How To Buy Polygon UK – Buy MATIC In Under 5 Minutes
Please note that we are not authorised to provide any investment advice. The content on this page is for information purposes only.
Please note that we are not authorised to provide any investment advice. The content on this page is for information purposes only.
Without getting overly technical, Polygon is a layer-2 blockchain that runs on the Ethereum network and processes transactions in the blink of an eye. Think of Polygon as the fast lane on a motorway that allows traffic to move along avoiding congestion. Polygon (MATIC) was set up to solve some of the challenges that mainstream cryptos face in terms of scalability and high transaction costs.
Many market analysts and investors in the UK are looking to buy this popular altcoin. In this beginner’s guide, we’ll cover how to buy MATIC in the UK with low trading fees and a secure platform.
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The best way to buy MATIC in the UK is with an online trading platform or crypto exchange. But with so many options out there how do you choose the right provider for your trading needs and goals?
During our in-depth research we’ve uncovered the five best online crypto brokers and cryptocurrency exchanges that allow you to buy Matic tokens in the UK on a budget.
To learn more about each of these top-rated crypto trading platforms, continue reading this beginner’s guide.
Let’s cover how to buy MATIC in four easy and quick steps with eToro:
Lastly, you can purchase MATIC by clicking on the button marked ‘Open Trade’. You can also store your MATIC tokens safely in the eToro Money crypto wallet. At eToro you can conveniently buy, sell and store 17 of the most popular cryptos from the comfort of your own home.
Cryptoassets are highly volatile unregulated investment products. No EU investor protection. 67% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
A quick Google search will reveal a plethora of online cryptocurrency exchanges and brokers, all claiming to offer the lowest fees and best services. But how do you choose the right platform for your financial goals?
We’ve compiled a list of the top five crypto exchanges in the UK where you can purchase MATIC and start diversifying your portfolio with the most talked-about cryptos on the market.
We discovered that eToro is the best crypto trading platform for buying MATIC in the UK in 2022. eToro, which was founded in 2006 and now has over 20 million active traders, is regulated by numerous top-tier financial agencies. eToro is a trusted copy trading platform that offers trading in CFDs, FX, actual stocks, ETFs, cryptos, and fractional shares.
When you buy cryptos on eToro, you take ownership of the digital assets and you can store them on the eToro Money crypto wallet. Furthermore, the cost of buying MATIC involves the typical spread of 3.9%. You can also invest in MATIC with as little as $25 and diversify your crypto portfolio with the top-trending cryptos on the market.
When it comes to non-trading fees, while there are no deposit fees or account fees it does, however, charge a $5 withdrawal fee and an inactivity fee of $10 after 12 months of non-use. Additionally, the only available account base currency is USD, so for any deposits or transactions made with non-USD currency you will have to pay a 0.5% conversion fee.
eToro was designed to make online trading more accessible to beginner traders. With its user-friendly interface you can choose either a demo account or a live trading account. The account opening process is fully digital and straightforward, typically taking no more than five minutes to complete.
eToro conveniently provides a range of payment methods including credit/debit cards, PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, Rapid Transfer, iDEAL, Klarna, bank transfer, online banking – Trustly. You can deposit your USD funds with $0 deposit fees via the web platform or the mobile trading app.
eToro is heavily regulated by top-tier financial authorities including the UK’s FCA, ASIC, and CySEC. As a result, client funds are held in segregated bank accounts and are covered by negative balance protection.
Pros
Cons
Cryptoassets are highly volatile unregulated investment products. No EU investor protection. 67% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
According to coinmarketcap.com, Coinbase is one of the top cryptocurrency exchanges with a market cap of over $47 billion and an average 24-hour trading volume of over $1.4 billion. It raised $500 million in a blockbuster IPO (initial public offering) on the NASDAQ exchange in April 2021, valuing the crypto exchange at $8 billion.
