By: Ofir Beigel | Last update: 01/06/21
Litecoin has been considered the most popular younger brother of Bitcoin since it was founded in 2011. In this guide, I am going to review the different ways you can buy Litecoin online and offline, as well as the ways in which you can save it.
How to buy Litecoin Summary
- Get a Litecoin wallet (e.g. Exodus, Ledger, Edge)
- Find an exchange that sells Litecoin (e.g. Coinmama, CEX.io)
- Deposit money and start trading
- Drag the Litecoins into your wallet
If you want a more in-depth explanation of the different methods of buying Litecoin and wallets for storage, read on. I will cover the following:
- What is Litecoin in a nutshell?
- Buying Litecoin in 3 steps
- Additional methods of buying Litecoin
- frequently asked Questions
- Conclusion – what does the future of Litecoin look like?
1. What is Litecoin in a nutshell?
Litecoin is a Bitcoin spinoff that was founded in October 2011 by former Google employee Charles Lee. Litecoin has adopted the general idea behind Bitcoin, but changed some key components:
- The blocking time averages 2.5 minutes versus 10 minutes for Bitcoin.
- The mining algorithm was changed from SHA-256 to Scrypt. This makes building mining hardware for Litecoin more difficult and complicated.
- The total number of Litecoins available is 84 million compared to 21 million for Bitcoin.
To sum it up, if Bitcoin is digital gold, Litecoin is digital silver. It’s faster, but also cheaper and more common than Bitcoin.
2. Buying Litecoin in 3 steps
Step 1 – Get a Litecoin Wallet
Before buying litecoins, you will need a wallet to keep them in. There are many Litecoin wallets out there today, but in this post I will only review the best in my opinion.
Litecoin hardware wallets
The best option for storing a cryptocurrency is to use a hardware wallet. These are hardware parts in which the private key for your coins is stored offline.
Today there are two leading hardware manufacturers to choose from – Ledger and TREZOR. Both companies have different models of hardware wallets that can get the job done.
If you want deeper insights into specific models, you can read my Ledger Nano X review or my TREZOR Model T review.
Litecoin software wallets
Hardware wallets cost money. So, if you’re not sure how seriously you take cryptocurrencies and just want to get a taste of how they feel, you’d better start with a software wallet.
A software wallet is a free program that allows you to store your coins on your computer or mobile phone.
The simplest Litecoin software wallets are undoubtedly Exodus and Edge. Both wallets are very intuitive. Exodus only works on desktops, while Edge is for mobile devices. If you want more information, you can read my Exodus review.
For a full explanation of hardware wallets, software wallets, and more types of wallets, see our Bitcoin Whiteboard Tuesday Wallet episode.
Once you have your wallet, you need to find your Litecoin address. Your Litecoin address consists of a long sequence of letters and numbers that start with “L”, “3” or “M”. Here is an example:
LM2WMpR1Rp6j3Sa59cMXMs1SPzj9eXpGc1
Step 2 – Find an LTC exchange
As Litecoin grows in popularity, the number of cryptocurrency exchanges selling Litecoin is increasing.
In this post, I’m going to focus on the easiest exchanges to start with that also offer a wide variety of payment methods.
* eToro users: 75% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
Buying Litecoin through eToro
Advantages: Easy entry options, various payment methods
Disadvantage: Less suitable for accessing the actual coins
eToro is a popular and established cryptocurrency trading platform that allows you to easily invest in litecoins and other cryptocurrencies for fiat currencies (e.g. dollars, euros, etc.). In other words, eToro is aimed more at traders than users who actually want to own their coins.
While you can withdraw coins from eToro or send them to someone else, this is not the ideal platform to do so and is more suitable for price speculation.
This is thanks to the user-friendly platform, which offers excellent customer support and a wide variety of payment methods (bank transfer, credit card, PayPal, Neteller and more).
If you’re only using eToro for investment purposes, you don’t need a Litecoin wallet. EToro also lets you short a specific currency if you think the price is about to fall.
Visit eToro Read review
* 75% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford the high risk of losing your money. CFDs are not offered to US users. Cryptoassets are highly volatile, unregulated investment products. No EU investor protection.
Buying Litecoin through Coinmama
Advantages: Easy buying process, reliable company
Disadvantage: Relatively high fees
With Coinmama you can buy Litecoins instantly with your credit card, debit card or SEPA transfer. They accept users from most countries in the world (except for several US states).
The company has been around for a long time (since 2013) and is considered to be trustworthy. You can read my full Coinmama review here.
Coinmama will not keep your Litecoins for you. This means that you need to make sure you have a Litecoin wallet and address before starting the purchase process (as detailed in Step 1).
