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Bitcoin Trading Canada

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If you want to buy bitcoins in Canada or sell bitcoins in Canada, you have a few choices. Where is the best place to trade bitcoins in Canada?  It depends on what you are trying to do, below I will list a few different options.

The key factor for Canadians who want to trade bitcoin is to find a venue that accepts Canadian dollars! There are many bitcoin exchanges around the world, but most offer trading in bitcoin against the biggest fiat currencies such USD, CNY, EURO, YEN, but the Canadian dollar is not really offered except by a few specific Canadian exchanges.

When you’re looking to buy some bitcoins. I think the best place to start is to find a friend who can give you some of their bitcoins in exchange for cash or Interac e-transfer. If you can obtain bitcoins in this fashion, you can avoid a lot of the legal/technical challenges that come with verifying your account.

Keep in mind that established exchanges offering services to Canadians should comply with Canadian AML rules including FINTRAC compliance. There are certain exemptions based on the nature and size of the transaction, but otherwise, you will need to prove your identity to the exchange provider in order for you to safely transfer Canadian dollars to the exchange.

So if you don’t have a friend who can trade bitcoins with you, you’ll need to find a crypto exchange that services Canadians.

The best place to trade bitcoins in Canada is by using QuadrigaCX. QuadrigaCX has the highest volume of any Canadian bitcoin exchange, and very low fees, 0.50% (less than 1%) per transaction. QuadrigaCX complies with Canadian AML laws, so you’ll have to identify yourself in order to gain full deposit and withdrawal functionality, but once you do this, you’ll be able to move Canadian dollars directly from your bank account into crypto currencies.

To avoid this compliance, you can use a service such as QuickBT or CanadianBitcoins, but beware that fees will be much higher. Even most bitcoin ATMs in Canada will require you to submit your cell number and retrieve a code in order to prove basic info before you can process a transaction. These services will charge you anywhere from 5% to 10% of the value of your transaction, and your transaction limits will be severely restricted.  Check out this site that provides a map of bitcoin ATMs.

Check out my blog post about using BitAccess using Flexpin Vouchers.

A few other exchanges that Canadians should consider include Kraken & CoinSquare.  I’ve tried a few times to verify my account with Kraken, and for whatever reason, they will not process it. I haven’t spent much time figuring out why. With CoinSquare, they are based in Canada and comply with Canadian laws, but they are just a little bit more expensive and less liquid than QuadrigaCX.

How to trade bitcoins on QuadrigaCX

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Now that you’ve opened and verified and also funded your QuadrigaCX account, you are ready to trade some Canadian dollars and US dollars for bitcoins and ethereum. This post will explain how to make a trade on cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX.

After logging into your QuadrigaCX account, choose the “Trade” tab from the main menu. When on the “Trade” menu, you will see the current order book displayed for the default market (btc/cad) with the bids displayed on the left side of the page and the offers displayed on the right side. Stacked on top of the order book are order entry modules that you can use to place your order.

If you are unfamiliar with how a market works and/or how prices are formed, the first thing you do is examine the current bids and offers. The bids and offers listed are orders from other users who have placed orders to either buy or sell at certain prices. For example, if you see a bid price of $4,000 CAD for 2 BTC, this means that someone (or a number of users) has placed an order to buy 2 bitcoins at a price of $4,000 CAD.  Oppositely, if you see an offer for 2 BTC at $4,010 CAD, this means that someone (or a number of users) has placed an order to sell 2 bitcoins at a price of $4,010 CAD.

The “price” of bitcoins is simply the last time that a bid or an offer was matched. If you want to buy bitcoins with Canadian dollars, then examine the offers. Using the example above, the lowest price offered is $4,010 CAD for 2 BTC. This means that you can buy up to 2 BTC at a price of $4,010 CAD. If you want to buy 0.10 BTC, and this price meets your objective, then go ahead and enter your order to make a transaction. Using the BUY side order entry module on the left side of the order book, enter a price of $4,010 and quantity of 0.10 BTC. As you enter your order details, you will see that the order entry module dynamically updates to reflect your inputs. This helps you confirm the price and amount you wish to enter.

Once you have input your desired price and quantity, and reviewed your order, simply press the “buy” button located within the order entry module, and your order will be sent to the market. If the current offer was $4,010 and you enter an order to buy at this price, your order will be matched and filled. This will mean you purchase bitcoins at this price.

Conversely, if you’d like to sell bitcoins, the same mechanics are used to sell, but instead of trying to pay the lowest price, you are trying to sell at the highest.

Maybe you’d like to buy bitcoins, but only if they reach a certain lower level. Maybe you’ve determined that a price of $3,500 is the highest price you are willing to pay. You can enter these details in the order entry module, and your order will be sent to the order book where it waits until the market falls to this price, or you cancel your order. This is called a “limit” order. From what I can tell, there is no time limit to how long orders can sit.

QuadrigaCX is the best place for Canadians to buy and sell bitcoins with the most liquid order book and the most stable deposit/withdrawal methods. Please use this link to open an account as it will mean some referral revenue for me 🙂

QuadrigaCX Withdrawal Methods Review

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Now that you’ve owned bitcoins and ethereum for the past few years, and you’d like to take some profits, how do you transfer your gains back to Canadian dollars?  This post will review a few different ways to make withdrawals from QuadrigaCX bitcoin and ethereum exchange.

One of the best methods for Canadians to trade cryto currencies is to use QuadrigaCX, which is a crypto currency exchange that offers btc/eth/cad/usd pairs. If you want a guide on how to open a QuadrigaCX account, please read my previous post for step by step instructions.

To make a withdrawal, transfer your bitcoins or ethereum to your QuadrigaCX account. Then you’ll will need to use the exchange to trade your crypto currency for Canadian dollars, and once your trades are complete, make a request to withdraw the funds.

Once you have Canadian dollars in your QuadrigaCX account, as the image below shows, click on the Canadian dollar balance drop down menu, and select “withdrawal”. You will be taken to a page that lists the difference withdrawal methods that QuadrigaCX offers.

QuadrigaCX offers a number of different withdrawal methods. Express bank transfers and Rapid bank transfers are types of electronic payment methods available with some Canadian banks. These two methods are expensive compared to the other methods, so I suggest not using them.

A friend of mine recently requested a withdrawal using the bank wire method. Its now been a few weeks and he still hasn’t received his funds. This might be related to how the wire is transferred, since they travel thru a few different international channels. I wouldn’t suggest using a bank wire from QuadrigaCX for this reason.

The EFT method works with Canadian banks and happens quickly. QuadrigaCX doesn’t change any additional fees for this method, it was used by another friend of mine recently and his withdrawal happened quickly without any problems.

I recently requested a cheque from QuadrigaCX and the process worked ok. It was a bit strange though, since I received a cheque in the mail a few days after my request, the address on the envelope was written by hand, and the cheque was also filled-out by hand and drawn on a numbered company with an account at CIBC in Grimsby (a town in Ontario). I deposited the cheque in my bank and so far no problems. I suspect what QuadrigaCX is doing is matching withdrawal requests with a network of partners who want to purchase bitcoins, so in fact the cheque I received might actually be in exchange for bitcoin or ethereum from QuadrigaCX.

The final method I suggest using is the PayPal method, this will happen just like an e-transfer (e-mail money transfer). You’ll be able to login to your PayPal account associated with that e-mail account to complete the transaction.