Table of Contents
Introduction
Are you looking to buy Ethereum as a Canadian? We’ve done in-depth research and tested all the different options available to Canadians to buy Ethereum. In this article we’ll share our top recommendations and the pros and cons of each.
Why Buy Ethereum?
Before we share our top recommendations for buying Ethereum, let’s talk about why you should consider buying Ethereum in the first place. Ethereum (ETH), the world’s second largest cryptocurrency, launched in 2015, 6 years after the creation of Bitcoin. By “second largest”, we mean that it has the second largest market cap after Bitcoin.
Ethereum has gained a lot of momentum recently because it’s the foundation for NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which became popular in 2021. It’s also the technical foundation for the decentralized finance (DeFi) movement.
Today (August 18, 2021) the price of 1 Ether is $3,860.34 CAD. 1 year ago the price of 1 Ether was approximately $534.27 CAD. That’s an increase of nearly 623% in one year! In this post we’re going to focus on how to buy Ethereum, but if you want to know more about it first, check out our guide to Ethereum.
How Can I Buy Ethereum In Canada
There are a few different ways to buy Ethereum in Canada that we recommend.
But first you need to answer a couple of questions:
Question 1: What funding source do you want to use?
The sites we recommend all have some combination of Interac E-Transfer, Wire, and Debit card as options. You should know how to want to buy ethereum and then choose one of our recommendations that offers the payment / funding method you want.
Question 2: Do you want to be able to send the Ethereum you buy to a wallet address?
Some sites like Wealthsimple don’t actually let you send your crypto to a wallet address. This is fine if you just want to benefit from it the value of Ethereum goes up, and have the option of converting it back into Canadian Dollars. If however, you want to be able to send ETH to a crypto wallet, you’ll need to use a different site.
BitBuy
BitBuy let’s you buy Ethereum using Interac e-transfer. The fee is only 1.5% and you receive the money in your account in less than an hour after you send the e-transfer. To fund your account you simply need to login and click on the “Add Funds” button.
Once you click the button that says “I Understand” you’ll be taken to a page that has all the info for the Interac E-Transfer including.
- Recipient Name
- Recipient Email Address
- Security Question
- Security Answer
You use this information to send a bank transfer from a Canadian bank account in your name (should match the BitBuy account). Your account should show the Canadian Dollars within 30 minutes.
Make sure you copy / paste the information exactly! You can also withdraw your etheruem from BitBuy to another cryptocurrency wallet address, or send it to other services like Celsius or BlockFi, or receive an Interac E-Transfer back to your Canadian Bank account!
Coinbase
Coinbase is one of the most trustworthy and largest Cryptocurrency companies out there today. It was founded 9 years ago in 2012, only three years after Bitcoin was invented in 2009. Coinbase was the first Crypto company to go public. It went public via direct listing on April 14, 2021 on the NASDAQ.
To buy Ethereum with Coinbase you’ll need to use a Canadian Debit Card. In the past you could also use a credit card, but unfortunately Canadian credit card companies aren’t fans of people buying Bitcoin. On the bright side, Debit card payments to buy Ethereum with Coinbase are instant!
As a bonus, Coinbase also has a fun learning library section where you can earn free coins for watching a few learning videos and then completing short quizzes! You can withdraw the currency you have in Coinbase to a PayPal account, or you can send the Ethereum you buy to your crypto wallet address.
To buy Ethereum on Coinbase, create an account and upload ID. Once you’ve verified your account and can see the dashboard, click the blue Buy/Sell button in the top right. You’ll then be asked to add payment method if you haven’t already.
Even though the screen says “enter credit/debit card” in Canada you can only use a debit card to fund your account.
Enter your debit card info, click “Add card” and you’re ready to buy Ethereum.
To withdraw your Ethereum from Coinbase you can either send it to another Ethereum wallet address or you can sell it and receive Canadian Dollars in a PayPal account.
Wealthsimple
Based out of Toronto, Canada, Wealthsimple is without a doubt Canada’s sexiest financial company. Americans have Wealthfront, Robinhood, Acorns and many more modern financial company.
Our equivalent in Canada is definitely Wealthsimple.
Wealthsimple Crypto allows you to buy and sell crypto assets including Ethereum! It’s extremely easy and fun to trade with Wealthsimple Crypto. You simply link a Canadian bank account and you can fund your Crypto trading account.
If you simply want to hold Ethereum in the same way you’d hold a stock, Wealthsimple is a great option. If the value of Ethereum increases, you can sell your holdings and get Canadian Dollars back.
However, this isn’t a true crypto wallet meaning a couple of things.
- Since you don’t get a Crypto wallet address, you can’t receive Ethereum from other people
- Since this isn’t a Crypto wallet, you can’t send the Ethereum you purchase to another wallet you own
If you really want to get hard-core into crypto, Wealthsimple’s crypto product probably isn’t the best move. But, if you just want an easy way to hold crypto assets like they are regular stocks, Wealthsimple is really great!
Buying Ethereum On Wealthsimple
Desktop Web App
Here’s how to buy Ethereum using Wealthsimple.
Login to your Wealthsimple account. You may have to check your email or phone for a verification code if you have 2-factor authentication enabled (highly recommended).
Click on Trade & Crypto.
Then you click on Add funds under the Crypto section of the Dashboard that loads.
Click the purple Add funds button, and you’ll see a list of your bank accounts that you can use to fund your Wealthsimple Crypto account.
Enter the amount you want to deposit and then click “Continue”. Congratulations – you now have up to $250 to buy crypto instantly. If you deposited more you may need to wait for any funds over $250 CAD to clear in your Wealthsimple account, but you can still use the first $250 CAD.
Simply use the search bar in the top navigation to search for Ethereum. You’ll see Eth load and you can click on it. Then on the right hand side of the page you can enter the amount of Ethereum you want to buy in CAD and click Buy ETH to Buy Ethereum!
Conclusion
In this article we’ve covered the three best ways to buy Ethereum in Canada.
- BitBuy.ca if you want to buy it with interac e-transfer
- Coinbase if you want to buy it with a debit card
- Wealthsimple if you’re OK with not being able to send the Ethereum to a crypto wallet
All three of these companies are very trustworthy and reliable, so it’s just a matter of what your preference is based on how you want to fund your account, and how you’d like to withdraw your Ethereum in the future! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below.
A final word of caution. Please remember to only invest the amount of money in cryptocurrency that you can afford to lose. While this site is about cryptocurrency because we believe it has tremendous potential, it’s still the very early days of crypto and the value of both Ethereum and Bitcoin can and do fluctuate dramatically.