How and Where to Buy Cosmos (ATOM) – Detailed Guide
- What is ATOM?
- Step 1: Register on Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange
- Step 2: Buy BTC with fiat money
- Step 3: Transfer BTC to an Altcoin Exchange
- Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange
- Step 5: Trade ATOM
- Last Step: Store ATOM securely in hardware wallets
- Other useful tools for trading ATOM
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Latest News for ATOM
- ATOM Price Prediction and Price Movement
What is ATOM?
What Is Cosmos (ATOM)?
In a nutshell, Cosmos bills itself as a project that solves some of the “hardest problems” facing the blockchain industry. It aims to offer an antidote to “slow, expensive, unscalable and environmentally harmful” proof-of-work protocols, like those used by Bitcoin, by offering an ecosystem of connected blockchains.
The project’s other goals include making blockchain technology less complex and difficult for developers thanks to a modular framework that demystifies decentralized apps. Last but not least, an Interblockchain Communication protocol makes it easier for blockchain networks to communicate with each other — preventing fragmentation in the industry.
Cosmos’ origins can be dated back to 2014, when Tendermint, a core contributor to the network, was founded. In 2016, a white paper for Cosmos was published — and a token sale was held the following year. ATOM tokens are earned through a hybrid proof-of-stake algorithm, and they help to keep the Cosmos Hub, the project’s flagship blockchain, secure. This cryptocurrency also has a role in the network’s governance.
Who Are the Founders of Cosmos?
The co-founders of Tendermint — the gateway to the Cosmos ecosystem — were Jae Kwon, Zarko Milosevic and Ethan Buchman. Although Kwon is still listed as principal architect, he stepped down as CEO in 2020. He maintains he is still a part of the project but is mainly focusing on other initiatives. He has now been replaced as Tendermint’s CEO by Peng Zhong, and the whole board of directors was given quite a substantial refresh. Their goals include enhancing the experience for developers, creating an enthusiastic community for Cosmos and building educational resources so greater numbers of people are aware of what this network is capable of.
What Makes Cosmos Unique?
A major concern for some in the crypto industry centers on the levels of fragmentation seen in blockchain networks. There are hundreds in existence, but very few of them can communicate with each other. Cosmos aims to turn this on its head by making this possible.
Cosmos is described as “Blockchain 3.0” — and as we mentioned earlier, a big goal is ensuring that its infrastructure is straightforward to use. To this end, the Cosmos software development kit focuses on modularity. This allows a network to be easily built using chunks of code that already exist. Long-term, it’s hoped that complex applications will be straightforward to construct as a result.
Scalability is another priority, meaning substantially more transactions can be processed a second than more old-fashioned blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. If blockchains are to ever achieve mainstream adoption, they’ll need to be able to cope with demand as well as existing payment processing companies or websites — or be even better.
Cosmos Interchain Accounts Upgrade
The Interchain Foundation, a non-profit organization of the Cosmos ecosystem, announced the release of the Interchain Accounts upgrade on Feb. 17, 2022. Launched in April 2021, the Inter-Blockchain Communications (IBC) protocol is the Cosmos standard for blockchain interoperability. It allows an individual blockchain to control an account on a separate chain. There are 38 projects utilizing IBC currently, notably Terra, Crypto.org chain and Gravity bridge. The Interchain Accounts upgrade will be the largest to the ecosystem since Stargate — which enabled Cosmos blockchains to connect with each other using the standardized protocol for IBC for the first time ever. With Interchain Accounts, users can stake, vote, swap tokens and more on other blockchains. The upgrade serves the purpose of “enabling composability in IBC [which] allows innovation in distinct applications to be deployed without needing to upgrade the entire Interchain.”
Check out simple definitions for crypto terms in our glossary
Learn about blockchain basics with CMC Alexandria
How Many Cosmos (ATOM) Coins Are There in Circulation?
ATOM has a very specific total supply — 260,906,513 to be exact. Of these, at the time of writing, about 203,121,910 were in circulation. It is worth noting that these cryptocurrencies aren’t mined — instead, they are earned through staking.
Two private sales were held in January 2017, followed by a public sale in April of that year. This raised a total of $16 million, which is the equivalent of about $0.10 per ATOM.
Breaking down the token distribution, about 80% was allocated to investors, while the remaining 20% was split between two companies: All In Bits and the Interchain Foundation.