You’ll have to pay a regular commission of 1.49 percent per slide when you buy and sell cryptos on Coinbase. When you convert one cryptocurrency to another, Coinbase charges a fee. When compared to its competitors, this spread amounts to 2%, which is slightly above the industry average.
Although you can fund your Coinbase account with cryptocurrencies, most new crypto traders in the UK prefer to use traditional payment methods like credit and debit cards. As such, when depositing funds with a debit card on Coinbase you will incur a 3.99% deposit fee. Additionally, there is a 2% charge for debit card withdrawals whereas bank transfers are free of charge, despite having to wait a few business days for your funds to be processed.
Debit cards, cryptos, and bank transfers are among the payment options available on Coinbase. To avoid the hefty 3.99 percent Coinbase fee on debit card deposits and transactions, it is recommended that you use a UK bank transfer.
Coinbase follows all applicable rules and regulations in all the locations where it provides its services to retail and professional traders. Coinbase is also registered with FinCEN as a Money Services Business.
Pros
Cons
Cryptoassets are highly volatile unregulated investment products. No EU investor protection. 67% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
OKEx is a top-rated cryptocurrency exchange situated in the Seychelles, founded in 2014 by Star XU. Crypto spot and derivative trading are two of OKE’s primary features. The OKB utility token can be used to purchase services and products on OKEx. OKB can be used to calculate and pay trading fees, provide users with voting and governance rights on the crypto exchange, and it acts as an incentive for users to hold OKB.
Home to over 20 million traders, OKEx makes buying MATIC a simple and easy process. Furthermore, if you currently own a cryptocurrency, you can deposit it in the OKEx crypto wallet and trade it for other digital assets.
OKEx uses a maker-taker fee structure. Put simply, this means that market makers are traders who add liquidity to the order books by placing limit orders that are not executed instantly and are therefore available for other buyers and sellers to use.
Takers, on the other hand, remove liquidity from the order books by placing market orders. The maker-taker fee rates at OKEx are determined by customer tiers, trading markets, and asset classes. For traders holding less than 500 OKB tokens, the maker-taker fees start from 0.1 percent. The trading fees vary depending on whether you will be placing spot, futures, perpetual swaps, or options trades.
OKEx does not impose fees for deposits or withdrawals, however you must pay a minimum Bitcoin network fee when withdrawing BTC from the exchange.
You can open a OKEx account, and start buying and selling Bitcoin and other altcoins immediately with payment methods such as credit cards, debit cards, bank transfers, and more. On March 25th, 2021 OKEx announced that it added more fiat currencies and payment methods for P2P trading:
OKEx holds Bitcoin in cold crypto wallets which means that they are not connected to the internet like hot wallets. Moreover, the passwords required to gain access to the private keys are held by users in different countries. OKEx also supports two-factor authentication, which ensures that your account is protected against identity theft and scammers.
Pros
Cons
Cryptoassets are highly volatile unregulated investment products. No EU investor protection. 67% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
With a daily trading volume greater than $13 billion, Binance is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges across the board. Based in the Cayman Islands, Binance was launched in 2017 and now has a client base of over 15 million.
In comparison to other crypto exchanges Binance’s trading fees are cheap. The spot trading fee is just 0.1%, and the instant buy/sell fee is set at 0.5%. The native DeFi token of the Binance ecosystem is the BNB token. Binance accepts both fiat and crypto deposits, depending on your region. You also have a variety of payment options, including cryptos, credit cards, and debit cards, and bank transfers.
You may be interested in the Binance savings account as it allows you to earn interest on your crypto holdings. The interest is paid on a daily basis, and you can withdraw your digital assets at any time if you opt for a flexible account.
Binance has faced scrutiny from the UK’s FCA recently, over money laundering concerns. As a result, the UK’s financial market watchdog has banned Binance from conducting any ‘regulated activity’ in Britain. This does not, however, stop UK-based traders from accessing Binance’s services and product offerings on its main website.
