This guide will be useful for people who want to trade cryptocurrencies actively. If you are planning to sell cryptocurrency from time to time, or you’re just starting to get involved in this process, pay attention to the how to sell guide.
Why should you trade on Bitcoin Global?
On Bitcoin Global, you can trade cryptocurrency for traditional currencies through online trades, protected by an escrow service. People prefer to buy and sell cryptocurrency OTC (Over The Counter) because it provides fast transactions and more diverse payment methods. Centralized crypto exchanges are slow and unwieldy. Trading directly with other people using the same payment provider makes the money move much faster. This creates a better user experience for the customer.
Hundreds of crypto traders from all over the world use more than 60+ payment methods on Bitcoin Global. This guide will help you become one of them.
Benefits of trading on Bitcoin Global
- Access to the global trading platform through serving 100+ countries
- An easy and fast way to trade cryptocurrencies
- Secure transactions for all parties ensured by the escrow system
- A reputation system for finding users you can trust
Trading procedure on Bitcoin Global
Let’s have a look at the trading process with an example of selling cryptocurrency. The buying process is quite similar.
- Create a sell cryptocurrency online advertisement. After that, you need to choose a payment method, set your pricing, limits and write your terms of the trade in free form in a message.
- Fund your Bitcoin Global wallet. You need to have cryptocurrency in your Bitcoin Global wallet in order for customers to be able to open trade requests from your advertisements.
- Cryptocurrency escrowing. When a buyer opens a trade with you, the full amount of cryptocurrency is automatically taken from your wallet into escrow. Give the buyer payment instructions and guide the buyer through paying for the trade. You will receive an email notification when someone replies to your advertisement.
- Transaction payment. When a buyer has paid and pressed the “I have paid” button you will receive a notification via email and on the website that a trade has been paid for.
- Sending cryptocurrency. When you’ve confirmed that you have received the payment it’s time to release the cryptocurrency. This moves the cryptocurrency from escrow to the buyers Bitcoin Global wallet.
- Feedback. The final step is to leave feedback for the buyer and encourage the buyer to do the same for you. Feedback is important for gaining reputation and making more trades.
Getting started
Before you start trading you need to consider what payment methods you are going to provide and research the payment method to understand how it works. For the start we recommend you to choose low risk payment methods. Transfer with a specific bank can be a good starting payment method, especially if there are few traders active in your country. Below we’ll describe different payment methods and their risk level.
If you have a new account with no previous trading history, we recommend you start by replying to existing advertisements in order to buy and sell some cryptocurrency. This will help you get a hang of how trading works and it will let you build some trading history which will make your account trustworthy.
Before you start trading
- Verify your account. After registration you’ll receive an email with a link for verification. A verified account is more trustworthy for buyers and will help you get more customers.
- Get some trading experience. With a brand new account it will be hard to find users to reply to your advertisements. Start out by contacting other traders ads to buy and sell, this helps you get your first feedback and trade completions. The more trades and feedback you have, the more trustworthy you are.
- Familiarise yourself with your local legislation. Before you start trading make sure you know local legislation and that you are in compliance with any relevant laws and that you have the necessary business licenses for the jurisdiction you’re trading in. Legislation varies a lot from country to country and whether you are trading as an individual or as a business.
- Explore the payment method you are going to use. Read through other traders ads of the same payment method and make some trades with them. Try to identify possible problems before you start trading. We recommend you start trading using a low risk payment method. Below you’ll see more information about payment methods.
- Use payment accounts only for crypto trading. Some payment providers will temporarily or permanently close your account if you receive unauthorized payments that are related to fraud. Using accounts only for cryptocurrency trading protects your personal finances.
Setting up an advertisement
You can create new advertisements on the advertisement creation page. You can also find this page from the post a trade link in the menu bar. There are some options when creating an advertisement which are required, and a lot of extra options which are optional but recommended to set. Using the extra options allows you to tune your advertisement to suit your trading strategy. You can find all of the advertisements that you have created from your dashboard, you can also find it from the dashboard link in the menu bar. In your dashboard you can also see all of your trades, both open and closed.
Advertisement requirements:
- You need to set a location, currency, payment method, price, limits and write a terms of trade.
- You need to have some cryptocurrency in your Bitcoin Global wallet for your advertisements to be shown publicly.
- You can create up to 5 advertisements at a time.
