How to Buy IOTA in the UK - Beginner's Guide (2024)

How to Buy IOTA in the UK - Tutorial

Our guide focuses on eToro as it is our overall best place to buy IOTA in the UK. However, these steps can be applied to other crypto exchanges in this guide.

1. Open an account

Click on the Start Investing button on the homepage to get started. Fill in your details on the sign-up form and create an account. You can also download the mobile app from the Play Store/App Store and do the same.

2. Verify your account

You’ll receive an email verification link when you create an account. Click on it to start the process. Complete your profile by submitting details like your date of birth and a passport photo, after which you submit KYC documents. These documents include proof of ID (National ID or driver’s licence) and proof of residence (utility bill).

3. Make a deposit

Once your account has been verified, click on Deposit Funds on the left pane of your dashboard. The deposit options available will be displayed. Choose one and set the amount you’d like to deposit. You can deposit GBP directly using cards, bank transfer, Neteller, Skrill, Rapid Transfer, or Trustly.

4. Buy IOTA in the UK

Search for IOTA in the Discover tab. An interface like the one below should load. You can buy immediately at market price or set a price you’d like to buy at.

Is IOTA a Good Investment?

We cannot outright say whether or not IOTA is a good investment. However, we can give pointers to help you arrive at that decision yourself.

Decentralisation

Firstly, IOTA is decentralised. It does not depend on governments to legitimise it or companies to run and maintain its blockchain infrastructure. Transactions are free from many of the controls and drawbacks of traditional finance networks like high fees for international transfers.

As the digital age progresses, more components of our lives will be moved to the digital space. Crypto technology mathematically safeguards digital assets and places ownership with users, making it crucial for a free digital future.

Liquidity

Cryptos are generally very liquid and portable assets. They can be bought on one crypto exchange, moved to another exchange in a different country and sold in a matter of minutes, creating a way to move wealth easily.

High Return Potential

IOTA has a track record of delivering high returns on investment either due to its volatility or more fundamental reasons like growing adoption and institutional interest. Combine this with the fact that blockchain technology is still in its early stages, the growth (and profit) potential is significant.

Store of Value

Crypto can be used as a long-term store of value, especially those with a finite maximum supply, like IOTA. Because supply is capped, the value of coins could grow over time as demand increases. This makes digital currency a possible long-term alternative to gold.

Portfolio Diversification Option

IOTA is a digital asset that can be used as an asset class when building a diversified portfolio. Its equity potential (the possibility to increase in value) makes it worthy of consideration for modern portfolios.

Risks of Buying IOTA

There are downsides to buying IOTA. The first is its volatility. Crypto is known to swing wildly, losing significant portions of its value within a few weeks and often leaving investors reeling from losses.

There is also a risk of rug-pulls, blockchain attacks, and wallet hacks. These are technological risks that involve an attacker hacking a crypto’s blockchain network or your wallet and usually ends with funds getting stolen.

Finally, crypto at large is still the target of legal crackdowns and harsh regulatory policies that could stunt its growth and adoption rate.

What Payment Methods Can I Use to Buy IOTA in the UK?

Ideal payment methods should support GBP natively and while not all platforms allow deposits in GBP, these are the methods you can easily use to buy IOTA in the UK.

Credit/Debit Cards

Credit or debit cards are probably the most accepted payment method across platforms but also the most expensive. eToro doesn’t charge fees but those of OKX and Coinbase are 1.99% and 2.49% respectively. On other platforms, fees generally range between 1% – 3%.

Bank Transfers

Local transfers through a UK bank account are available on many platforms. It is free on eToro, and can vary on Coinbase depending on the bank. A conversion fee may be charged for deposits in other currencies than the account-denominated currency.

PayPal

PayPal is one of the most popular payment services and electronic wallets in use today. However, it is not as widely supported as the first two payment methods. For example, eToro and Coinbase do not support PayPal as a direct funding method in this region.

Cash via ATM

You can also buy MIOTA in person at a crypto ATM. You can use cash or a card to make a purchase and the coins you buy will be transferred to your wallet. However, this is a much slower process than using an online platform, and the fees can be exorbitant.

You’ll need to find a crypto ATM in your region. There are 21 in the UK, including 15 in London, 4 in Birmingham, and 2 in Manchester.

Ways to Invest in IOTA in the UK

There are several ways to gain exposure to IOTA and profit from its price movements in the UK. This section dives into them and how they relate to IOTA.