Pros
Cons
Cryptoassets are highly volatile unregulated investment products. No EU investor protection. 67% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
Launched in 2013, CoinJar is the top crypto exchange in Australia. CoinJar provides users with exchange access as well as a secure crypto wallet, and a range of crypto management services. At CoinJar you can trade multiple cryptocurrencies with low fees. The onboarding process is fully digital and simple and can be completed in minutes.
Makers and takers pay various fees on CoinJar. Taker costs for trading fiat-to-crypto pairs range from 0.10 percent to 0.50 percent, depending on the transaction volume. While this may be a disadvantage, the 0% makers fee can compensate for it. The taker fee for crypto-to-crypto trading is 0.10 percent, which is lower than the industry average, and market makers pay 0%.
Fiat-to-crypto trading is also facilitated on the crypto exchange, which makes CoinJar perfect for beginner crypto traders. Users can deposit fiat currencies into their accounts with bank transfers or credit cards. The latter is usually not accepted by most crypto exchanges or credit card companies. All of these payment methods come with 0% deposit fees but the only fiat currencies that are accepted by CoinJar are EUR, GBP, USD, and AUD.
In terms of safety, CoinJar uses two-factor authentication and password protection for crypto wallets with 90% of all clients’ funds stored offline in geographically redundant, secure locations.
Multi-signature technology is also used by CoinJar to store crypto assets in secure hot wallets.
Pros
Cons
Cryptoassets are highly volatile unregulated investment products. No EU investor protection. 67% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
In this section of our beginner’s guide, we will walk you through the process of buying MATIC in the UK with the top-rated crypto broker eToro.
The first step to buying MATIC in the UK is to visit the eToro official website and open a trading account.
To get started, simply click on ‘Join Now’. This will display an online registration form where you can fill in your details such as name, email address, and password.
Next you’ll need to provide further details such as your social security number and home address. Lastly, once you have verified your phone number the account sign-up process will be over.
Cryptoassets are highly volatile unregulated investment products. No EU investor protection. 67% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
To successfully verify your account you will need to upload copies of your passport and a recent utility bill as proof of identity and address.
The verification process can take a couple of business days, and eToro will notify you once your trading account is fully verified.
The minimum first-time deposit is just $50. The fastest payment method, in terms of instant processing times, to use on eToro is with a debit/credit card, or an e-wallet such as PayPal or Skrill.
These payment options are processed immediately, in contrast to bank transfers that commonly take between 4-7 business days. Depositing funds into your eToro trading account is safe as Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology is used for all transactions, which protects your personal information.
When it comes to non-trading fees, there are no deposit or account fees, but there is a small $5 withdrawal fee. After 12 months of non-use, you will have to pay a $10 inactivity fee.
Once you have successfully deposited funds into your eToro account you can search for ‘MATIC’ in the search bar at the top of the screen.
When you click on the ‘Trade’ button you will be able to buy MATIC using the order window. From here you can specify your preferred investment amount, keeping in mind that the minimum investment for cryptos on eToro is $25.
How are cryptocurrency exchanges and crypto brokers different? Let’s cover the key metrics that differentiate both types of platforms so you can choose the right provider for your trading needs.
A cryptocurrency broker is a financial services company that takes on the role of the intermediary between the crypto markets and crypto traders. Crypto brokers such as eToro offer financial services for traders looking to buy, sell, and invest in digital assets.
Crypto brokers are the most suitable option for new traders interested in buying Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP) and other trending altcoins. Trading cryptos for fiat currencies, and vice versa, is carried out between the online broker and the buyer and seller.
Trading cryptocurrencies with a reputable broker has various benefits, including the ability to buy and sell crypto assets at the broker’s fixed prices. Traders looking to invest small amounts into different cryptos can do so cheaply with a trusted crypto broker.
eToro is a user-friendly cryptocurrency broker that offers low trading and non-trading fees to help new traders keep their trading costs down.
To use eToro, just create an account, choose your preferred payment method and deposit funds, and then begin buying and selling digital assets from the comfort of your own home, or even from your mobile device via the eToro mobile trading app.