Required options
- Location. Enter the country where you want your advertisement to appear.
- Payment method. Select the payment method you want to offer from the dropdown menu. See more in the section about payment methods.
- Currency. Choose which currency you’re selling for. For instance, if you’re selling in France you should select EUR. You can use this list to find what your currency acronym is.
- Cryptocurrency. Select the cryptocurrency you want to interact with. BTC, ETH, TRX and USDT are now available on the platform.
- Margin and Price equation. The easy way to price your advertisement is to enter a margin you want above the price. The calculated result is displayed under the price equation field. To do that, enter a percentage in the margin field.
- Min./Max. transaction limit. The minimum transaction limit sets the smallest amount someone can buy. If you set it to five, and you have your currency set to EUR it means that the smallest trade someone can open with you will be for 5 EUR. The maximum transaction limit sets the biggest trade that you want to accept. Note that if you put in a larger maximum than what you have cryptocurrency for in your wallet, the actual maximum will be your wallet balance.
- Terms of Trade. This is the text the buyer sees before he/she opens up a trade with you. It’s a good idea to write instructions for the buyer on how you want the trade to proceed and if you have any specific instructions. If you require, for example, the buyer to submit a receipt as proof of payment before you release the cryptocurrency or if you need the buyer to provide an ID, this is the place to mention it. You can take a look at other traders’ advertisements for the payment method you want to use to get an idea of what good terms of trade contain.
Extra options
- Payment details. Enter here specific information relating to how the buyer should pay, this can be your bank account number or email address (E.g. PayPal).
- Minimum volume. You can set a minimum required cryptocurrency trading volume before a user can open up a trade request for your advertisement. If you set this to 0.1 BTC it will require the person contacting your advertisement to have previously completed trades totalling at least that amount.
- Minimum feedback. Similar to minimum volume, the feedback minimum allows you to set a minimum required feedback percentage required to have in order to open a trade using your advertisement.
- New buyer limit. This is a specific maximum transaction limit for new users. If a new buyer with no previous trading history wants to contact you, this is the largest amount he/she can open a trade for.
- Transaction coefficient. This option works in combination with the new buyer limit. If you set the previous option to 0.5 BTC and the transaction coefficient to 1.5 it will slowly raise the maximum amount that the user can purchase from you. For the first trade it will be your new buyer limit, for the following trade it will be 1.5 times the new buyer limit, or 0.75 BTC for our example.
- Display reference. This shows an automatically generated reference code for the trade. It’s a convenient feature to use as the buyer can enter the reference as part of the message when purchasing, allowing you to quickly match payments to trades.
- Reference type. Helps you to select what kind of reference to display. You can select between short, long, numbers & letters.
- Payment window. This parament sets the time for making payment before the trade will be cancelled automatically.
- Track liquidity. In case you are offering cryptocurrency for sale using a payment method that only allows you to accept a certain amount a day you can use this feature to limit yourself to that. Enabling tracking liquidity lowers the maximum limit of the advertisement each time someone makes a purchase.
General trading tips
- Buyer too is slow or unresponsive. In this case, the escrow will be cancelled automatically unless the buyer presses the “Mark payment done” button in the payment window. If a buyer makes a mistake, you can reopen the trade if you want to finish this trade.
- Dispute the trade. If there are any disagreements in the trade, you can open a dispute. After a dispute has started you can still release the cryptocurrency and finish the trade e.g. in the case the payment took longer than usual to arrive and the dispute was opened prematurely.
Payment provider information
Below you can see the list of currently supported payment methods on Bitcoin Global. If you are thinking about selling cryptocurrency with a certain payment method, check its risk level and read the topic on risk mitigation below.
If you want to see a new payment method added or have questions about the risk of a payment method, please contact Bitcoin Global support. We recommend you to study payment methods that you’ve planned to use.
