How to Buy Bitcoin in Mexico - 2024 Beginner's Guide

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Mexico has been more and more involved with cryptocurrency over the last few years, and with Bitcoin still being the leading coin in the industry, a lot of people from this country have approached the original cryptocurrency.

If you are among the new arrivals to the industry and you wish to learn how to buy Bitcoin in Mexico, we can certainly help you out.

Where to buy Bitcoin in Mexico in 2024?

If you want to buy Bitcoin in Mexico, you can choose one of two options — you can either go to a broker service or go to a crypto exchange. Brokers are services meant primarily for trading, and usually, they are used for trading derivatives contracts. The advantage of trading crypto derivatives rather than crypto coins themselves lies in the fact that derivatives let you bet on the coin’s price movement.

In other words, if you buy coins, you need their price to go up so that they will be worth more than they were when you bought them. If their price starts to drop, you will experience losses. Derivatives don’t depend on price growth, as all you need to do is make an accurate prediction. In other words, you can earn money whether the price rises or drops, as you can make the right call before it happens.

Exchanges, on the other hand, are meant for investing. This is where you go to buy Ethereum coins, lock them up in your private wallet, and keep them there for years, if need be, while you wait for the price to reach its next highest point. Investing is, therefore, a long-term solution that can bring you high returns over multiple years, while trading is a short-term solution that brings you small amounts of money, but it does so more often. Of course, for both approaches, you need to have a good strategy and know what you are doing and why you are doing it. Never invest blindly, as that is a sure way to lose money.

Step by Step Guide — How to buy Bitcoin in Mexico

Buying Bitcoin in Mexico is simple, quick, and all you need to do is follow a few short steps to complete the process. So, if you want greater details regarding what to pay attention to and how these things work, here is a short 5-step guide on how to do it.

Step 1: Find an Appropriate Platform to Buy Bitcoin

The first step is to select the right platform, which will depend on whether you want to trade BTC or simply buy it and hold it. Whichever it is, any platform can do the trick, but what you want is to find one with the lowest fees, the most trading pairs, and the most convenient payment options. Also, make sure that it is regulated, so that your money and data are as secure as possible. This is also a good way to avoid scammers with fake platforms.

Step 2: Registration / Create a new Account

Once you find a good enough platform, you will have to create an account. Most of the time, you don’t have to create a brand new one from scratch. Instead, you can just log in with your email account, or even your social media. With crypto becoming more and more mainstream, this is now a possibility that spares you from having to register manually. However, even if you do log in with an existing account, you will still have to verify your identity.

This is called the KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure, and it will require you to provide your real name, a photo, as well as some official documents that will prove that you are who you claim to be.

Step 3: Deposit funds

Next, go to the deposit page and connect your preferred payment method to your account. Hopefully, you have chosen an exchange or broker that supports the payment method that you want to use. Simply deposit some money that you will use as your initial investment. On most platforms, there is a minimum deposit that you need to match, but other than that, you can deposit however much you want.

Step 4: Start Trading or Buying Bitcoin

After funding your account, you are ready to start buying or trading. Of course, you should first do your research in order to make proper price predictions and find when is the best time to buy Bitcoin or enter trades. Also, note that some exchanges, like Binance, do not only offer a way to buy coins, but also derivatives. This is not a typical product on exchanges, but some platforms do have them.

Similarly, brokers such as eToro, which usually only deal in derivatives, may offer you the ability to buy coins directly on their platforms, which can be useful if you want to engage in both crypto investing and derivatives trading.

Step 5: Optional Steps

There are also a couple of optional steps that you can consider when buying Bitcoin or trading Bitcoin derivatives. For example, if you are buying the coins, you should set up a private wallet in which you can safely store them. That way, they won’t be in danger of being stolen or unavailable if the exchange goes offline. Meanwhile, if you trade derivatives, consider using futures contracts to open a complementary position to your main investment.

What is the Best Payment Method for Buying Bitcoin in Mexico?

Since different exchanges offer different payment methods, we once again stress that you should check which methods are available before going through the trouble of creating and setting up your account. While each platform offers different methods, some methods are more popular than others, and some are even universally available. Here are some of the most common ones.