You should use a cryptocurrency exchange if you want to trade cryptocurrencies directly with other buyers and sellers. Unlike a crypto broker, a cryptocurrency exchange provides an online platform for buyers and sellers to trade cryptocurrencies for other digital or fiat currencies at current market prices.
As a result, buyers and sellers trade fiat money and cryptocurrencies directly, with the crypto exchange just serving as a platform rather than functioning as an intermediary.
Crypto exchanges are ideal for experienced traders interested in making profits from market price movements through speculating on volatile and highly liquid digital assets.
How can I buy MATIC in the UK? We’ll cover some of the safest and most convenient ways to buy MATIC tokens with a top-rated crypto broker or exchange.
If you have access to a Visa or Mastercard debit card, this is by far one of the best ways to buy MATIC in the UK. To buy cryptos with a debit card the broker or exchange must be regulated and needs to comply with KYC standards.
You can buy MATIC tokens with a debit card via all five of the brokers/exchanges covered in this guide. eToro is the cheapest option across the board, with a typical conversion fee of 50 pips, and zero deposit and account fees.
Buying cryptos with a credit card can be cumbersome as you may face limitations set by the crypto exchange or by the credit card issuer. For instance, Coinbase does not support credit cards as a payment option, whereas other cryptocurrency exchanges only support Mastercard and Visa credit cards.
However, even if the exchange accepts credit cards this does not guarantee that the credit card company will allow you to send funds to a cryptocurrency exchange, especially as the FCA has recently cracked down on crypto trading.
As well as the service fee, the crypto exchange could charge a credit card fee. For example, the crypto exchange may charge you a portion of the transaction total to trade fiat currencies for digital assets.
You can also buy MATIC on eToro with a bank transfer if you don’t mind waiting between 4-7 business days. This is ideal for beginner traders as most brokers do not charge a fee for bank transfer deposits.
At eToro you can make instant deposits via online banking – Trustly, as well as Rapid Transfer which do not require any additional registration and the processing times are instant.
Buying MATIC with PayPal on eToro is simple and seamless. Simply open a trading account, enter your deposit amount, and choose PayPal as your preferred payment method. Once the transaction is complete, you can invest in MATIC with a $25 minimum investment.
Most altcoins can’t be purchased using USD, so you’ll have to buy Bitcoins (BTC) and then trade them for the altcoins you want on a crypto exchange or online broker. Remember that your Bitcoins will be traded for MATIC.
Binance allows you to exchange Bitcoin for other altcoins without needing to undergo the KYC process. Furthermore, Binance charges an entry commission of 0.1% making this method of buying MATIC one of the cheapest.
Launched in 2017 as Matic Network, it was recently rebranded earlier this year as Polygon. With a market dominance of 0.42% and a market cap of $6.8bn, Polygon is a second-layer project that runs on the Ethereum blockchain to process transactions at unprecedented speeds. Another function of Polygon is to make it easier for apps running on the ERC-20 blockchain to work seamlessly with other blockchain platforms.
What is MATIC? MATIC is Polygon’s governance token that allows holders to vote on key project decisions. You can also use MATIC to earn interest and pay gas fees.
In terms of market dominance, Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, and it was the first to develop smart contracts. Smart contracts are pieces of code that allow you to program blockchain databases. As such, heaps of applications have been built on the Ethereum blockchain.
However, Ethereum has run into a number of issues, with scalability being the most prominent of those hurdles. According to lead developer Vitalik Buterin, until the network can upgrade to Eth2, developers and users will simply have to deal with the congestion or search for alternatives such as Polygon.
Polygon is experimenting with scalability solutions, to cross the bridge that Ethereum hasn’t so far been able to. The main premise is that developers will be given the choice to select a solution that works best for their needs and goals as opposed to having to make do with a one-size-fits-all platform.
If you’re looking to buy MATIC, you need to keep in mind that cryptocurrencies are very volatile assets, so you need to consider your risk tolerance and whether you can cope with regular price swings.
