🦲 How to Buy Stellar Lumens (XLM) in the UK

If you want to buy Stellar Lumens in the UK, several exchanges let you do so. But if you’re buying for the first time, you will need a guide so that you do not get lost in the process or lose money on the wrong platform.

We wrote this article to be your best guide for buying XLM with GBP in the UK. We cover the top exchanges where you can do so, the steps involved, and the payment options available on these platforms.

We won’t waste your time any further. Let’s get down to business.

A quick guide on buying Stellar Lumens in the UK: Buy instantly with GBP on Binance

• Register on Binance.com and complete their KYC verification process.
• Go to Buy Crypto on the top-left side of the website.
• Change the currency ticker to GBP and select the Credit/Debit card option.
• Enter BTC as the coin to buy and complete the purchase.
• If successful, go to Trade from the website tab and choose the Convert option.
• Select BTC as the coin to convert to XLM
• Click Preview Conversion and complete the trade.
• Congrats! You just purchased some Stellar Lumens (XLM).

How to buy Stellar Lumens (XLM) with GBP

Binance

Binance is one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges and a place where you can buy many altcoins.

For XLM, we found out that there’s no instant purchase option with GBP. Instead, you have to buy BTC as we did in the first example and then sell it into Stellar Lumens. Here’s another approach you can take to get the same result after creating a Binance account.

How to do it:

• Go to the Buy Crypto tab and select GBP as your currency.
• Choose the Bank Deposit option.
• Select Faster Payments and enter the amount you want to deposit.
• Make a bank transfer to Binance using the provided account details. Ensure to use the Reference Code.
• Once successful, Binance will add GBP to your wallet balance.
• Go to Buy Crypto and choose the buy with Bank balance option.
• Buy USDT with your GBP balance.
• Go to Convert to swap USDT for XLM.
• Preview and complete the conversion.

Supported Payment Channels: Faster Payments, Bank Cards (Visa, Mastercard)

Coinbase

Coinbase is one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges and the first place where many people buy crypto for the first time. Coinbase boasts over 40 million users, and in 2019, introduced support for Stellar Lumens (XLM)

How to do it:

• Create a Coinbase account and complete the ID verification process.
• Go to Settings > Payment Methods and link your UK bank account.
• Select Portfolio from your dashboard’s menu tab
• Click Deposit on the GBP Wallet and initiate a bank transfer.
• Make a bank transfer using the provided bank details and reference code.
• If successful, Coinbase will add the deposited GBP to your wallet balance.
• Go to the Stellar Lumens page on Coinbase.
• Enter the amount to buy and choose to pay with your GBP balance.
• Review and complete the purchase.

Supported Payment Channels: Faster Payments, SEPA Transfer, Credit and Debit Card purchases.

Coinjar

Coinjar launched in 2013 and has catered to European users since then. They are a good platform for UK users offering the option to buy most of the large-cap cryptocurrencies, including Stellar (XLM).

• Create an account on Coinjar.
• Complete the user verification process.
• Go to Accounts to fund a GBP account via 'Bank Transfer (FPS)'
• If successful, go to the Buy Stellar (XLM) page on Coinjar
• Enter the amount of GBP to spend.
• Click Buy XLM.
• Review the transaction details and confirm your purchase.

Supported Payment Channel: Faster Payments

BC Bitcoin

BC Bitcoin is a UK-based non-custodial cryptocurrency exchange. Unlike the platforms mentioned above, where they give you a wallet on their platform to store your assets, you’ll need an external wallet address to receive XLM coins you buy from BC Bitcoin.

You can create an XLM wallet and generate your address by installing the Coinbase Wallet, Solar Wallet, or Keybase wallet.

How to do it:

• Create a BC Bitcoin account and verify your identity
• Go to the Buy Crypto page on BC Bitcoin.
• Select XLM as the coin to buy and GBP as your payment currency.
• Choose your preferred payment method.
• Enter the amount to spend and review the fees associated with the trade.
• Provide your XLM address and memo in the spaces provided.
• Click Next Step and complete the payment process.
• Once confirmed, BC Bitcoin will send the purchased XLM coins to the address you provided.

Supported Payment Channels: Faster Payments, SEPA Transfers, Debit and Credit Cards (Visa, Mastercard)

Wirex

Wirex brands itself as the bridge between traditional currencies and cryptocurrencies. They allow easy conversion from one fiat currency to another and also supports crypto purchases with fiat.

How to do it:

• Install the Wirex App.
• Create an account and complete the verification process.
• Go to Accounts and select the XLM account.
• Scroll down through the options and click Add Funds.
• Top up using your preferred payment channel.
• Once confirmed, Wirex would add the purchased XLM to your account.
• Alternatively, you can follow the same process to fund your GBP current account.
• Next, use the Exchange function on the app to convert GBP to XLM.

