How to Trade Bitcoin on eToro
Jan 22nd, 2018 (Updated Jan 24th, 2018)Trading
eToro has become the go-to platform for buying cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in early 2018, as it allows you to invest in Bitcoin without a lot of the technical knowledge you might need when using an exchange.
This guide will go through how to start trading Bitcoin/cryptocurrency on eToro.
We posted a separate guide on some risks when using eToro, if you're very new to crypto - we recommend looking at this too. This also explains several pros/cons of eToro vs using an exchange.
How to signup on eToro?
Getting started on eToro is fairly quick. Firstly you need to create an account - if you want to support us, click here to use our affiliate link for this. A few things to note when signing up:
If you plan to share your trades publically, be aware that your username will be displayed - so be careful about privacy, it looks like you can't change your username after signing up. Using the same username as sites like Twitter will allow people to find you on eToro very easily.
eToro is regulated in Europe and the USA, so avoid using fake personal information. Regulated websites like this may be audited - and accounts shut down if fake names/addresses/phone numbers are provided.
For UK users, although eToro is regulated in the UK by the FCA under 'eToro (UK) Limited', you need to deposit $5,000 before you can be a client for this (and you may need to opt into this by contacting them). So if you deposit smaller amounts than this you may only be covered by 'eToro (Europe) Ltd', which is regulated by CySEC in Europe.
How to Deposit/Withdraw Money on eToro?
It's very easy to deposit money on eToro compared to most cryptocurrency exchanges. Once you've signed up and logged in, click 'Deposit Funds' in the bottom left to start. Then select an amount, currency and payment method - and click 'Submit'. You may have a very low deposit limit until your account is verified.
Before you deposit any money though, keep in mind a few things about withdrawing your money later on:
Recently many people have reported slow withdrawals from eToro, taking as long as 2 weeks. Looking at several Reddit posts on the topic, this seems to happen when users deposit money before they're fully verified - so avoid depositing money until your account is verified. Under normal conditions, withdrawals should take up to 5 working days. See this post for a recent update.
The minimum withdrawal amount is $50, and all withdrawals have a fixed fee of $25 - so withdrawing $50 would have a 50% fee vs a 5% fee for $500, etc. Avoid withdrawing small amounts.
When you do want to withdraw money, click on 'Withdraw Funds' on the left menu, then enter the amount you want to withdraw - and click 'Submit'. You'll be charged $25 from this amount when clicking 'Submit'.
Stop Losses on eToro
When buying cryptocurrencies on eToro, their interface has an option for 'STOP LOSS' which has caused a lot of confusion recently. We posted a video about this here. In general; they used to allow stop losses on crypto, but sometimes when crypto prices dropped very fast they weren't always triggered, and so eToro disabled them mid-December 2017. You can still set a 'TAKE PROFIT' though, which will close a trade when you reach a certain amount of profit.
How to Buy Bitcoin/Crypto on eToro?
This part can be confusing for new traders. So when you buy/sell cryptocurrencies on an exchange, you have a balance for each coin. If you deposit $100 and buy some Bitcoin, you might have a balance of $20 and 0.01 Bitcoin (BTC). If you buy more Bitcoin it just adds it to your BTC balance, if you sell any it removes it from that balance.
eToro is different to this. When you buy Bitcoin for example, you're not buying it - you're opening a buy 'trade'. Each time you buy x amount of Bitcoin, a trade is created for that specific amount. If you were to buy more, it would create a separate trade. It doesn't add this amount of Bitcoin to your balance - it just lists all of the buy trades you have. To open a buy trade, search for 'BTC' in the search bar at the top, then click on 'TRADE' next to 'BTC' to load the trade menu, and then select the amount you want to buy - and click 'Open Trade'. This would immediately open a buy trade for Bitcoin (BTC). Keep in mind the minimum trade size on eToro is $200, so it's best not to use eToro unless you have around $1000 or more to work with (or you might be stuck with all of your money on a single trade).
If you've ever used margin trading - the eToro interface is similar to margin trading on many exchanges, but with 1x margin currently. To view all of your Bitcoin trades, click on the 'Portfolio' button on the left menu, then click on 'BTC'. This will load all of your open trades.
How to Sell Bitcoin/Crypto on eToro?
You need to be very careful selling on eToro. Clicking 'SELL' in the trade menu, or the 'S' at the bottom of many pages doesn't do what many beginners think. It does not sell the Bitcoin you currently own. If you have a buy trade for Bitcoin on eToro, to sell it you need to 'close' that trade. To do this, click on 'Portfolio' on the left menu, then click on 'BTC', and then click the 'X' on the far right of the trade you want to close. This is equivalent to selling on an exchange.
Do not click the 'S' or 'SELL' - this would create a new 'SELL' trade. A sell trade would give you profit if Bitcoin's price went down (this is sometimes called 'shorting' Bitcoin). If you accidentally open a 'SELL' trade, it would appear as 'SELL BTC' on your list of trades. Any 'BUY' trades would be displayed as 'BUY BTC'. Write that on a piece of paper if this is confusing - 'B/BUY' means to open a buy trade, 'S/SELL' means to open a sell trade, and 'Close Trade' means to close a particular trade.
Some of eToro's Unique Trading Features
If you're new to trading, eToro's CopyTrader feature can be useful - where you can copy the activity of a successful trader. See this guide for more information. Click 'Copy People' on the left menu to use this feature.
If you're investing a large amount of money, CopyFunds can be useful - where if you have $5000+, you can put it in a fund that tracks many popular cryptocurrencies. This is rebalanced by eToro on the first trading day of each calendar month, so you don't need to manage it yourself. Search for 'CryptoFund' in the search bar at the top to find this.