Coins are sent out almost immediately once the purchase process is complete.
Visit Coinmama Read review
Purchase of Litecoin through CEX.io
Advantages: Low fees on the trading platform, a variety of payment methods
Disadvantage: High broker service fees
CEX Allows you to buy Litecoin quickly and securely using your credit card, debit card or wire transfer. The website offers two methods to buy Litecoins:
- A brokerage service (the company sells you Litecoins directly) – A simple process at a premium price
- A trading platform (you interact with buyers / sellers from all over the world) – A cheaper but relatively complex process for beginners
Like Coinmama, CEX has been around since 2013 and has gained a very good reputation since then. If you are just starting out, it is probably better to use the brokerage service as it is simpler than the trading platform.
Note that the brokerage fees are around 7% and the trading platform fees are around 0.25%.
Buying a small amount shouldn’t make much of a difference, and sometimes it’s better to pay a little more for an easier and faster process.
Visit Cex.io Read review
Buying Litecoin through Coinbase
Advantages: Low ACH / SEPA Wire Transfer Fees, Established Company
Disadvantage: Terrible support, not available worldwide
With Coinbase you can buy Litecoins with your debit card or your bank account. Coinbase accepts buyers from 103 countries around the world, and the exchange fees are relatively low (mostly for ACH transfers within the US).
The company is well established and has been selling cryptocurrencies since 2012. However, if you run into problems, don’t expect someone to respond from their support (they made a name for themselves in this area).
The bottom line from Coinbase is that if they are supported in your country they are probably the cheapest and fastest option for buying Litecoins.
Visit Coinbase Read review
Buying Litecoin through Bitpanda
Advantages: Multiple payment methods supported, relatively low fees
Disadvantage: Not available worldwide
Bitpanda is a cryptocurrency broker that specializes in buying and selling cryptocurrency within the euro zone. Bitpanda enables the purchase of Litecoins with your credit card, your Skrill account, your SEPA transfer or your SOFORT transfer.
The company was founded in late 2014 and has since become one of the most popular options for buying cryptocurrency across Europe.
Visit Bitpanda Read review
Buying Litecoin through Bitstamp
Advantages: Serious exchange, relatively low fees and exchange rate
Disadvantage: Complicated for beginners
Bitstamp is one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges. With Bitstamp you can buy Litecoins using a credit card or a transfer of USD / EUR. Alternatively, you can change bitcoins into litecoins on the exchange.
In addition to a rather confusing trading platform, Bitstamp also offers a direct purchase service for cryptocurrencies via a credit card for a premium.
Visit Bitstamp Read review
Step 3 – Withdraw your Litecoins
When you’ve decided to exchange, open an account and buy the Litecoins. Make sure you pull the Litecoins from the exchange into your personal wallet.
Never leave coins in an exchange as you risk losing all of them if a particular exchange is hacked or shut down (which has happened in the past).
4. Additional options for purchasing Litecoins
If you already own bitcoins and want to exchange them for Litecoin, you can do so with a crypto-to-crypto exchange like Binance. Alternatively, you can always buy Bitcoin and convert it to Litecoins using Binance.
Buy Litecoins with Paypal
There is no direct way to buy Litecoins with PayPal. If you’re just looking for price speculation and don’t want to own the coins, you can invest through eToro.
However, if you actually want to store your coins, you need to buy bitcoins using Paypal and then exchange them for Litecoins on a crypto-to-crypto exchange such as Binance or Changelly.
Important – Buying cryptocurrencies with PayPal usually involves a lot of fees. Make sure you know all of the fees upfront so you don’t get caught by surprise.
Purchase of Litecoins without identification or confirmation
Since Litecoin is not as popular as Bitcoin, it is difficult to come up with a credible way to buy it without verification. The best way to buy Litecoin anonymously is to buy bitcoins anonymously and then exchange those bitcoins for Litecoins on Binance or Changelly using a one-way email.
5. Frequently asked questions
How many Litecoins are left?
As of June 11, 2020 65,214,075 Litecoins were mined. This means that 18,785,925 Litecoins are up to me.
Can you mine Litecoin?
Yes. Litecoin Mining is used to update the ledger of Litecoin transactions, just like Bitcoin Mining. Litecoins can be mined with specific Litecoin mining hardware.
6. Conclusion – is Litecoin a good investment?
Over the years, Litecoin has proven to be a coin that is here to stay with a strong community and development team.
The question: “Will it play a role in the future monetary system?” is still unanswered, but Litecoin remains just under a second behind Bitcoin for the time being and follows it in its ups and downs.
Did you find other interesting ways to buy Litecoins? If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments section below.
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