Cosmos has compared ATOM tokens to the ASICs that are used to mine Bitcoin. As a technical paper written by the Tendermint team explained: “It is a piece of virtualized hardware (economic capital) that you need to obtain in order to participate as a keeper in the network.”
How Is the Cosmos Network Secured?
As we mentioned earlier, Cosmos uses a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm. Validator nodes that stake a higher quantity of ATOM tokens are more likely to be chosen to verify transactions and earn rewards. Nodes that are found to be acting dishonestly are penalized — and they can end up losing the tokens that they had at stake.
Where Can You Buy Cosmos (ATOM)?
It is now available across a number of major exchanges — many people choose to buy Cosmos on Binance, Coinbase and OKEx. It’s possible to find trading pairs with a number of fiat currencies, and you can find more about the process of converting dollars and euros to crypto here.
ATOM was first tradable on 14th Mar, 2019. It has a total supply of 266,643,500.898,172. As of right now ATOM has a market capitalization of USD $unknown. The current price of ATOM is $8.18 and is ranked 23 out of the top 100 cryptocurrencies on Coinmarketcap and has recently surged 31.17 percent at the time of writing.
ATOM has been listed on a number of crypto exchanges, unlike other main cryptocurrencies, it cannot be directly purchased with fiats money. However, You can still easily buy this coin by first buying Bitcoin from any fiat-to-crypto exchanges and then transfer to the exchange that offers to trade this coin, in this guide article we will walk you through in detail the steps to buy ATOM.
Step 1: Register on Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange
You will have to first buy one of the major cryptocurrencies, in this case, Bitcoin (BTC). In this article we will walk you through in details two of the most commonly-used fiat-to-crypto exchanges, Uphold.com and Coinbase. Both exchanges have their own fee policies and other features that we will go through in detail. It is recommended that you try both of them and figure out the one that suits you best.
Select Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange for details:
- UpHold
Being one of the most popular and convenient fiat-to-crypto exchanges, UpHold has the following advantages:
- Easy to buy and trade among multiple assets, more than 50 and still adding
- Currently more than 7M users worldwide
- You can apply for UpHold Debit card where you can spend the crypto assets on your account like a normal debit card! (US only but will be in the UK later)
- Easy to use mobile app where you can withdraw fund to a bank or any other altcoin exchanges easily
- No hidden fees and any other account fees
- There are limited buy/sell orders for more advanced users
- You can easily set up recurring deposits for Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) if you intend to hold cryptos long term
- USDT, which is one of the most popular USD-backed stablecoins (basically a crypto that is backed by real fiat money so they are less volatile and can be treated almost as the fiat money it's pegged with) is available, this is more convenient if the altcoin you intend to buy has only USDT trading pairs on the altcoin exchange so you don't have to go through another currency conversion while you buy the altcoin.
Type your email and click 'Next'. Make sure you provide your real name as UpHold will need it for account and identity verification. Choose a strong password so that your account isn't vulnerable to hackers.
You will receive a confirmation email. Open it and click on the link within. You will then be required to provide a valid mobile number to set up two-factor authentication (2FA), it is an extra layer to the security of your account and it is highly recommended that you keep this feature turned on.
Follow the next step to finish your identity verification. These steps are a bit daunting especially when you are waiting to buy an asset but just like any other financial institutions, UpHold is regulated in most countries such as the US, the UK and the EU. You can take this as a trade-off to using a trusted platform to make your first crypto purchase. Good news is that the whole so-called Know-Your-Customers (KYC) process is now fully automated and it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to finish.
Step 2: Buy BTC with fiat money
Once you finished the KYC process. You will be asked to add a payment method. Here you can either choose to provide a credit/debit card or use a bank transfer. You may be charged higher fees depending on your credit card company and the volatile prices when using cards but you will also make an instant purchase. While a bank transfer will be cheaper but slower, depending on the country of your residence, some countries will offer instant cash deposit with low fees.
Now you are all set, on the 'Transact' screen under the 'From' field, select your fiat currency, and then on the 'To' field choose Bitcoin, click preview to review your transaction and the click confirm if everything looks good... and congrats! You've just made your first crypto purchase.
Step 3: Transfer BTC to an Altcoin Exchange
Select altcoin exchanges:
- Gate.io
- MXC
- OKEx
- Binance
- Huobi
- PancakeSwap
But we are not done yet, since ATOM is an altcoin we need to transfer our BTC to an exchange that ATOM can be traded, here we will use Gate.io as our exchange. Gate.io is a popular exchange to trade altcoins and it has a large number of tradable altcoins pairs. Use the link below to register your new account.
