have your Bitcoin on Coinbase, you must send a minimum of 1/10,000 of a Bitcoin (i.e. ฿0.00010) to Kraken.

Follow the steps below. 

Note: Once you have started the transfer process to move some of your Bitcoin to Kraken, it can take approximately 1 hour to see the transaction confirmed on Kraken and Coinbase. 

You will receive separate emails from both Coinbase and Kraken verifying that the transfer is complete.

To send Bitcoin from Coinbase to Kraken, follow the instructions from Coinbase below to use their website, or iOS or Android device:

Coinbase Website

1. Navigate to the Accounts link on the main navigation bar
2. Select the Send button for the digital currency wallet that you’d like to send from
3. On the send dialog, select Wallet Address if you’re sending to a digital currency wallet external to Coinbase or Email Address if you’re sending via email.
4. Enter the amount of digital currency you’d like to send in the Amount field. Alternatively, you can specify the amount you would like to send in your local currency. Note that the funds will always be sent as digital currency, not your local currency.
5. You can see the fees associated with the transaction.
6. If you have 2 Factor Authentication enabled, you will have to verify your transaction on Coinbase.
7. Click Continue.
8. Confirm the details of the transaction and complete the send.

Coinbase App for iOS

1. Tap the menu icon near the top left of the screen to open the Navbar.
2. Select the wallet you wish to send from, located in the Navbar.
3. Tap the paper airplane icon in the upper right hand of the screen.
4. Enter the amount you wish to send. (Tap the up/down arrows to switch between currencies.)
5. Press SEND
6. Enter the email or wallet address and any notes you wish to include.
7. Review the details of your transaction and tap ‘Send’ in the upper right corner of the screen.

Or if you have been provided a QR code:

1. Tap the QR icon in the upper right.
2. Take a picture of the QR code.
3. Enter the desired amount and press ‘Continue’
4. Review the details of your transaction and tap ‘Send’ in the upper right corner of the screen.

Coinbase App for Android

1. Tap the menu icon near the top left of the screen to open the Navbar.
2. Select the wallet you wish to send from, located in the Navbar.
3. Tap the ‘+’ icon near the lower right hand of the screen.
4. Tap ‘Send’
5. Enter the amount you wish to send. (Tap the up/down arrows to switch between currency selection.)
6. Enter the email or wallet address and any notes you wish to include.
7. Review the details of your transaction and tap the “forward” arrow in the upper right corner of the screen.

Or if you have been provided a QR code:

1. Tap the QR icon in the upper right.
2. Take a picture of the QR code.
3. Enter the desired amount and press ‘Continue’
4. Review the details of your transaction and tap the ‘forward’
5. arrow in the upper right corner of the screen.

Buying XRP on Kraken with Bitcoin Transferred from Coinbase

Note: Once you have transferred your Bitcoin to Kraken, you will then purchase your XRP on Kraken using Bitcoin.

It can be a little confusing how to place a trade on Kraken because there are a lot of options.

Also, sometimes the trades do not go through. I am not sure why.

When your trade does not go through you will see an error message on Kraken in red that reads:

“Your order may have failed. Please refresh the page and check your orders. Contact support if necessary”

If you see this message, just re-enter your trade and try again.

When the order has gone through, you will see a message on Kraken in green that reads

Order XXXXXXX successfully created!

1. Why isn’t XRP traded on Coinbase? I am not 100% sure. Coinbase accepts or denies digital currencies on its GDAX platform based on a published framework for accepting new assets that it will support. GDAX stands for Global Digital Asset Exchange and is a service provided by Coinbase. There are also rumors that Coinbase does not offer XRP because it was minted by Ripple, not mined, like Bitcoin, Ether or Litecoin. As XRP is 100% controlled by Ripple, it is not, by definition, a decentralized crypto).
2. Do not buy cryptocurrencies unless you are prepared to lose all your money. Never invest anything that you cannot afford to lose 100% of.