So, how do you get into the world of Altcoins?
Before we start here, make sure you have some ETH or LTC - I'll highlight what to do from Coinbase/GDAX. Information on how to get ETH/LTC on Coinbase can be found in my last post - Here
At this point, you should have some ETH or LTC in Coinbase or GDAX. If you're not in GDAX, your Coinbase login should work to get in, as it's owned by Coinbase as well. Moving your funds to GDAX is instant and free, and they don't charge any fees to withdraw to an external wallet, which we will be doing shortly (Coinbase does charge for this).
To move your funds into GDAX, go into GDAX and select either the ETH/USD or LTC/USD product from the upper left drop down, depicted in the hastily thrown together screenshot below.
Once selected, select Deposit and then choose the Coinbase account tab. Your Coinbase balance should appear here - just go ahead and deposit whatever you plan to move into altcoins. If you choose to go with LTC, you'll have to exchange the LTC for BTC in the next step, while some exchanges offer direct Altcoin/ETH purchases.
It's worth noting that it's usually ever so slightly cheaper to be using BTC. If you want to skip a step, just go with ETH. If you're dying to get this done ASAP, maybe go with LTC, since at the time of writing this, CryptoKitties are currently congesting the ETH blockchain.
Buying Altcoins on an Exchange
My preferred exchange at the moment is Binance. They offer .1% fees on all transactions (compared to higher .25%+ on other reputable exchanges), in addition to .05% fees if you buy/use their BNB token. Personally, I bought the smallest amount of BNB possible, but that is entirely optional.
Additionally, Binance is the only exchange you can use in the US that is selling IOTA at the moment (besides Bitfinex). I don't believe anyone should be using Bitfinex at the moment, since they were "hacked" and lost $72 million
Full disclosure - by signing up via the Binance links in this article, Binance gives me half of any fees you incur. This is way better than all of it just going to them!
Now that you've signed up and signed into Binance, click the top right "Funds" -> "Deposits Withdrawals". From here, search for ETH or LTC, and click "Deposit". The address that appears is the address you'll be sending the crypto from GDAX to.
NOTE: I've highlighted the copy and QR code buttons. PLEASE use either of these and don't try to manually transcribe that address into GDAX.
Once you've sent what you intend to spend on altcoins, you can track your transaction on Etherscan or Litecoin Explorer by entering your deposit address into the search on those pages. Don't worry, you can SAFELY enter your deposit address from Binance here. The worst thing that could happen if someone has this info is send you coins ;).
Ok, we're ready to buy Altcoins!
In the top left of Binance, click "Exchanges" -> "Basic".
Let's continue the example in ETH. On the right side of this busy screen, there's an unmarked box that says *Favorites at the top left. Click the ETH button (shows coins you can buy with ETH), and then in this example we'll select IOTA.
In the bottom/center left, there's now a box called "Buy IOTA". Make sure you're on the "Limit" tab here. Punch in the price (in ETH) you want to pay per IOTA (make sure this is no higher than the "Last Price" at the top left of the page, which may have changed since you started doing this). If it's significantly lower than that, the transaction may not process). Afterwards, enter the amount of IOTA you'd like to buy. This will automatically calculate how much ETH you're spending for the IOTA, and then you can click the green "Buy IOTA" button.
For more advanced users, there's the Stop-Limit tab, which will let you automatically buy/sell the coin if/when it hits a certain price threshold you place.
If successful, you should see a confirmation message. To confirm that you have purchased the IOTA, go back to your Funds -> Deposits Withdrawals page, tick the "Hide 0 Balances" box, and you should see a balance of IOTA there in your exchange wallet!
If you've read my previous posts, you'll know that I support not holding your crypto in exchanges if you can avoid it. For certain alts, like IOTA, the wallet offerings are few and far between. At the moment, I would just leave the IOTA in Binance. I will update this post after IOTA comes out with a better wallet solution.
My next post will probably be a (heavily opinionated) bit on the different Altcoins out there that are appealing to me.
Good luck trading - remember to only spend what you're willing to lose entirely!
If you like this content, feel free to buy me a beer or something!
ETH: 0x22672e914f5e5db24578318d8617306958d9e3dd
BTC: 16cBApd4rh9tgACPD8hFjNHLV1KJzxesFK
LTC: LVySAYrpQuEEQW8jctDXhZ2wzxDmkadcaB