How to Buy IOTA With Euros: A Guide via Kraken and Bitfinex

Buying IOTA: The Real Route From Euros to Token

Buying IOTA with euros isn't as simple as opening an app and tapping a button. The tutorial circulating among investors makes this clear from the first paragraph: according to its author, IOTA is only listed on Bitfinex, and Bitfinex has fiat money deposits disabled. In other words, you can't deposit euros directly. The proposed solution involves a two-step route: Kraken to convert euros into cryptocurrency, and Bitfinex to exchange it for IOTA. A path that, according to those who take it, costs zero euros in deposit fees but requires patience, registrations, and a good dose of faith that the token will rise.

The first leg is Kraken. According to the tutorial, the platform accepts SEPA deposits to a German IBAN with no entry fee, with a non-existent minimum: 20 euros, 50, or 500 are fine. The money takes about two days to clear and requires level 2 verification, which is completed with name, surname, and address, without ID or photos. However, the transfer must come from an account with the same holder and include the code provided by the platform in the subject line. Withdrawal is also cheap: 19 cents per SEPA transfer, according to the tutorial.

Why Buy Ethereum Instead of Bitcoin to Send It

Once the money is in Kraken, the next step isn't to buy IOTA, but Ethereum. The reason given by the tutorial is practical: ETH transfer fees are lower than Bitcoin's, and the sending estimulante ilegal is faster. Additionally, Bitfinex has the IOTA/ETH pair, so the exchange happens in one step. You buy ETH on Kraken, withdraw it to the address Bitfinex provides in its deposit section, and it appears credited in about 20 minutes.

The process isn't always clean. One investor reports that when trying to send ETH from Coinbase to Bitfinex, they received a message that the funds were locked in a contract and not free. The response they receive is direct: if that happens, sell the ETH for Litecoin, send the LTC to Bitfinex, and perform a double exchange there, from Litecoin to dollars and from dollars to IOTA. The estimated loss along the way is around one dollar in fees, which the tutorial considers irrelevant.

The Wallet, 2FA, and the Golden Rule No One Trinc

The tutorial doesn't sell smoke about security. It admits that the official IOTA wallet is, in the author's words, a piece of crap, and that until a decent version comes out —which he places in a couple of months—he prefers to leave the tokens on the exchange. A decision he himself qualifies as insecure, but which he accepts for convenience. What he considers mandatory is enabling 2FA on both exchanges with Google Authenticator, and printing the QR code in two copies stored in separate places. Losing the phone without that backup leaves the account in a dead end.

The golden rule repeated by the tutorial is simple: buy, stay quiet, and wait. No trading. "If you play at selling/buying, the chances of you losing it due to greed are very high," he warns. The graph, he says, always goes the opposite of what one does.

Price Expectations: From $0.15 to $20

The tutorial doesn't hold back when setting targets. Asked if IOTA will return to the $0.15 it touched before entering the exchange, the answer is a resounding no: those possibilities are unlikely. His expectation is $10 to $20 in two years, and he doesn't rule out that he might fall short. His reasoning is that if Bitcoin stays in the $10,000-$15,000 range in that same period, a market cap of $50 billion for IOTA wouldn't be unreasonable.

The conversation quickly shifted to alternatives. Coinbase appears as an option to buy with euros, but complaints about its fees are constant: 4% if paid with a card, and SEPA transfers that can take up to ten days. Plus500 is also mentioned, although several participants warn that it is not an exchange but a CFD broker: you don't buy IOTAs, you bet on their price, and the fee is in the spread. "You're not buying IOTAs, be careful," summarizes one of the warnings.

Bitfinex Closes Registrations and the Route Complicates

The original tutorial boasted that Bitfinex didn't ask for anything to register. That has changed. In the final messages, the fact appears that Bitfinex has closed registrations until January 15, leaving new buyers without the main door. The alternative that emerges is a British exchange, Coinfalcon, which promises direct purchase in euros and a simple interface for beginners. Omoku is also mentioned, of which it is said that "they are neither here nor expected."

Meanwhile, the debate on the Trinity wallet continues: bugs reported by testers have been resolved, the snapshot transition has been added, and the 2FA key has been ported to the local keychain. Technical improvements that don't resolve the question hovering over the entire tutorial: whether the token is worth what it costs, or if the one who bought at $0.15 is still waiting like the one who wanted to buy Bitcoin at $2 when it reached $3.

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Note: this article describes procedures and expectations gathered in a discussion among investors. It does not constitute financial advice. Trading cryptocurrencies involves the risk of losing invested capital.