Supported Payment Channels: SWIFT, Faster Payments, SEPA Transfers, Supported Local Bank Cards.

Kraken

Kraken is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and joins the list of long-existing cryptocurrency exchanges covered in this article. They support XLM purchases via bank transfers or other cryptocurrencies.

How to do it:

• Register on Kraken.com
• Complete user verification up to Intermediate or Pro Level.
• Go to Funding and click the deposit option on your GBP wallet.
• Initiate and complete a bank transfer using the provided details.
• Once confirmed, go to Trade.
• Use the search function to find the XLM/GBP pair.
• Enter the amount of XLM to buy, and the corresponding GBP value fills automatically.
• Ensure the order type is set to Market.
• Click Buy XLM with GBP.
• View purchased XLM by going back to Funding and checking your XLM account.

Supported Payment Channel: UK Faster Payments.

How to buy XLM with other cryptos short step-by-step guide

If you’re holding another cryptocurrency, let’s say BTC, and want to exchange some of it for XLM, you can do so using an exchange that supports an XLM/BTC trading pair. Binance offers this pair, and here’s how to convert your BTC to XLM after creating a Binance account.

• Go to Wallet > Fiat and Spot.
• Find your BTC wallet and click Deposit.
• Copy your BTC address and transfer funds from an external address.
• After network confirmation, go to Trade>Convert.
• Select BTC as the count to convert to XLM
• Preview the conversion details and complete the transactions.
• Alternatively, you can go to Markets.
• Use the search function to find the XLM/BTC pair.
• Scroll down to the order box and change the type to Market.
• Enter the amount of BTC to spend and review the amount in XLM
• Click Buy XLM.

Note: You can repeat the alternative method on any exchange that offers a corresponding XLM pair for the coin you want to convert into XLM.

Things to consider before buying Stellar Lumens

Being one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, one might argue that buying XLM is a no-brainer. While we cannot side with or against that debate, here are some things to consider before investing in Stellar Lumens:

• Research the Project

  Do not buy XLM because it is the top cryptocurrency. We recommend that you spend time researching the project’s history, past price performance, team members, and unique value proposition.

  One significant piece of information you’ll find from your research is that XLM reached an all-time high price of £0.65 per coin on 3rd January 2018. Since then, the cryptocurrency has remained more than 70% below that price and gradually lost a foothold in the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap.

  Armed with this information, you can make a more concise decision on whether or not to invest your money into the coin.

• Define Your Investment Strategy

  Dollar-cost averaging (DCA) is a popular crypto investment strategy where investors buy a specified amount of a coin over a given period, irrespective of the price.

  You need to decide whether this is how you’ll purchase XLM to lower your buy-in price. You can also choose to spend a lump sum and then determine how long you will hold the asset before flipping it.

• Market Conditions

  Given that XLM is still a long way off its previous all-time high, there are bound to be peaks and drops now and then. Therefore, be careful not to buy the coin during a price peak since it could take a long time to recover its price.

  It would be best to buy when prices are low and then exit your position as soon as investor sentiment changes to bullish.

Where to store Stellar

You’ve probably heard the crypto quote, “Not your keys, not your coins.” Therefore, leaving your Stellar Lumens on an exchange is not the best way to store it. Using a non-custodial wallet where you hold the keys is still the best.

Where you can store XLM

• Ledger or Trezor (hardware wallets)
• Solar Wallet (Mobile and desktop).
• Coinbase Wallet (mobile)

Privacy and security tips

Keep these privacy and security tips in mind as you buy, sell, or transfer XLM.

• Always remember to include the memo ID when sending XLM coins. We recommend making it a habit to paste the memo before the wallet address.
• After you sign up for an exchange account, enable security features such as two-factor authentication (2FA) and email confirmation for outgoing transactions.
• When you create a non-custodial wallet, remember to back up the phrase in a secure fire-proof offline location.
• Buying XLM with another crypto via Binance is probably the most secure way. At the time of writing, Binance doesn’t require KYC for crypto-to-crypto trades.

Conclusion

In this article, we revealed how to buy XLM with GBP in the UK. You learned the steps to do it on supported exchanges and the payment channels available on these platforms. We also covered some things to consider before putting money into Stellar Lumens and security tips to keep in mind.

Like most cryptocurrencies, there is no guarantee that Stellar investors will profit or lose in the future. However, its current status in the top-ten makes it a prospect, and we believe you now know how to get some exposure to it if you desire.