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How to Buy Polkadot in New Zealand

This guide explores the best ways to buy Polkadot in New Zealand and all the best practices for safely buying cryptocurrency. Disclaimer - by publishing this guide, we are NOT recommending you buy Polkadot.
Updated 8 August 2023
Warning:
  1. By publishing this guide, we are not recommending or suggesting in any way or form that Polkadot is a suitable investment.
  2. We published and routinely update this guide to help people decide what's best for them - MoneyHub is conservative and our publisher, Christopher Walsh, has zero Polkadot or any other cryptocurrency investments. We are cautious about the long-term prospects of Polkadot given its rise has, for the most part, in early 2021 from $4 to $40+ without a lot of substance.
  3. We present this information in good faith and remain objective at all times. ​By including this guide under our Investing and Saving section, we are not advocating that cryptocurrency is an investment. We may earn a referral bonus for anyone that clicks on some of the below links - see our Advertising Policy for more details.

Summary
  • Polkadot is a less-popular cryptocurrency but has seen its value increase in recent months. There are currently 10 million Polkadots in circulation (vs Bitcoin's 21 million).
  • Polkadot does not have much mainstream real-world use. For this reason, many crypto enthusiasts stand clear alongside sceptics. 
  • In this guide, we'll help New Zealanders navigate the complex and controversial territory of cryptocurrencies to help you buy Polkadot in the safest, simplest and most affordable way possible.
  • We will not consider whether you should or not buy Polkadot; we assume that decision was already made, hence why you're reading this guide. Despite this, our guidance is overtly cautious given the risks involved with Polkadot (and cryptocurrency in general).

Our guide covers:

Buying Polkadot with two local and trusted platforms - Easy Crypto and Swyftx

  • Our research highlighted several Polkadot platforms, but few are based in New Zealand and offer transparency. For this reason, we suggest considering the locally-owned (and trusted) Easy Crypto alongside Swyftx, an Australian-based platform.
  • These two platforms are popular with our users, have esteemed reputations and are trusted by tens of thousands of New Zealanders.
  • Both options are free to join, funded from any New Zealand bank account/card, and in the case of Easy Crypto, there is a local support team.
  • Advertising Disclosure: We may earn a referral bonus for anyone that clicks on some of the below links - see our Advertising Policy for more details.

Overview of Buying Polkadot and Must-Know Considerations

Much like other financial assets, you can acquire Polkadot in a variety of ways - from exchanges, from over-the-counter brokers, or in private trades. When you buy Polkadot from an exchange or broker, they should allow funding using bank transfer, debit/credit card or e-wallets like PayPal or POLI. Once you have completed the purchase, they will deliver the coins to a Polkadot (DOT) wallet which either you provide, or they provide.

Top Tip - Protect Your Holdings Immediately
  • Once you have purchased your Polkadots from an exchange, it's always a good idea to transfer some or all of them to a wallet you control.
  • Exchanges are incredibly vulnerable to hacks and attacks. The infamous New Zealand-based exchange Cryptopia is likely still fresh in everyone's mind. In this scandal, attackers took more than US$17 million in Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens in early 2019.
  • Unfortunately, there are dozens of stories like this, and that's why Polkadot owners need to take steps to protect their holdings. Even though Polkadot trades at a fraction of Bitcoin, cyber criminals don't miss opportunities when there are security deficiencies.

For the average investor, the main characteristics to look for in a platform for buying DOGE are as follows:

1. Funding methods
Check if the company has convenient funding methods that are familiar to you. Some companies engaged in cryptocurrency trading may struggle with opening bank accounts or partnering with licensed payment processing companies, which means out of necessity they cooperate with payment institutions with a higher risk appetite.

2. Fees
Familiar yourself with all of the applicable fees. Some companies impose transaction or conversion fees to cover what's charged to them by payment processors. For example, free is perfect, one per cent is fair, two per cent is high, and anything more is unreasonable.

Besides charging for making fiat deposits, some companies charge for withdrawing cryptocurrencies to external wallets. Withdrawal fees vary depending on the coin. Fees could be as high as 0.0005 BTC.

All exchanges and brokers make their money from transaction fees when users buy or sell cryptocurrencies, and again, they can vary widely. Some platforms charge 0.5% and some charge 0.1% or less, depending on your trading volume. Some exchanges adopt a maker-taker model, where they charge less when limit-orders are used instead of market-orders.

3. Reputation
Look for an established company with an active user base. The more users a company serves hints at greater liquidity on the platform, making it easier to buy and sell Polkadot. There are many options in the market today which have been operating reliably for years.

4. Compliance
Decentralised finance advocates might disagree with this point; however, an important characteristic of a legitimate venue for buying Polkadot is if the company requires ID verification before providing services. Companies engaged in trading cryptocurrencies face endless scrutiny from banks and payment providers due to the relative anonymity involved and perceived risks of facilitating money laundering and terrorist financing. Therefore, robust KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) procedures should be in place.

5. Liquidity
It's important to know you have the ability to sell your Polkadot quickly and easily, should you want to liquidate them. Also, check how your sale will be settled, how long it will take, and if any transfer fees should be expected.

6. Range of products
If you're interested in buying other cryptocurrencies, you may want to review what else is offered. Most large exchanges and brokers offer numerous cryptocurrencies and digital assets. The features of the platform might also be of interest, depending on your Polkadot investment strategy. If you want to make a couple of purchases, you probably want a simple application which doesn't require learning how to use some advanced trading software. However, if you're looking to trade Polkadot​ and other cryptocurrencies more actively, then a sophisticated trading platform will be more compelling.

Where can you buy Polkadot in New Zealand?

