How to Buy Ethereum in Canada – Beginner’s Guide

Figuring out how to buy Ethereum in Canada? As the backbone of Web 3.0, Ethereum and its crypto ETH remains a solid investment prospect for 2022 and beyond. But the Canadian authorities are not overly-impressed with crypto in general, and this can put off some Canadian investors.

Below, therefore, we review three top crypto platforms where you can buy ETH in Canada. With over 500 crypto exchanges worldwide, only a few offer that elusive combination of high security, low fees and great usability. Our top pick — Toronto-based Bitbuy — also offers the rare bonus of being regulated in Canada by the Ontario Securities Commission.

Where to Buy Ethereum in Canada

To buy ETH in Canada, you will need to find a crypto exchange that suits your level of experience.

1. Bitbuy – Best Platform to Buy Ethereum in Canada

What makes Bitbuy stand out for Canadian investors is that this exchange is for Canadians only. Bitbuy solves the question of how to buy Ethereum in Canada with heaps of advantages:

• You can deposit CAD with no fuss using Interac e-Transfer (1.5% fee, 1-4hrs to execute). Or you can deposit using bank wire, provided you deposit at least £$20,000 (0.5% fee).
• You can use the CAD in your account to buy Ethereum using BitBuy’s Express Trade function with a flat fee of just 0.2%. (See our guide below for details).
• You can breathe easy with Bitbuy when it comes to regulation. That is because BitBuy is one of the few exchanges to have earned approval and oversight from the Ontario Securities Commission as well as Canada’s FINTRAC.
• When it comes to security, BitBuy boasts the standards one would expect from a top exchange. That means SSL technology onsite as well as mandatory two-factor authentication when you log in. What’s more, 95% of client crypto is held in ‘cold’ wallets (ie. offline) and there is financial insurance provided by Bitgo.

Whilst you cannot connect a crypto wallet to BitBuy, you can send crypto out of your BitBuy account to a public address on the blockchain. The platform provides a free crypto app for trading on the move, which has received a good average score of 4.6/5 on the App Store.

Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. 

2. Crypto.com – Best Place to Buy Ethereum in Canada and Earn Interest

Crypto.com is quite a step up from Bitbuy in terms of size. US-based Crypto.com is the world’s tenth-biggest crypto exchange. It handles over $1bn of crypto business a day and offers a range of 200 coins, including Ethereum.

Canadian investors can deposit CAD with Crypto.com using bank transfer and then buy Ethereum direct. Or you can buy stablecoins and trade Ethereum on Crypto.com’s main exchange. Or from certain countries you can buy ETH direct with credit card.

Crypto.com is less clear about its fees than BitBuy, and certainly more complicated. But the exchange comes into its own if you want to use the Ethereum you buy to engage in crypto financing options:

• Crypto Staking
  You can lend out your ETH for a fixed term of 3 months and earn 3% APY (Annual Percentage Yield). You will need some in-house crypto CRO to get started. The more CRO you have, the better the rate you get.
• Crypto.com Credit Card
  US customers can get a Crypto.com credit card which can be used to spend crypto as well as giving 8% back on purchases.
• Crypto Loans
  If you stake $10,000 USD of ETH as collateral, you can instantly borrow $5,000 USD worth of ETH. An interest rate of 12% applies, which reduces if you own CRO.

Crypto.com goes one further than Bitbuy in offering arguably one of the best crypto wallets in Canada. The exchange also offers a free smartphone app which has a rating of 4.3/5 on the App Store and 3.7/5 on Google Play.

We recommend that crypto beginners start their Ethereum journey with no-frills Bitbuy, and perhaps graduate to Crypto.com when they have first figured out how to buy Ethereum in Canada the easiest way possible.

Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. 

3. Binance – Trusted Crypto Exchange to Invest in Ethereum with Low Fees

Binance is the world’s biggest crypto exchange. In a single day, Binance handles $7bn+ of crypto business. It boasts 80m users, 600+ crypto and a staggering diversity of trading and financing tools.

Binance is a strong option when considering how to buy Ethereum in Canada, because of the sheer range of ways of doing so. You can buy ETH direct with credit card using CAD. You can deposit other crypto into your Binance account and use that to trade ETH on Binance’s main exchange. You can trade direct with other users on Binance’s P2P platform. And you can buy ETH direct from Binance using fiat currency.

When it comes to micro-managing your trading or earning money on staked ETH, for example, there are so many options. And, if it all gets a little overwhelming, set your desktop interface to ‘classic’ view and your smartphone app to ‘Binance App’ to cut out the complicated stuff.

The Binance smartphone app scores an average of 4.3/5 from 570k reviews on Google Play and 4.7/5 from 96k reviews on the App Store.

Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. 

Should I Buy Ethereum?