Buy and Hold IOTA

The buy-and-hold strategy involves buying IOTA and holding it for a long time, usually as long as you can. This strategy is popular in the industry as it has proven to be effective over long periods, usually years.

This strategy can be varied using a buying technique called dollar cost averaging (DCA) where you buy a set dollar amount of IOTA at fixed intervals regardless of price.

Trade IOTA

This strategy profits from IOTA’s volatility. Trading MIOTA involves relatively short-term buying and selling, usually from as little as a day to as long as a year. Positions held for longer are often classified as investments.

Trading creates an opportunity to explore other financial derivatives like futures, options, and CFDs that give traders exposure to MIOTA’s price movement without the need to buy the coin. It also allows for leverage facilities that can magnify traders’ wins (or losses).

Choosing a IOTA Wallet in the UK

Wallets are important because they store your valuable cryptos, so choosing the right one is crucial. Wallets are generally split into hardware and software wallets. Hardware wallets store cryptos offline on a device while software wallets store cryptos online and are always connected to the internet.

Software Wallets

• Web wallet: These wallets come as either browser extensions or web apps that store your private keys in your browser. Web app variants are accessible through any browser, but the extension variant must be installed on a new browser and a seed phrase must be used to recover your wallet. eToro, OKX, and Coinbase provide free web wallets that store IOTA.

• Mobile wallet: This wallet is a mobile app downloadable from the Play/App stores or the internet. Binance’s mobile wallet is called Trust Wallet and it supports IOTA.

• Desktop wallet: This is an application that runs on your computer and stores your private keys on your hard drive. There are several desktop wallets available depending on the level of control you want and your familiarity with blockchain technology. However, a good option for beginners is the Electrum wallet available for Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs.

Physical and Hardware Wallets

• Hardware wallet: A hardware wallet is a physical device that stores private keys offline. They are much harder to hack and are currently the safest storage option. Hardware wallets that support IOTA include Trezor and Ledger.

• Paper wallet: A paper wallet is a piece of paper with public and private keys printed on it. While they are a good way to keep your private key offline, they are not recommended as you may lose the paper or the ink could wear off with age. Paper wallets have gone out of fashion since the advent of hardware wallets.

Wallet Combinations

You can combine two or more wallets for added security or a better user experience. For example, you can use a hardware wallet like Ledger with a web wallet extension to buy coins on a decentralised exchange and immediately send them to your hardware wallet.

Should I Buy IOTA Now? - Things to Consider Before Buying IOTA In the UK

Whether or not you should buy IOTA now depends on the state of the economy, your investment goals, your risk tolerance, and the cost of investments. Consider these factors when making a decision.

IOTA Fees

The total cost of buying IOTA is made up of network fees, exchange fees, and deposit fees across exchanges.

The network fee is the charge the blockchain takes for processing transactions. This fee usually goes to computers that help secure and run the network. It could rise and fall based on the volume of transactions for certain blockchains. However, newer networks are built to accommodate high volumes without significant changes to transaction fees.

Exchange fees are charged for conversion, trading, or other related services. Some platforms are cheaper than others in certain regards. For example, conversions on Binance are cheaper than eToro at 0.1% per trade compared to 1% charged by the latter.

However, eToro trumps Binance when it comes to deposits as it supports free deposits while Binance charges $1 for bank transfers and 1.8% for credit card payments.

Aggregate the costs of using various components of an exchange to obtain a holistic view of the cost of using that exchange, then compare it with others to find a cheap option.

IOTA Price

IOTA’s price is known to change rapidly and swing wide i.e. change quickly and by a considerable amount. For traders, this is good news as it presents opportunities to profit from this volatility.

Long-term investors, on the other hand, may not be too bothered by short-term fluctuations as price historicals show an overall uptrend with pocket downtrend periods. In the long-term investment case, a simple buy and hold strategy, or one combined with a DCA, may prove effective.

Buying IOTA in the UK Safely

Security is of the utmost concern when dealing with cryptocurrencies and the exchanges that sell them. The first thing you should observe is the exchange’s regulatory status. The ideal situation is when the exchange is registered in its country of operation.

However, this is not always the case. Crypto exchanges sometimes offer services to users in certain geographical regions using entities registered in a nearby jurisdiction or in a jurisdiction where regulations allow them to onboard users from other countries.

In this case, ensure the regulatory agency is transparent and enforces industry-standard security and legal practices.

