Buy Ethereum in New Zealand - Beginner's Guide to ETH-NZD (2024)

How to Buy Ethereum in New Zealand

The easiest way to buy Ethereum in New Zealand is to purchase it online from a crypto exchange. Exchanges make buying and selling Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies easy from your smartphone, tablet or computer.

Check out our recommended platforms below and follow the steps to buy Ethereum safely in New Zealand.

1. Choose a Platform

The platform you pick should work specifically in New Zealand. It should operate within the financial services laws and ideally be regulated by a native government agency or by one recognised by local authorities. Our top picks below all fulfil these criteria.

2. Create and Fund Your Account

Input your name, contact information, and other details in the sign-up form usually displayed after clicking a Sign Up button on the home page. To fund your account, you must pass KYC by submitting identity and address documents like an ID and a utility bill.

3. Buy Ethereum New Zealand

Navigate to your account’s explore or discover page and search for Ethereum. You may see tickers like ETH/NZD, or ETH-USDT, depending on the platform. Purchase Ethereum directly using a funding method of your choice or with your account balance.

How to Buy Ethereum in New Zealand - Tutorial

Our guide focuses on Binance to buy Ethereum in New Zealand. However, these steps can be applied to other crypto exchanges in this guide.

1. Open an Account

Click the “Register” button at the top of the Binance website, and you’ll be able to use Apple or Google to sign up. Alternatively, you can click “Sign up with phone or email”, and then provide your phone number or email address, country, and password. You will be sent a verification code by text message or email that you will need to enter.

2. Verify Your Account

From the dropdown menu under your user icon, select Identification, and click “Verify” in the Identity Verification section. Choose your country, enter some personal information, and select your ID type.

You will then need to upload an image of your ID and verify your identity through facial recognition by giving Binance access to your webcam when prompted.

3. Buy Ethereum New Zealand

From the Trade menu at the top, select “Simple (Card)” and then use the Buy tab to enter an amount between NZ$30 and NZ$20,000. Click “Continue” and then “Add new card”. You will need to enter your card details, and then you can complete the payment process.

Is Ethereum a Good Investment?

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

Decentralisation

Firstly, Ethereum is decentralised. It does not depend on governments to legitimise it or companies to run and maintain its blockchain infrastructure. Ethereum 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

Ethereum 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 that are scarce, like Ethereum. Because supply is capped, the value of finite coins is projected to grow over time, provided demand grows. This makes Ethereum a possible long-term alternative to gold.

Portfolio Diversification Option

Ethereum 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 Ethereum

There are downsides to buying Ethereum. 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 Ethereum in New Zealand?

The best payment methods are ones that you can safely and easily use to pay with the New Zealand dollar. Not all platforms support NZD deposits, but some of the best payment options in New Zealand are detailed below.

Credit/Debit cards

This payment method is the most widely accepted across crypto platforms. It is quick and convenient, with the main downside being that the fees may be higher than other options. The fees vary on Coinbase and are up to 2% on Binance. Coinmama adds a 5% momentum fee for card transactions.

Find out the best places to buy Ethereum with a debit card.

Bank Transfers

This payment method is also fairly widely accepted by crypto platforms, and is often the cheapest option. Unfortunately, none of the listed platforms currently accept bank transfers from New Zealand accounts.

Other Cryptocurrencies

If you already hold another cryptocurrency, this may be the least expensive way to buy Ethereum. On Binance, for example, you can deposit crypto for free and then spot trade it for ETH for a 0.1% fee, while simple crypto-to-crypto swaps are free.

Cash via ATM

You can use a Cryptocurrency ATM to buy Crypto with cash or a card. However, it is less convenient than an online platform and often much more expensive. Also, there is only one Ethereum ATM available in New Zealand, which is located in Auckland.

Ways to Invest in Ethereum in New Zealand

There are several ways to gain exposure to Ethereum and profit from its price movements in New Zealand. This section dives into them and how they relate to Ethereum.