How to invest in Ethereum in Canada is a moot question unless an investor is sure that Ethereum is the right crypto to back.

Luckily, you do not need to opt for just one coin when it comes to buying crypto.

With top Ethereum platforms like BitBuy offering a minimum investment of just $50 CAD, you may be able to afford buying several crypto at once. To manage risk, this diversification is a great idea.

To manage risk further, you should also balance your crypto investment with less risky assets like stocks and Exchange-Traded Funds.

Benefits of Buying Ethereum

Unlike a meme coin like Dogecoin or a utility token, ETH is the crypto coin for the most significant blockchain on the internet: Ethereum.

When you buy ETH, you are buying into a level of fundamental value that other crypto cannot match. So, for long-term growth, ETH is a no-brainer investment.

Buy into the Backbone of the Internet

Every investor has heard of Bitcoin crypto (market capitalisation: $769bn). But, despite being roughly half the size with a market capitalisation of $367bn, Ethereum is arguably more important.

Bitcoin is a store of value. Ethereum, on the other hand, is a programmable store of value. Note from the chart below how Ethereum (green line) has out-performed Bitcoin (yellow line) since last year:

Launched in 2015, the Ethereum blockchain pioneered the smart contracts which allow financial transactions to be completed without the need for a central authority. Ethereum was designed, says co-founder Gavin Wood, as ‘one computer for the entire planet.’

Thus Ethereum is now used by developers to produce DApps (Decentralised Applications), NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) and other crypto using ERC-20 tokens. Heard of DeFi (Decentralised Finance)? That’s run on Ethereum too.

Lock in for the Ethereum 2.0 Upgrade

Ethereum is currently upgrading its technology. A second level of the blockchain is being implemented this year (2022). Why? Because, with 1m transactions per day, Ethereum reached the limit of its scalability last year. This made transactions on the blockchain very expensive ($70 per transaction at peak rates in 2021). A new approach will slash congestion. And moving from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake authentication will drastically reduce Ethereum’s electricity usage.

If the Ethereum upgrade goes to plan, the price of ETH is likely to benefit. Analysts from Coinpedia suggest that a successful upgrade could see the ETH price at over $12,000 by the end of 2022.

Stake your Ethereum for Rewards

If you own ETH, you can stake it online for rewards. This means entrusting it with a third-party for a period of 30,60 or 90 days and earning interest (usually paid in ETH) on it — just as you would entrust fiat currency to a conventional bank to earn interest.

Crypto.com

With US exchange Crypto.com, you can earn 3% APY (Annual Percentage Yield) on Ethereum. You will need to buy some in-house crypto CRO to be eligible. With more than $4,000 CRO, you can earn a rate of 4.0%. And, with $40,000 or more CRO, you get a rate of 6% on your ETH stake.

Binance

With giant exchange Binance, you can stake ETH in a flexible savings account and earn 2.4%; withdraw your ETH whenever you want. Or you can lock in your ETH for the duration of the ongoing Ethereum upgrade and earn up to 5.2% APY as well as regular rewards.

Buy NFTs

Heard of NFTs? How can you not have done? The market for Non-Fungible Tokens spiked from just $10m at the end of 2020 to a staggering value of $25bn at the end of 2021. There were fears that NFTs were just a bubble that would burst. But prices have cooled off over the last six months, suggesting the market in unique digital assets is here to stay.

Most (but not all) NFTs are minted using the Ethereum blockchain. And, to buy 90% of NFTs, you will need ETH.

Pay for Crypto Wallet Transaction Fees

If you want to send crypto around the internet, you will need to set up a crypto wallet. You can choose which blockchain to use when sending your funds. If you want to use the Ethereum blockchain, you will need ETH to pay for ‘gas’ fees — i.e. transaction fees.

Ways of Buying Ethereum

How to buy Ethereum in Canada? There are various options.

Buy Ethereum with CAD in your Exchange Account

The simplest way to buy ETH is to open an account with an online crypto platform, deposit cash, and use that cash to buy ETH on the platform. This, for example, is the no-fuss service that Canadian specialists BitBuy offers.

Buy Ethereum with Other Crypto

With some exchanges, you can use a crypto wallet to deposit other crypto that you own and use that crypto to buy ETH. You can do this, for example, with Binance. And, if you own some BNB (which is Binance’s in-house crypto), you get a 25% reduction off trading fees on the main exchange.

Buy Ethereum with PayPal

In 2021, PayPal introduced its own crypto buying service, available in certain countries. As a result, finding an online platform that accepts PayPal is becoming harder, and PayPal’s use is limited:

• Binance allows you to use PayPal to pay other users for crypto, if you are using the Peer-2-Peer trading facility.
• With Crypto.com, US investors can top up their Crypto.com Visa card with PayPal.