There are several options for buying Polkadot in New Zealand - our list below includes the most trusted and popular methods.
Disclaimer - the inclusion of any Polkadot exchange or broker below is not an endorsement or a promotion. Our list is for information purposes only.

Buying Polkadot with two local and trusted platforms - Easy Crypto and Swyftx

  • Our research highlighted several Polkadot platforms, but few are based in New Zealand and offer transparency. For this reason, we suggest considering the locally-owned (and trusted) Easy Crypto alongside Swyftx, an Australian-based platform.
  • These two platforms are popular with our users, have esteemed reputations and are trusted by tens of thousands of New Zealanders.
  • Both options are free to join, funded from any New Zealand bank account/card, and in the case of Easy Crypto, there is a local support team.
  • Advertising Disclosure: We may earn a referral bonus for anyone that clicks on some of the below links - see our Advertising Policy for more details.

Easy Crypto

Easy Crypto is another example of a popular destination to buy and sell Polkadot (DOT) and a series of other cryptocurrencies in New Zealand. Easy Crypto has also adopted the non-custodial route and requires users who buy cryptocurrencies from them to have a private wallet to receive the settlement of their purchase. Moreover, the company has gone to great lengths to guide users on keeping their cryptocurrencies safe, with recommendations on hardware wallets, and plenty of user guides on each recommended model.
 
Payment methods: POLI instant pay debit or credit card, or local NZ bank transfer
Fees: All fees are included in the spread, which is why the bid and offer prices might look higher than other platforms. The fees are around 0.70% to 0.90%.
Minimum order size: NZ$50
Settlement: Private wallet
Coins available: 109, including Polkadot
Learn more: ​Easy Crypto

Binance

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 Polkadot 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 Polkadot, 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 Polkadot​. On the exchange, there are hundreds of coins available to trade once you have an account funded with crypto
Learn more: ​Binance

Must-Know Facts Before Buying Polkadot

Polkadot has 10 million coins in circulation which is small for a cryptocurrency, not disimilar to Bitcoin. Our must-know facts help you understand Polkadot better:

Polkadot transactions are non-reversible

This is a great feature for merchants who are concerned about chargebacks. However, if you’ve been scammed, hacked or just sent money to the wrong address, those transactions cannot be reversed.

Polkadot has an finite supply

While the supply of Polkadot is limited to 10 mollion coins, our view is that Polkadot's low price does not mean it's undervalued and a 'buy' (compared to the likes of Bitcoin or Ethereum). The reality is very different, and people buy Polkadot and other cryptocurrencies for vastly different reasons. In summary, just because Polkadot is "cheaper" than other coins doesn't automatically mean it's going to increase.

Polkadot is incredibly secure

As private DOT addresses are not associated with anyone’s identity, the only way to spend funds is to control the private key. However, if you lose the private key and the seed (backup solution), you will also become a victim of Polkadot’s impressive security and your funds will be lost forever.

Polkadot is decentralised

There are no restrictions on who can create a DOT wallet and start using the cryptocurrency. If someone lives in a country with an unreliable or inaccessible banking system, they can use Polkadot without objection. However, this also means no measures prevent known criminals, sanctioned countries and terrorist organisations from using Polkadot (or any other cryptocurrency for that matter).

The past performance of Polkadot is no guarantee of future behaviour

Polkadot is a new crypto that has yet to become a proven store of value and/or be widely used for connecting cryptos. Despite this, Polkadot has seen some impressive gains in in 2021 but the price of DOT is incredibly volatile. If you’re looking for short term gains, you might be very disappointed as it could take months or even years for Polkadot to recover from a correction. Investing in Polkadot is speculative and profits rely on someone paying more for it than you later on.

​​How to Keep your Polkadot Safe by Protecting Your Private Key

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 DOT safe is to use one of the popular hardware wallets that the cryptocurrency community has already tried and tested. When it comes to Polkadot, 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 Polkadots 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 Polkadot 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.

Frequently Asked Questions about Polkadot

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

Is Polkadot a real cryptocurrency?

Yes - Polkadot is a legitimate cryptocurrency, just as Bitcoin, Ethereum and hundreds of others are. Furthermore, unlike Ethereum and Dogecoin which have an unlimited supply. The lack of awareness of Polkadot is one reason as to why the price is much lower than other cryptos, but this does not mean it's under-valued or a buying opportunity.

Can you use Polkadot to buy things?

Yes, but the applications are limited. You can exchange Polkadot for other cryptocurrencies, gift it, use it for online gambling and use it as select online merchants. There are little in-store or online opportunities for New Zealanders outside of these options.

Is it safe to use online Polkadot wallets?

Like many things in life, it’s safe, until it isn’t. Online Polkadot​ wallets offer a lot of conveniences, but they come at a cost. When you keep your crypto in an online wallet, there is always a risk that the provider could be compromised. Cybercriminals are always looking for new ways to exploit cryptocurrency users and businesses. The best advice is to take charge and use a private wallet you control.

Is it safe to keep Polkadot on an exchange?

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 Polkadot for the long term, you should make the necessary arrangements to keep your coins safe.

Buying Polkadot with two local and trusted platforms - Easy Crypto and Swyftx

  • Our research highlighted several Polkadot platforms, but few are based in New Zealand and offer transparency. For this reason, we suggest considering the locally-owned (and trusted) Easy Crypto alongside Swyftx, an Australian-based platform.
  • These two platforms are popular with our users, have esteemed reputations and are trusted by tens of thousands of New Zealanders.
  • Both options are free to join, funded from any New Zealand bank account/card, and in the case of Easy Crypto, there is a local support team.
  • Advertising Disclosure: We may earn a referral bonus for anyone that clicks on some of the below links - see our Advertising Policy for more details.
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