Sending crypto to friends and family, and using crypto to pay for goods and services, is easy once you get the hang of it.
Why would you want to send crypto instead of cash? Since crypto is digital, sending crypto can be as easy as sending an email. Crypto also doesn’t have any physical borders the way dollars, pesos, or euros do, so you can send crypto to friends, family, or merchants overseas as easily as sending it to someone sitting next to you. Lastly, you can send crypto without sharing your personal or banking info, making it more secure.
To send crypto, you’ll need the recipient’s wallet address. A wallet address is a long string of characters, similar to a bank account number, that identifies where the crypto should go.
Since crypto wallet addresses are long, they’re often shown as a QR code that you can scan in your crypto app.
Once you have the wallet address, you just need to open your crypto wallet, enter the wallet address, select how much crypto you want to send, and you’re done.
There’s usually a small fee to send crypto, called the “gas fee”, but this fee is often much lower than other methods like wire transfers or Western Union.
A few things to keep in mind when sending crypto:
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Each type of crypto has its own address, so make sure you’re sending Bitcoin to a Bitcoin address, and Ethereum to an Ethereum address.
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Once your transaction is verified and confirmed, the crypto will show up in the recipient’s account. This can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes.
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If you’re a Coinbase customer, you can also send crypto to any email address in 100+ countries instantly and for free. Just open your Coinbase app, select the crypto and an amount, enter the recipient’s email address, and hit send.
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Sending crypto is easy and affordable – whether your funds are traveling from across the room or around the world.
"From CryptoPunks to pet rocks, NFTs have been the biggest crypto story of 2021. Buying your first digital collectible isn’t hard — it just requires a little guidance.."
Here’s how buying an NFT works:
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You’ll need an Ethereum-compatible crypto wallet and some ETH to get started. Buy some ETH from an exchange like Coinbase and send it to your dapp wallet in the main Coinbase app, or Coinbase Wallet (which is separate from the main Coinbase app; you can download it via Apple’s App Store or Google Play).
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Follow the simple instructions to set up your wallet – which is a place you can keep some of your crypto, a place to send or receive it, and your portal to the growing universe of crypto apps. (You can also download this Chrome extension to connect Coinbase Wallet to a web browser if you’d rather browse NFTs on a computer).
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There are lots of NFT markets, from Rarible to OpenSea. For this tutorial, we’ll focus on Coinbase NFT, which is a Web3 social marketplace for NFTs and works a lot like a decentralized eBay. To connect your wallet to Coinbase NFT, go to nft.coinbase.com, then click on “Sign In” — you’ll be prompted (and given instructions) to connect your wallet.
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Get browsing! Prices range from essentially free to hundreds of thousands of dollars or more for a rare item. Some items are sold via auction, while others can be snagged immediately via a “Buy now” button.
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Even if the NFT is free or cheap, you’ll still have to pay fees to make the transaction happen. All of the digital collectibles on Coinbase NFT use the Ethereum blockchain, and the network charges a “gas” fee for transactions like NFT sales. Gas prices rise and fall depending on how busy the network is.
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Choose an NFT you like and make sure you have extra ETH to cover fees. Once you buy it, you can access the NFT via your crypto wallet until you decide to sell it.
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For an in-depth guide on how to buy an NFT on Coinbase NFT using Coinbase Wallet, check out this article.