High risk level
| Payment provider | Description |
|---|---|
| Other online payment | The advertiser gives payment details in the advertisement message. |
| Hal-cash | Hal-Cash is a bank service that allows you to send money to any mobile phone, and withdrawn instantly at an ATM of any of the financial institutions associated with the worldwide system, anytime and anywhere without needing a credit card. |
| Vipps | Send money to anyone who has a Norwegian phone number. |
| Chase Quickpay | Person-to-person payments through Chase’s quickpay system. |
| Chipper Cash | Chipper is a mobile cross-border money transfer platform in Africa. |
| Paypal | Transfer money to anybody with an email address. |
| WebMoney | Secure and immediate transactions online. |
| Moneybookers/Skrill | The simple and secure way to send and receive money. |
| Neteller | Instant deposits, withdrawals and payouts online. |
| Apple Pay | Online payment method to transfer funds between two Apple Pay users. |
| TWINT | Online payment method to transfer funds between two Twint users. |
| Cashier’s check | Checks signed by cashiers. |
| Venmo | Send money to friends using a mobile app in the US. Can be funded using a credit card. |
| Zelle | The service allows you to send transfers and receive payments directly to your bank account. |
| Dwolla | Send money online using Dwolla. |
| Perfect Money | Instant payments and confidential money transfers online. |
| CashU | Pay online securely without a bank account or credit card and fund your account using a variety of methods. |
| Bluebird Card | Card to card payments offered by American Express. |
| GreenDot Card | Green Dot Corporation is an issuer of prepaid MasterCard and Visa cards in the United States. Card to card transfers. |
| Other Online Wallets | Other online wallets that do not have their own category. The advertiser gives payment details in the advertisement description. |
| Other Online Wallet (Global) | International online wallets that do not have their own category.. The advertiser gives payment details in the advertisement description. |
| Other Remittance | Remittance vendors not already on the list. The advertiser gives payment details in the advertisement message. |
| Bitmain Coupon | Coupon given out by Bitmain that you can use to purchase their products. |
| Google Pay | Online payment method to transfer funds between two Google Pay users. |
| Cash App | Send money to friends using a mobile app in the US. Can be funded with debit cards. |
| Credit card | Buy cryptocurrencies using your credit card. |
Medium risk level
| Payment provider | Description |
|---|---|
| National bank transfer | Wire transfer within a specific country. |
| SEPA (EU) bank transfer | Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) wire transfers. Usually recallable up to 10 days. |
| Transfers with specific bank | Transfers to and from other customers with the same bank as you. |
| Cash deposit | Go to a bank/ATM and deposit cash directly to the bank account. |
| Swish | Send and receive Swedish Krona to and from mobile phone numbers. |
| QIWI | Send money to anyone with a QIWI account. All you need to know is their phone number, simple, easy and fast. |
| Tele2 | Tele2 позволяет обмениваться платежами быстро, легко и удобно, зная только номер телефона получателя. |
| Revolut | An electronic money institution providing online wallets. Not the same as a traditional bank. Funds with Revolut remain safeguarded in accounts with a tier-one UK bank, as per our obligations under the e-money regulations. |
| M-PESA Kenya (Safaricom) | Send and receive money with your mobile phone in Africa. |
| PayID | Enables customers of different banks to make and receive real-time payments. |
| Ripple altcoin | Altcoins are other cryptocurrencies than Bitcoin. |
| Litecoin altcoin | Altcoins are other cryptocurrencies than Bitcoin. |
| Ethereum altcoin | Altcoins are other cryptocurrencies than Bitcoin. |
Low risk level
| Payment provider | Description |
|---|---|
| International Wire (SWIFT) | International wire transfer with SWIFT code. |
| MobilePay FI | Easy way to send money with phone numbers, works with all Finnish banks. |
| IMPS Bank Transfer India | Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) – bank transfers in India. |
| UPI Transfer | Transfer money between bank accounts in India. |
| Interac e-transfer | Canadian online transfers. |
| Faster Payments | Faster Payments Scheme Limited (FPSL) mobile payment system in the UK. |
| Paym | The service allows you to make money transfers, knowing only the recipient’s phone number. |
| Paym/Natwest | Pay your contacts with mobile payments by Natwest/Royal Bank of Scotland. |
| Western Union | ПSend and receive money internationally. The receiver can redeem the transfer as cash. |
| PostePay | Italian online payments. |
| Moneygram | Send and receive money internationally. The receiver can redeem the transfer as cash. |
| RIA Money Transfer | Send and receive money internationally. The receiver can redeem the transfer as cash. |
| Xoom | Xoom Corporation is a digital money transfer company based in San Francisco. It provides consumer remittance services to Europe, Canada, Australia, Latin America, the Philippines and India. |
| MobilePay | Easy way to send money with phone numbers, works with all Danish banks. |
| Walmart2Walmart | Send and receive money between two Walmart locations. The receiver can redeem the transfer as cash. |
