Canada

It turns out that Canada is a fairly difficult place to quickly and easily buy and sell bitcoins for CAD or USD.

Well, let me rephrase that. Canada is a fairly difficult place to find vendors where you can sell bitcoin for CAD or USD.

You can buy bitcoin but trading and selling bitcoin is another matter all together.

Buying Bitcoin In Canada

You can buy bitcoin from plenty of well known Canadian exchanges. You can only sell for CAD at a small few. In a few short moments you will know which bitcoin exchanges work for Canadians as well as todays best brokers, vendors and Canadian centric services are out there when it comes to bitcoin.

Buying Bitcoin Guide

Debit and Credit Cards – Visa / Mastercard

There are more choices when it comes to purchasing bitcoin with a credit card. What are the best places to buy bitcoin in Canada?

  1. Coinbase – you can buy bitcoin and ethereum here in small amounts with a credit card.
  2. Xcoins.io – buy bitcoin with credit cards and paypal. Highly rated secued lending site lets you get BTC fast via credit card.
  3. CoinMama – fast and easy way to buy bitcoin with Visa and Mastercard.
  4. SpectroCoin – Buy bitcoin, get a bitcoin debit card and more.

Why are prices higher when buying with a credit card?
Prices are higher because credit card charges are reversible and bitcoin is not. This means that someone could buy bitcoin with a credit card, receive the bitcoin and then have their credit card company reverse the charges. In this case the seller is out the bitcoin with no real recourse. This additional level or risk for bitcoin sellers make buying bitcoin with a credit card more expensive.

What are the benefits of using a credit card?
It’s fairly quick and easy. Virtually everyone has a credit card and it’s arguably the easiest way to get bitcoin in your wallet in the quickest amount of time.

Buy Bitcoin With Cash – CAD and USD

There are two recommended choices for buying bitcoin for cash money in Canada.

  1. LocalBitcoins.com – the worlds largest local focused P2P bitcoin exchange lets you meet someone locally or deposit cash in a local bank to get bitcoin. It’s the most anonymous way to buy bitcoin for cash privately in Canada
  2. Bitquick – this is a cash to bitcoin escrow service. They guarantee bitcoin in your account within 3 hours max after your cash purchase.

At the time being, these are the only two Canadian vendors that take cash that we recommend. As always do your own due diligence but these exchanges have proven to be reputable and safe ways to buy bitcoin for cash. You can read my full LocalBitcoins review here to get more details on how it works.

Buy Bitcoin With Paypal in Canada

Now we are really getting into the gray area of buying bitcoin with paypal. Paypal itself is in our opinion anti-bitcoin. However there is a demand for this service and two competitors have arisen to provide this service.

  1. Xcoins.io – designed from the ground up to accept Paypal, this site is our top choice for paypal to bitcoin
  2. Paxful – this site offers dozens of payment options including Paypal and gift cards.

Bank Account Transfer to Buy BTC From Canadian Banks

Reports from around the web include plenty of Canadian banks taking unfriendly stances towards bitcoin transactions. As always double check by googling the name of your bank and bitcoin issues to see what the latest happenings are. Canada is quite behind the times for a first world country when it comes to their citizens options of buying and selling digital currencies like Bitcoin.

Here are some places you can buy bitcoin from your bank account.

  1. SpectroCoin – Buy btc quickly and easily here with multiple payment options
  2. QuadrigaCX – Canadian friendly bitcoin exchange where you can buy with a bank account transfer. You can also withdraw back to your bank account from here once you sell your BTC
  3. Kraken – US based exchange that is best designed for bitcoin traders. Fee’s for deposits and withdrawals are a bit high but the trading features and reputation are stellar.
  4. Quebex – Canadian licensed digital currency exchange for Canadian residents

Sell Bitcoin in Canada – What Are Your Options to Withdraw CAD?

We first became aware of an issue for selling bitcoins back to CAD or USD in Canada in August of 2016. They payment processor called Vogogo stopped processing payments to and from Canadian clients for Coinbase (the largest USA based btc exchange). So, you can buy bitcoin but you can’t sell it or trade it for fiat currency. And you couldn’t withdraw it easily. What are your choices?

Sell Bitcoins for Cash

  • LocalBitcoins.com – lets you sell bitcoins for cash deposits into bank accounts of your choice with localbitcoins acting as the escrow agent for a fee. This is more involved than visiting an exchange and selling at market prices however you are likely to maximize your return by locking in the exchange rate you are comfortable with AND getting the cash. You can optionally meet in person and get the ‘cash in hand’ if you prefer.

Sell Bitcoins and Withdraw CAD to Bank
Selling your bitcoins for CAD is much trickier. Today there are only a few exchanges left that we can recommend. Up until August of 2016, Coinbase was included in this list. Now you can only buy there but selling is restricted for Canadians.

Here are the Canadian friendly bitcoin exchanges:

  • Kraken – trade on the exchange Bitcoin for CAD or USD and withdraw. Verification can be painfully slow as well as delayed withdrawals reported consistently throughout the internet. However everyone eventually gets paid out properly
  • QuadrigaCX – **January 2019 this exchange admits they have lost all of their coins they had in cold storage. Bankrupt, RIP.
  • CoinSquare.io – this is an often mentioned but much smaller exchange that allows Canadian users to cash out

Trading Bitcoins – Canadian Friendly Bitcoin Trading Platforms

If you are looking to invest, trade or day trade options from Canada then you have a few more options. One thing to keep in mind is that at some point if you want to ‘cash out’ and take profits in fiat currency (CAD or USD) then you are going to need to send your bitcoin to an exchange like Kraken or QuadrigaCX to cash out. However if you are just looking to trade then you have a few more choices.

  • QuadrigaCX – this exchange has buying, selling and trading features built in to the platform and has consistently been a quality place for Canadians to trade BTC and successfully withdraw money to their bank.
  • Kraken – excellent trading tools and higher liquidity than QuadrigaCX. More professional traders here. Sizeable withdrawal fee’s but steady service.

Canadian Bitcoin Vendors and Services

I am building out this list of quality vendors and services for Canadian bitcoin users. I will be adding to this list as I come across quality vendors and service providers that accept Canadians.

Related Canadian Financial / Digital Currency Links

See our growing list of bitcoin guides by where you live.

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