Buy Ethereum with Credit Card or Debit Card

If you want to use a credit/debit card to buy ETH, we suggest you head to Crypto.com. There you can use a card to buy ETH direct. With fears over fraud and regulation, many exchanges (like the second-biggest exchange in the world, Coinbase) are withdrawing some credit card services.

Buy Ethereum OTC/with a Concierge Service

If you have a large amount of money to spend, some online platforms like BitBuy offer an Over-the-Counter trading service. This means your trade will be handled personally with preferential rates. This service is not for beginners!

What is the Best Way to Buy Ethereum?

The question of how to buy ETH in Canada boils down to 3 choices of vendor:

A centralised exchange like BitBuy, Crypto.com and Binance

When it comes to how to buy Ethereum in Canada, a centralised exchange offers a good balance of convenience, safety and cost.

You do not have to set up a crypto wallet to buy from a centralised exchange. Nor do you have to manage storage of the ETH that you do buy — the exchange will store it for you.

With Bitbuy’s Express Service, you can buy ETH with a few clicks at just 0.2% commission. That is almost as good as Binance’s market-leading 0.1% commission rate.

Leading US exchange Crypto.com offers convenience for Canadian investors as you can deposit CAD direct by bank transfer and buy ETH direct. Crypto.com highlights another key advantage of using a centralised exchange. With Crypto.com (and Binance), you can access a variety of crypto financing options to either borrow crypto or stake what crypto you have to earn rewards.

A Decentralised Exchange (DEX)

With a decentralised exchange, you do not need to commit any funds to a central operator. Instead, you use the DEX platform trade directly with another individual/business. Some investors prefer this, as costs tend to be lower and the range of crypto wider.

However, with a DEX, you do not have any come-back if the trade goes wrong. What’s more, you have to be able to set up a crypto wallet to connect with the DEX in the first place — which can get technical.

We recommend that crypto newbies head to a centralised exchange first before exploring DEXes. Outright beginners should check out BuyBit’s Express Service, which is fully regulated by the Ontario Securities Commission. More advanced beginners might want to review the wider range of crypto and financing options available with Crypto.com and Binance.

A Crypto Wallet

Some crypto wallets allow you to buy and sell Ethereum directly from within the wallet. Often, the range of crypto to trade is not great, and commissions are high. But some investors favour the convenience offered.

Ethereum Price

When to buy Ethereum? Well, looking at the price chart below, anytime before 2021 would have been ideal! On December 12th, 2020, the price of Ethereum was $721. Today it stands at $3,044. In under 18 months, you could have made 320% on your initial investment.

Historical Price Performance

• ETH experienced its first explosion of interest in 2018. On 5th January 2018, the ETH price was $997. Just two years before, on 1st January 2016, the ETH price had been under a single dollar, at $0.948. That’s a difference in price of one thousand times.
• The ETH price then fell to hover below $300 for much of 2019.
• In 2020, the price began to rise to reach $751 by the 30th December 2020.
• Thanks to the explosive NFT sector, 2021 was the year that ETH really took off. The price brushed $4,000 in May 2021, and hit an all-time high (ATH) of $4,891 on November 16th, 2021.
• After that ATH, the price of ETH fell sharply to register a 2022 low of $2212 on January 24th, 2022. This price decline was part of the ‘crypto winter’ that took hold over fears of inflation and then the Ukraine crisis.
• Since late January, the price rose to reach $3521 on April 5th 2022.

Ever since the beginning of 2021, the direction of travel for the ETH price has been up. You can see this clearly from the yellow diagonal line marked on the price chart below:

Volatility

Volatility describes how quickly the price of an asset rises and falls. Cryptos are very volatile, and Ethereum is one of the most volatile.

The top 100 ETH wallet addresses hold 39% of all ETH, compared to just 14% for Bitcoin — according to Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. That means that single decisions involving large amounts of ETH can rock the price over the short-term.

Advanced traders may trade ETH over the short-term. But beginners should stick with ‘HODLing’ ETH over the long-term. Ethereum, in other words, is ideally a long-term investment; ride out the volatility!

(Such is the ongoing sophistication of the crypto sector, you can actually buy a Ethereum Volatility Index Token (ETHV) that prices in Ethereum’s expected volatility over the next 30 days.)

Sentiment

Negative sentiment in Ethereum has centred around congestion on the network and the rise of competitor blockchains like Solana and Cardano. But positive sentiment is buoyed by the ongoing Ethereum 2.0 upgrade. Expect any positive news on the upgrade to spike the ETH price.

NFTs

To mint or buy an NFT, you generally need some ETH. ETH’s monstrous acceleration in price over 2021 — from $774 on January 2nd 2021 to $3769 on Janaury 2nd 2022 —was largely down to positive sentiment about NFTs.