Buy and Hold Ethereum

The buy-and-hold strategy involves buying Ethereum 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 Ethereum at fixed intervals regardless of price.

Trade Ethereum

This strategy profits from Ethereum’s volatility. Trading ETH 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 ETH’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 Ethereum Wallet in New Zealand

Wallets are important because they store your valuable cryptos, so choosing the right one is crucial. Crypto 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. However, the extension variant must be installed on a new browser and a seed phrase must be used to recover your wallet.

• 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 Ethereum.

• 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 Ethereum include Trezor and Ledger.

• Paper wallet: A paper wallet is a piece of paper with public and private keys printed on them. 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 Ethereum Now? - Things to Consider Before Buying Ethereum in New Zealand

Whether or not you should buy Ethereum 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.

Ethereum Fees

The total cost of buying Ethereum 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 Coinbase at 0.1% per trade compared to 0.6% charged by the latter.

There are other fees that may be worth comparing too, such as spreads, deposit fees, and withdrawal fees.

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.

Ethereum Price

Ethereum’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 Ethereum in New Zealand 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 Ethereum in New Zealand Anonymously

Buying Ethereum 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 do 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 one.

Is Buying Ethereum Legal in New Zealand?

Yes, buying Ethereum in New Zealand is legal. New Zealand was actually the first country to legalise crypto when its tax authority, the Inland Revenue Department (IRD), made it legal to pay wages in crypto back in 2019.

The Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Act 2008 and the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 mean the providers of cryptocurrency services in New Zealand may need to register, depending on their location and services offered.

What Banks Let You Buy Ethereum in New Zealand?

Although no New Zealand banks are outright fans of crypto, they tend to be open to crypto-related transactions to varying degrees. You can find the views of some of the most popular New Zealand banks below.

Kiwibank

Kiwibank doesn’t provide services to businesses or people handling crypto for third parties, and it aims to prevent any activities it suspects to be illegal. However, the bank has stated that, in general, it is happy for its customers to use their Kiwibank accounts to transact in Ethereum.

Bank of New Zealand

BNZ provides banking services to cryptocurrency users on a case-by-case basis. As a rule, it doesn’t provide services to those who deal in crypto as a primary business, but BNZ acknowledges that users of crypto don’t fall into this category.

Westpac New Zealand

Westpac NZ encourages its customers to do due diligence before buying crypto and make sure they understand the risks involved. The bank allows its customers to purchase Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies for personal use from legitimate exchanges.

Is Ethereum Taxable in New Zealand?

New Zealand’s Inland Revenue Department (IRD) views crypto as property for tax purposes. Although there aren’t any tax rules specific to crypto, it will generally be subject to tax when it is disposed of by selling it, gifting it, or trading it for goods or services.

Profit from trading or investing in Ethereum is likely to be considered taxable income by the IRD, meaning that you will need to pay income tax on it. If, however, you make a loss at disposal, you may be able to offset it against your income.

You will need to report your crypto transactions in the “Other Income” section of your IR 3 tax form. To do this accurately, you will need to keep detailed records of your transactions, including dates, whether you were buying or selling, the number of crypto coins or tokens, NZD value at the time of the transaction, wallet addresses, and bank and exchange records.

Final Thoughts

By now, you should be armed with all the information you need to decide whether and how to buy Ethereum in New Zealand. Although each platform has its own pros and cons, we believe that Binance is the best option overall.

This is because it provides different buying options to suit both beginners and advanced traders, has the lowest spot trading fees on the market, and provides a wide range of useful features, like an educational hub and savings accounts.

More Cryptocurrency Guides in New Zealand

Check out more of our popular crypto guides for New Zealand below.

• How to Buy Solana in New Zealand
• How to Buy Chainlink in New Zealand
• How to Buy Cosmos in New Zealand
• How to Buy The Graph in New Zealand

Methodology - How We Picked the Best Platforms to Buy Ethereum in New Zealand

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 Ethereum. 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. However, 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.