Gate.io is an American cryptocurrency exchange that launched 2017. As the exchange is American, US-investors can of course trade here and we recommend US traders to sign up on this exchange. The exchange is available both in English and Chinese (the latter being very helpful for Chinese investors). Gate.io’s main selling factor is their wide selection of trading pairs. You can find most of the new altcoins here. Gate.io also demonstrates an impressive trading volume. It is almost every day one of the top 20 exchanges with the highest trading volume. The trading volume amounts to approx. USD 100 million on a daily basis. The top 10 trading pairs on Gate.io in terms of trading volume usually have USDT (Tether) as one part of the pair. So, to summarize the foregoing, Gate.io’s vast number of trading pairs and its extraordinary liquidity are both very impressive aspects of this exchange.
After going through a similar process as we've done before with UpHold, you will be advised to set up 2FA authentication as well, finish it as it adds extra security to your account.
Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange
Depends on the policies of the exchange you might be required to go through another KYC process, this should usually take you from 30 minutes to possibly a few days maximum. Though the process should be straight-forward and easy to follow. Once you're done with it you should have full access to your exchange wallet.
If this is your first time making a crypto deposit, the screen here may look a bit scary. But don't worry, it's basically simpler than making a bank transfer. At the box on the right, you will see a string of random numbers saying 'BTC address', this is a unique public address of your BTC wallet at Gate.io and you can receive BTC by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought BTC on UpHold to this wallet, click on 'Copy Address' or right-click on the full address and click copy to grab this address to your clipboard.
Now head back to UpHold, go to the Transact screen and click on BTC on the "From" field, choose the amount you wan to send and on the "To" field choose BTC under "Crypto Network", then click "Preview withdraw".
On the next screen, paste the wallet address from your clipboard, for security consideration you should always check if both addresses are matching. It is known that there are certain computer malware that would alter the content in your clipboard into another wallet address and you will be essentially sending funds to another person.
After reviewing, click 'Confirm' to proceed, you should receive a confirmation email instantly, click on the confirmation link in the email and your coins are on the way to Gate.io!
Now go back to Gate.io and head to your exchange wallets, don't worry if you haven't seen your deposit here. It is probably still being verified in the blockchain network and it should take a few minutes for your coins to arrive. Depending on the network traffic condition of the Bitcoin network, during busy times it may take even longer.
You should receive a confirmation notification from Gate.io once your BTC has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase ATOM!
Step 5: Trade ATOM
Go back to Gate.io, then go to 'Exchange'. Boom! What a view! The constantly flicking figures might be a bit scary, but relax, let's get our heads around this.
In the right column there is a search bar, now make sure "BTC" is selected as we are trading BTC to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in "ATOM", you should see ATOM/BTC, select that pair and you should see a price chart of ATOM/BTC in the middle of the page.
Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy ATOM", inside of the box, choose the "Market" tab here as that is the most straight-forward type of buying orders. You can either type in your amount or choose what portion of your BTC deposit you would like to spend on buying, by clicking on the percentage buttons. When you have confirmed everything, click "Buy ATOM". Voila! You have finally bought ATOM!
But we are not done yet, since ATOM is an altcoin we need to transfer our BTC to an exchange that ATOM can be traded, here we will use MXC as our exchange. MXC is a popular exchange to trade altcoins and it has a large number of tradable altcoins pairs. Use the link below to register your new account.
Launched in Apr 2018, MXC is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange registered in Seychelles. It supports CNY, VND, USD, GBP, EUR, AUD deposit, and CNY, VND withdrawal. As far as we can tell, US-investors may trade at MXC. It offers trading in 242 coins and has 374 trading pairs. They are currently no. 7 in terms of the most supported cryptocurrencies compared to other spot trading exchanges according to Coingecko. Most importantly, MXC is ON TOP of the Decentralised Finance (DeFi) wave and constantly adding support for DeFi coins.
After going through a similar process as we've done before with UpHold, you will be advised to set up 2FA authentication as well, finish it as it adds extra security to your account.
Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange
Depends on the policies of the exchange you might be required to go through another KYC process, this should usually take you from 30 minutes to possibly a few days maximum. Though the process should be straight-forward and easy to follow. Once you're done with it you should have full access to your exchange wallet.