| Serve2Serve | Reloadable debit cards and transfers between them. |
| Яндекс-деньги | A popular service for making electronic payments. |
Unknown risk level
| Payment provider | Description |
|---|---|
| EcoCash | Send money to and receive money in Zimbabwe with your mobile phone. |
| PayTM | Indian mobile payment method (Pay Through Mobile). |
| Lydia | French mobile payment method. |
| Alipay | Alipay is a major Chinese online payment system. |
| Superflash | Italian debit card with an IBAN number. |
| AstroPay | AstroPay Card is an easy and safe way to make payments online in latin american countries. |
| M-PESA Tanzania (Vodacom) | Send and receive money with a mobile phone in Africa. |
| Transferwise | Transfer money online internationally. |
| Payeer | Send money anywhere in the world, the receiver does not need to be registered. |
| Advcash | Advanced cash is an online wallet service that lets you send and receive money. |
| Hyperwallet | Hyperwallet is an online payment solution which offers instant bank transfer funding in Canada. |
| Tigo-Pesa Tanzania | Send and receive money with a mobile phone in Africa. |
| Payoneer | Payoneer is a financial services business that provides online money transfer and e-commerce payment services. |
| Paxum | Send money anywhere in the world with just an email address. |
| Cash at ATM | Cash at an ATM is a service some banks that lets you withdraw or deposit money from/to ATMs with a PIN code. |
| WeChat Pay is a digital wallet service incorporated into WeChat, which allows users to perform mobile payments and send money between contacts. | |
| Easypaisa | Send money to other people in Pakistan using your mobile phone. |
| WorldRemit | Send money anywhere in the world. |
Risk level explanation
These risk levels apply when you sell cryptocurrency online as the risk comes from accepting payments that can later be charged back. When you buy cryptocurrency you are completely protected by escrow as long as you have proof of payment.
| Risk level | Typical payment provider features | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Low | The payment method is irreversible or almost irreversible. | It is safe to use this payment method, Bitcoin Global is aware of few or no issues with it. |
| Medium | The payment is reversible and Bitcoin Global receives the occasional report of fraud. | Set first time buyer limits. Require reputation and account history. Check the buyer ID. |
| High | It is easy for the buyer to reverse the payment, reversals can occur weeks or months after the trade. The payment provider may lock your account without a refund after receiving payments for cryptocurrency. Bitcoin Global are aware of several cases of fraud or other problems with trades. Proceed with caution. | Set very low first time buyer limits. Require high user reputation and long account history. Check the buyer ID. |
| Unknown | Bitcoin Global has not researched this payment method or there is little to no history with it being used for crypto trading. |
How to trade cryptocurrencies safely?
It’s important to have good digital security, but it’s especially important when you’re trading cryptocurrencies. When you have crypto selling advertisements you tell the world that you have cryptocurrency, which can make you an attractive target to cyber criminals if you don’t check your security.
Most common attacks are done using spear phishing techniques. In this case, the attackers get access to your email or cell phone account and after that for other services. Thus, they can get access to your financial services. This is why it’s very important to keep all of your online accounts secure, not just your Bitcoin Global account. By following these steps you can be sure that your account is protected from most security threats.
How to protect your account?
- Enable Two-Factor authentication on your Bitcoin Global account, this adds a second layer of security in case your password falls into the wrong hands. Make sure you do not store the backup code electronically, write them down and store the code safely. Enable it from your security settings.
- Use a different email address for your Bitcoin Global account that is not used for anything else. Don’t give this address out to your customers, use a separate email account for customer correspondence. Gmail accounts are good because you can protect them with two-factor authentication.
- Review your login history & authorized browsers. From the account security settings you can see your Login history. It’s a good habit to check these from time to time.
- Beware of any images, links and other files that customers or unknown people send you. They can infect your computer with malware or worse. Run periodic malware and anti-virus checks on your computer.
- Don’t use the same password on more than one site, instead use unique and randomly generated passwords. A password manager, like KeePass, allows you to do this without having to remember all your passwords. Using the same password on more than one site is very dangerous, it can allow an attacker to get access to many of your accounts by knowing only one password.
- Enable Two-Factor authentication on services that support it, e.g. Google, Facebook, Dropbox all support it.
- Educate yourself on cyber security. Having knowledge is probably the best defence, read up on common attack techniques such as spear phishing to know how to identify potential attacks.