Trading volume

Roughly $9bn of ETH is traded every day. High trading volumes generally forecast rapid changes of price — whether up or down. On May 19th, 2021, for example, ETH trading volume doubled on the previous day down to news that China had banned crypto services. The price of ETH plummeted.

Market Cap & Circulating Supply

Unusually for a crypto, there is no cap on the circulating supply of ETH. Currently there are over 120m ETH in circulation. Ongoing improvements to the blockchain have, though, been adding deflationary measures.

Ethereum Price Predictions

To recap, the price of Ethereum currently stands at $3,119.

2022

If the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade goes well, the price of ETH is likely to be buoyed over 2022. Bloomberg intelligence analyst Mike McGlone, for example, has the price of ETH ending the year between $4,000-$4,500.

2025

In 3 years time, the outlook is uncertain. The entire crypto sector could be crippled by over-zealous regulation by sovereign financial authorities, with prices plummeting. Or, for example, China (as well as the US and UK) could have reversed its negative attitude towards crypto in general and prices could have rocketed. By 2025, the price of ETH could stand therefore at around the $10,000 mark.

2030

A 2030 Ethereum price prediction is bound to be unreliable. But, given the centrality of Ethereum to the entire crypto ecosystem and particularly the key DeFi sector, we might see ETH hit $15,000 to $20,000 by 2030.

How to Buy Ethereum in Canada Safely

When it comes to crypto, the rule is: safety first! That means where to buy Ethereum in Canada is the key question:

• Do not use a Decentralised Exchange (DEX) unless you have some experience; you could end up firing funds onto the internet and never seeing them again if you make a mistake with your crypto wallet.
• Do not buy any crypto from an individual online (outside of a DEX set-up like Binance’s P2P trading facility). There is no need to risk trading with an individual when the best way to buy Ethereum in Canada is to use a reputable crypto exchange.
• Use a platform that is either regulated in Canada or has a large international following. No-fuss platform Bitbuy, for example, is regulated by the Ontario Securities Commission. Exchanges Crypto.com and Binance lack such robust regulation. But they make up for it in terms of good reputation, which has earned them both a huge following. Crypto.com boasts 10m users, and Binance has 80m users.

How to Buy Ethereum in Canada

Whichever online platform you use, the process for buying ETH is generally similar. Just four steps:

1. Open an account
2. Verify your ID 
3. Deposit Funds
4. Buy ETH

Step 1: Open an Account

Head to the BitBuy website. Click on the ‘Get Started’ button. Select the ‘Personal Account’ button. Enter your email address and mobile number. Create a username and password.

Step 2: Verify your ID

As a regulated broker, Bitbuy must verify your ID.

To make verification as quick as possible, BitBuy runs a tiered system that only escalates if there is an issue with your ID:

1. Automatic verification
   Using just the details you have entered, your identity will be checked by a third-party verification process. If all goes well, you will be verified straight away.
2. Express Verification
   If the automatic verification process throws up any issues, you will need to scan your driver’s license/ID card as well as upload a selfie for approval.
3. Manual Verification
   If Express Verification does not complete successfully, you may be asked to take further steps.

Step 3: Deposit Funds

Deposit with Interac e-Transfer (minimum: $50 CAD) or wire transfer (minimum: $20,000 CAD).

Step 4: Buy ETH

1. Find the Express Trade page on Buybit under the ‘Products’ menu option at the top of the interface.
2. Select Ethereum.
3. Enter the amount of CAD you want to spend.
4. Press the ‘Buy Ethereum’ button.

(The image below shows Bitcoin, but the process is the same with Ethereum):

Congratulations! You have figured out how to buy Ethereum in Canada.

Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. 

How to Sell Ethereum in Canada

How to buy Ethereum in Canada turns out to be an easy enough question to answer. And it is the same with how to sell Ethereum. Just sell via the online platform you used to purchase!

All three platforms we have reviewed — Bitbuy, Crypto.com and Binance — will buy your ETH from you whenever you want to sell.

Ever wondered what the best crypto casinos are in Canada? Read our guide to find out how you can use your ETH to participate in online casino games today.

Conclusion

The BitBuy crypto platform is the obvious answer to the question of how to buy Ethereum in Canada. Why? Three reasons.

Firstly, Bitbuy is a Canada-only operation based in Toronto — so you have no worries about things not working because you are from the wrong country. Thus you can deposit CAD easily using bank transfer or Interac e-Transfer.

Secondly, Bitbuy only charges 0.2% when you buy Ethereum Canada.

Thirdly, BitBuy is regulated by the Ontario Securities Commission. You can be sure with BitBuy everything is done by the book.

Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. 

FAQs when Buying ETH in Canada