Polygon’s all-time low was recorded in May 2019 and since then it has jumped by 35,233.28% when it hit an all-time high of $2.68. Polygon price has also performed better compared to most cryptos in the recent price slump.
Polygon to USD chart. Source: Coinmarketcap.com
Additionally, Polygon has attracted investments from the likes of Mark Cuban, a billionaire and cryptocurrency enthusiast. There are also more than 350 applications running on the Polygon network, including the trending DeFi projects SushiSwap and Aave.
One potential disadvantage is the connection between Polygon and Ethereum. Furthermore, it is competing in a highly volatile and continually evolving market.
One factor that prospective Polygon investors need to think about is the rate at which the programmable blockchain sector may evolve. In the last ten years or so, blockchain technology has developed and advanced so much. As a result, there’s always the chance that a new generation of blockchain technology may surpass the existing versions.
This is a risk that all cryptocurrencies face, but it’s especially noticeable in Polygon’s case. Polygon not only faces stiff competition from other digital assets including Cosmos and Polkadot, but it also runs the risk of becoming outdated once the Eth2 upgrade is rolled out.
Despite the fact that Polygon is working on several scalability solutions, it is solely focused on the Ethereum network. Polygon’s potential solutions could lose relevance if another programmable blockchain overtakes Ethereum. Therefore, there’s a slight risk that Polygon has leaned too much on Ethereum.
On the other hand, even if other blockchains increase their market dominance, it’s somewhat unlikely that Ethereum will be knocked out of the crypto playing field. Polygon’s creators argue that even after the Eth2 upgrade is launched, Polygon will still be relevant. This is partly down to its ability to boost transaction speeds as well as helping Ethereum to communicate seamlessly with other decentralized networks.
When you buy MATICin the UK, you will have to pay fees in the same way that you would when you trade stocks and major forex pairs. Having said this, there are a couple of key costs you need to consider:
Deposit fees vary depending on the payment method and the broker’s fee model. eToro does not charge a fee for USD deposits because it uses USD as its account base currency. The other 14 fiat currencies you can use include EUR, GBP, AUD, RMB, THB, IDR, MYR, VND, PHP, SEK, DKK, NOK, PLN, and CZK. When you deposit in a currency other than USD, eToro charges a 0.5 percent fee.
When you buy and sell any tradable asset, you will almost certainly be charged a trading fee and/or commission. However, you can trade 17 cryptocurrencies on eToro without paying a penny in commissions. The only fee that eToro charges for trading cryptos is the spread.
Crypto markets are famous for their volatility. At first glance at historical price charts, you can see that crypto market prices have much higher peaks and lower declines in comparison to other safe-haven markets.
Even though cryptocurrencies are not regulated by financial regulatory bodies, online brokers and crypto exchanges are required to register with them to offer their services. Amidst growing concerns around money laundering, the UK’s FCA has recently banned the crypto exchange Binance from conducting any regulated activity in the UK.
With this in mind, you need to consider your risk tolerance and security expectations before choosing a crypto exchange.
As we have already mentioned, Polygon is not the only blockchain trying to revolutionize the scalability of DeFi networks. Polygon faces stiff competition from the likes of Polkadot and Cosmos.
Most long-term investors try to buy MATIC at a low market price and then sell later for a profit. The selling process is usually straightforward depending on the payment method and whether the crypto coins are held in a third-party or integrated crypto wallet.
For example:
On the flip side, if you bought MATIC from a crypto exchange and stored the tokens in a private crypto wallet, you would first need to deposit your MATIC tokens back into the exchange and then sell them for another cryptocurrency or a fiat currency.
In summary, we have covered everything you need to know about buying MATIC tokens in the UK from the best crypto brokers and crypto exchanges to the costs and reasons why Polygon is a good investment.
If you want to get the ball rolling and buy MATIC today, we recommend opting for eToro. This top-rated and trusted broker supports a wide range of payment methods, offers copy trading features, and allows you to invest in 17 different cryptos while only paying the competitive spread.