Verify the buyer
If you are selling cryptocurrency using a reversible payment method, you should verify that the buyer is making the payment with his/her own account.
When you receive a new trade, take a look at the buyer’s Bitcoin Global profile to gauge his/her reputation. Go through the buyer’s previous feedback and his trading history.
On the trade page you will see buyer security information. Always pay attention to it for understanding who your trading partner is. Also, check whether the real name of his account matches the name attached to his payment and that the user’s IP address is from the same country as the payment is coming from.
If you’re selling using a payment method such as transfer with a specific bank where the buyer’s name is visible, limiting your advertisement to only users who have verified their ID with Bitcoin Global is a good idea.
Enable first time buyer limits
A large part of fraud occurs from new accounts. Setting first time buyer limits on your advertisement helps you limit the risk you expose yourself to any potential damage from fraudulent buys. They prevent a no-reputation buyer sending high volume trade requests. Setting the limits itself discourages the fraudulent buyers to contact you. See more above in the section “Setting up an advertisement”.
Reversible payments
Most online payment methods are reversible. The payment provider can take back a payment even after it has arrived to your account. For example, PayPal payments are reversible up to 180 days.
In many countries, online banking is not protected by two-factor authentication. This means that whoever gains the control of the user’s computer, using malware or otherwise hijacked computer, can do unauthorized bank transfers. This is an issue for SWIFT, SEPA and wire transfers. Receiving money from a stolen source may lead to freezing your bank accounts for the duration of criminal investigation. You can mitigate this risk by checking that the buyer ID matches the sender bank account name.
Recommended reading: The May Scale of Money Hardness and Bitcoin.
Characteristics of fraudulent activity
Scammers take advantage of the fact that crypto transactions are irreversible or they try to trick you into releasing cryptocurrency without sending payment. That’s why it is important to never release cryptocurrency from escrow until you have payment. Even if it’s a regular buyer and someone you know, as once the cryptocurrency has been released from escrow, there is no way for you to get it back.
With reversible payments, scammers will attempt to pay using stolen credentials or purchase proof. Requiring the buyer to have an ID verified their Bitcoin Global account, and always checking that the user’s real name matches the payment information helps you stop these attempts. In case you encounter a suspicious user you can always open a dispute for the trade and Bitcoin Global support will help you ensure a safe trade.
Quick tips on identifying scammers
- Hasty actions. Fraudulent buyers are often in a hurry. The more a customer asks you to hurry/rush the more suspicious you should be. Real customers always have patience.
- Escrow bypass. Fraudulent buyers often suggest doing all or part of the transaction outside escrow and then don’t complete their part of the transaction.
- Fake payment confirmation. Be careful about photoshopped payment confirmation, don’t release cryptocurrency until you have confirmed that you have received the money. You are not obliged to release a trade until you can verify that you have received the buyer’s payment.
- Malicious links. Unscrupulous trading partner can send you malisiouslinks or software. Try to not open any links. If you must, use a different browser than the one you are using for trading.
Security tips
Buying cryptocurrency with online payment methods is a generally safe process protected by Bitcoin Global escrow service. Nonetheless, you should pay attention to the following tips:
- Never use external communication for trade sensitive information (e.g. receiving payment details).
- Check that the seller’s payment account details are compatible with their Bitcoin Global verified name.
- Upload your payment evidence to the trade chat whenever possible.
- Keep an eye on the payment time window to make sure that you complete payment and mark trade as paid before it expires.
- Never press the “Cancel trade” button if trade is paid. In case of a disagreement with the seller, start the dispute.
- Use a separate browser for Bitcoin Global and different browsers for other websites.
- Bookmark Bitcoin Global in your browser and always use the bookmark for visiting the website. This helps you avoid accidentally visiting phishing websites, they exist and can be very convincing. Even experienced traders have fallen victim to phishing websites.
- If you’re unsure about a user, you can always contact support for help.
Disputes
- The button "Open dispute" appears 60 minutes after transaction completion.
- If the buyer or seller considers the deal incorrect, he/she can start the dispute. In this case, both participants are notified via email and website.
- When the buyer or seller clicks the "Open dispute" button, Bitcoin Global Administrator joins the chat.
- Administrator learns the deal in detail, ask some questions and make a final decision about the dispute according to our terms of services.
Bitcoin Global wishes you happy trading!