Buying IOTA in the UK Anonymously

Buying IOTA anonymously is not as easy as some may assume due to widespread regulation on all major exchanges and platforms. The key to remaining anonymous is to refrain from providing personally identifiable data. Platforms allow this to varying degrees.

Crypto ATMs are a way to buy crypto anonymously. They only require the money with which you buy crypto and the wallet address you want to send it to. Currently, most ATMs are limited to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, but more are popping up with support for more coins.

Another method is using prepaid cards to purchase cryptos on peer-to-peer markets. You send the code to the counterparty and they send your crypto. Visa offers prepaid cards but you’ll need to ensure you won’t have to give up personal details to obtain it.

Is Buying IOTA Legal in the UK?

Yes, it is legal to buy, sell, and exchange IOTA and other cryptocurrencies in the UK. The FCA has banned crypto derivatives, like futures, options, and CFDs, for UK retail traders, but anyone is allowed to trade actual cryptocurrencies.

You should bear in mind that all cryptocurrencies are unregulated in the UK. This means that if you lose money due to a scam or poor investment advice, you are unlikely to be able to get assistance from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme or the Financial Ombudsman Service.

What Banks Let You Buy IOTA in the UK?

Here is some information about where some of the UK’s most popular banks stand on crypto.

NatWest

NatWest has said that its customers can use debit cards and Faster Payments to purchase crypto. However, the bank restricts payments to crypto platforms that it perceives as posing the highest risk of financial harm. NatWest customers that want to buy IOTA should try using a large and well-regulated platform. For example, NatWest allows payments to eToro.

Santander

Santander isn’t an especially crypto-friendly bank. For example, it started blocking payments to Binance following the FCA’s consumer warning about the exchange, and it has placed limits on how much money you can send to other crypto platforms. However, you can still withdraw money from Binance to your Santander account, and if you want to deposit less than £1,000, you can do this through Santander on many other crypto platforms, like Coinbase.

Revolut

Revolut is a fintech company that provides banking services through an app. As you might expect for a modern digital bank, Revolut is very crypto-friendly. It doesn’t block payments to crypto platforms, and you can even buy and sell crypto through the Revolut app itself.

Is IOTA Taxable in the UK?

The HMRC taxes IOTA profits in the UK, but the type of crypto activities you engage in will determine whether you owe any tax and what kind. For example, if you simply buy IOTA and hold onto it, you won’t owe any tax.

Once you sell your IOTA, you could owe Capital Gains Tax on the profits. However, there is an annual tax-free threshold for capital gains in the UK, and you won’t need to pay any CGT if your gains for the year are below that threshold. If you use your MIOTA for activities such as lending and DeFi, the nature of the return will determine whether it is subject to CGT or Income Tax.

You should accurately report your crypto profits and losses on your tax return, even if you make less than the tax-free threshold, if you want to avoid a penalty. For more advice on calculating your taxes, check out our Crypto Tax UK Guide.

Final Thoughts

As a popular cryptocurrency, IOTA can be purchased from pretty much any crypto platform. While this array of choices may seem overwhelming, this guide should show you the top options and whether they’re right for you.

After careful consideration, we believe eToro is the best place to buy IOTA in the UK, as it is FCA-regulated, secure, easy to use, and provides access to unique features, like copy trading. To see how easy it is to buy IOTA on eToro, just follow the step-by-step tutorial further up this page.

More Cryptocurrency Guides in the United Kingdom

Check out more of our popular crypto guides for the United Kingdom below.

• How to Buy Neo in the United Kingdom
• How to Buy Cardano in the United Kingdom
• How to Buy Theta in the United Kingdom
• How to Buy Celo in the United Kingdom

Methodology - How We Picked the Best Platforms to Buy IOTA In the UK

We decided on the best platforms by first testing them individually. Our criteria for assessment include fees, deposit and withdrawal methods, reputation, credibility, security, ease of use, trading features, coin selection, and competitive edge.

The platforms listed on this page are ones that we found to be the best at the features we listed them under e.g. cheapest way to buy IOTA. All platforms have a track record of providing value to users.

We also placed an onus on security and credibility. These platforms have millions of users and employ some of the highest security measures in the industry.

Finally, we considered fees and limits. These platforms have various fees and deposit/withdrawal limits, but they are all within reasonable limits.

To learn more about how we test and choose platforms, visit our why trust us and how we test pages.