How to Buy Bitcoin in New Zealand

BitPrime is another popular New Zealand based platform, registered as an NZ financial services provider, to buy or sell various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin. The company explicitly differentiates itself from exchanges and brokers by defining itself as a cryptocurrency retailer. What this means is that BitPrime does not act as a wallet, as most other platforms do. When you complete your purchase with BitPrime, you’ll need to nominate an address where your cryptocurrency should be delivered. Under this model, the company does not have the responsibility or risk of being the custodian of clients’ money. To use BitPrime, you’ll need to make your own cryptocurrency wallet first.
 
Payment methods: Bank transfer, POLi and debit/credit card via third-party payment provider Simplex
Fees: Fees depend on the payment method and order size. For card payments, the fee is 5%. For bank transfers below NZ$20,000, the fee is 2.9%, for larger transactions, discounts are available
Minimum order size: NZ$100 for Bitcoin ($1,000 for Ethereum and Tether)
Settlement: Private wallet
Coins available: 89+ different coins, including Bitcoin. Almost all coins are able to be sourced through the BitPrime's custom order page.
Learn more: BitPrime

According to average daily turnover, Binance is one of the largest crypto exchange platforms in the world. After launching in 2017, the company established itself globally and is constantly shrouded with more rumours of expansion in a short space of time. Among many other services, such as crypto fixed income products, derivative products, margin trading and more, Binance also offers New Zealanders a gateway to buying Bitcoin locally.
 
Payment methods: Debit/credit card via third-party payment provider Simplex
Fees: Card processing fees are 3.5% with a minimum fee of US$10. When withdrawing Bitcoin, for example to your private wallet, there is a withdrawal fee of 0.0005 BTC.
Minimum order size: The minimum order size is the equivalent of US$30, which is approximately NZ$46
Settlement: On an account
Coins available: With a bank card, you can buy 18 different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin. On the exchange, there are hundreds of coins available to trade once you have an account funded with crypto
Learn more: ​Binance

LocalBitcoins is a well-known platform in the Bitcoin community. Since 2012, the website has allowed buyers and sellers to place listings and answer each other’s ads. As the name suggests, users can make deals locally, in their own currency, using local payment methods. Users negotiate directly, mutually agree on the price and payment method. LocalBitcoins acts as a middleman and escrow agent in the transaction, thus protecting buyers and sellers. Once a transaction is completed successfully, users leave feedback on their experience, thus helping other users in the future. The person who creates the listing on the website is responsible for covering the fees, which are 1% of the transaction’s value. There are several users based in New Zealand, accepting payments from BNZ, ASB, and Westpac accounts in New Zealand dollars.
 
Payment methods: It depends on your agreement with the seller
Fees: A fee of 1% is charged to the party which listed the ad on the platform, other fees might be priced into the offer from the seller
Minimum order size: The seller sets the minimum order size
Settlement: Private wallet
Coins available: Bitcoin only
Learn More: LocalBitcoins

Typically, when you invest money in the financial markets, you do so via a licensed and authorised broker to deal or issue those instruments and act as a custodian for your collateral and your assets. These traditional financial service providers need to meet fitness and proprietary requirements before a license is issued, requisition external auditors annually, submit reports to authorities and meet strict operational and fiduciary responsibilities. For the most part, these checks and balances don’t exist in the cryptocurrency industry, and most companies are left to follow their instincts. Therefore, investors are left to their own devices to keep their digital assets safe from accidents or incidents.

The best way to keep your Bitcoin safe is to use one of the popular hardware wallets that the Bitcoin community has already tried and tested. When it comes to Bitcoin, the asset you want to protect is the private key, not the coins themselves. The private key is used for signing transactions and allows anyone who possesses it to transfer Bitcoins from the corresponding address.

Without going into great detail concerning the underlying cryptography used to make this all possible, a hardware wallet allows you to create Bitcoin transactions without connecting to the internet, therefore significantly protecting the private key. In the hardware wallet, you’re able to create a signature, which according to the Bitcoin developer glossary could only have reasonably been created by someone who has the private key.

The signature is essentially a by-product of the public-key and private-key but cannot be used to ascertain what the private key is. Therefore, the signature can be generated offline and used to authorise transactions online.

There is a lot of misinformation about Bitcoin - our shortlist of common questions help you understand some of the finer details.

Many exchanges allow you to keep your purchased cryptocurrencies in an account on their platform. The idea is to make it convenient for active users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Most exchanges encourage users to keep their coins in private wallets. Its well-known exchanges are the targets of aggressive and sophisticated attacks due to the large amounts of cryptocurrencies under their control. If you’re planning on holding Bitcoin for the long term, you should make the necessary arrangements to keep your coins safe.