Buy Bitcoin with cash — Buying Bitcoin with cash is a popular way to obtain coins, but it can only be done through crypto ATMs. Mexico has around 12 Bitcoin ATMs located in six cities — Culiacan (2), Guadalajara (1), Mexico City (4), Monterrey (1), Santiago de Queretaro (1), and Tijuana (3).
Buy Bitcoin with credit card — You can buy Bitcoin with a credit card on most exchanges, but note that this is probably one of the most expensive methods due to the high fees imposed by credit card companies.
Buy Bitcoin with bank transfer — While bank transfers take a lot longer to deliver your money than credit cards, they are also a lot cheaper, and a good solution for those on a budget who are not in a hurry.
Buy Bitcoin with PayPal — PayPal introduced the ability to buy crypto on its platform for US citizens, and while this feature is still not available in Mexico — you can still buy BTC with PayPal via P2P platforms.
Buy Bitcoin with crypto — the last option is to buy BTC with other digital currencies, provided that you own some. In this case, you will have to find an exchange that has Bitcoin paired against the coins you own, or exchange your coin for some other crypto like USDT that might be paired with Bitcoin, as well.

Why buy Bitcoin?

Bitcoin has been the leading cryptocurrency ever since it was launched. In fact, it is the coin that started the crypto industry, and it remained the biggest crypto in the world. Over the years, it has seen massive bull runs, and it even made quite a few people rich. These days, they are calling themselves crypto millionaires, and while only a small percentage of people ended up being lucky enough to earn this kind of money — it is clearly a possibility.

Plus, many experts are predicting a very bright future for BTC, even expecting it to become the store of value of the future, and take on the role that physical gold has been maintaining for over 3,000 years now.

Is it Legal to Buy Bitcoin in Mexico?

Yes, it is perfectly legal for you to buy, hold, trade, and sell Bitcoin in Mexico. You will still have to pay taxes on your profits from trading it. Digital assets like BTC are subject to taxation, to find out more about tax, visit our Mexico cryptocurrency tax guide. Mexico has not introduced any kind of ban against cryptocurrencies. It has not regulated it yet, but it did not make it illegal, either, so there is really nothing stopping you from buying Bitcoin or buying Dogecoin in Mexico.

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Where Can I Use Bitcoin in Mexico?

While it is true that Mexico did not ban Bitcoin, it did warn the public that Bitcoin is not allowed to be used as legal tender. This means that you cannot use it to pay for goods and services with local businesses. You can still use it to pay foreign online merchants for goods and services if you can find them, which should not be too difficult, as there are more and more of them around the world now. Plus, you can buy it or sell it at the mentioned ATM locations, and you can always just use it for trades and investments, as a way of earning extra money.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it better to buy Bitcoin on regular exchanges or on P2P platforms?

Buying Bitcoin on regular exchanges is probably safer than using P2P platforms, although P2P platforms can be more practical. P2P platforms connect you to your buyer directly, and then you can make a deal. Regular exchanges act as third parties, but they are regulated, and they have certain protections that prevent you from being tricked. On P2P platforms, it is up to you to ensure that you don’t lose your money.

Can I buy Bitcoin in Mexico over the weekend?

Yes, Bitcoin is available 24/7, even during the holidays. You can buy it at any time, as long as there is someone willing to sell, and vice versa. Bitcoin is also borderless, so you can buy it or sell it to/from anyone in the world.

How long do I have to wait for my Bitcoin transaction to be processed?

Bitcoin requires 10 minutes to process one block, which contains a handful of transactions. This is why most transactions end up waiting a while to be processed. Traders who are in a hurry tend to offer higher fees to those who process these transactions in order to have their transactions processed as soon as possible. This is a more expensive solution, but it is the best way to ensure that your payment will go through quickly.

Can Bitcoin become the currency of the world?

Bitcoin has a scaling problem, which means that it cannot accommodate all transactions that are taking place as quickly as they are coming. There are solutions being developed, though, such as the Lightning Network. Bitcoin could also become a dominant store of value — a form of digital gold.

Is buying Bitcoin in Mexico safe?

Yes, Bitcoin transactions are perfectly safe thanks to the fact that the network is decentralised. Anyone who might want to mess with transactions would have to hack at least 51% of all the people that are participating in maintaining its network, and these people are all spread across the world, which makes the hacker’s job essentially impossible.