If this is your first time making a crypto deposit, the screen here may look a bit scary. But don't worry, it's basically simpler than making a bank transfer. At the box on the right, you will see a string of random numbers saying 'BTC address', this is a unique public address of your BTC wallet at MXC and you can receive BTC by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought BTC on UpHold to this wallet, click on 'Copy Address' or right-click on the full address and click copy to grab this address to your clipboard.
Now head back to UpHold, go to the Transact screen and click on BTC on the "From" field, choose the amount you wan to send and on the "To" field choose BTC under "Crypto Network", then click "Preview withdraw".
On the next screen, paste the wallet address from your clipboard, for security consideration you should always check if both addresses are matching. It is known that there are certain computer malware that would alter the content in your clipboard into another wallet address and you will be essentially sending funds to another person.
After reviewing, click 'Confirm' to proceed, you should receive a confirmation email instantly, click on the confirmation link in the email and your coins are on the way to MXC!
Now go back to MXC and head to your exchange wallets, don't worry if you haven't seen your deposit here. It is probably still being verified in the blockchain network and it should take a few minutes for your coins to arrive. Depending on the network traffic condition of the Bitcoin network, during busy times it may take even longer.
You should receive a confirmation notification from MXC once your BTC has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase ATOM!
Step 5: Trade ATOM
Go back to MXC, then go to 'Exchange'. Boom! What a view! The constantly flicking figures might be a bit scary, but relax, let's get our heads around this.
In the right column there is a search bar, now make sure "BTC" is selected as we are trading BTC to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in "ATOM", you should see ATOM/BTC, select that pair and you should see a price chart of ATOM/BTC in the middle of the page.
Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy ATOM", inside of the box, choose the "Market" tab here as that is the most straight-forward type of buying orders. You can either type in your amount or choose what portion of your BTC deposit you would like to spend on buying, by clicking on the percentage buttons. When you have confirmed everything, click "Buy ATOM". Voila! You have finally bought ATOM!
But we are not done yet, since ATOM is an altcoin we need to transfer our BTC to an exchange that ATOM can be traded, here we will use OKEx as our exchange. OKEx is a popular exchange to trade altcoins and it has a large number of tradable altcoins pairs. Use the link below to register your new account.
OKEx is a crypto exchange that was previously based in Hong Kong. According to info provided directly from the exchange to us, it is now based in Malta. Malta is together with Estonia and Gibraltar one of the few countries in Europe that has clear license requirements for crypto exchanges. When Malta issued license requirements for crypto exchanges, a lot of exchanges from other parts of the world actually relocated to Malta. US-investors may not trade on this exchange. So if you are a US-investor and want to trade at OKEx, you’ll have to reconsider your choice of trading venue and choose one of the other top crypto exchanges.
After going through a similar process as we've done before with UpHold, you will be advised to set up 2FA authentication as well, finish it as it adds extra security to your account.
Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange
Depends on the policies of the exchange you might be required to go through another KYC process, this should usually take you from 30 minutes to possibly a few days maximum. Though the process should be straight-forward and easy to follow. Once you're done with it you should have full access to your exchange wallet.
If this is your first time making a crypto deposit, the screen here may look a bit scary. But don't worry, it's basically simpler than making a bank transfer. At the box on the right, you will see a string of random numbers saying 'BTC address', this is a unique public address of your BTC wallet at OKEx and you can receive BTC by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought BTC on UpHold to this wallet, click on 'Copy Address' or right-click on the full address and click copy to grab this address to your clipboard.
Now head back to UpHold, go to the Transact screen and click on BTC on the "From" field, choose the amount you wan to send and on the "To" field choose BTC under "Crypto Network", then click "Preview withdraw".
On the next screen, paste the wallet address from your clipboard, for security consideration you should always check if both addresses are matching. It is known that there are certain computer malware that would alter the content in your clipboard into another wallet address and you will be essentially sending funds to another person.
After reviewing, click 'Confirm' to proceed, you should receive a confirmation email instantly, click on the confirmation link in the email and your coins are on the way to OKEx!
Now go back to OKEx and head to your exchange wallets, don't worry if you haven't seen your deposit here. It is probably still being verified in the blockchain network and it should take a few minutes for your coins to arrive. Depending on the network traffic condition of the Bitcoin network, during busy times it may take even longer.
You should receive a confirmation notification from OKEx once your BTC has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase ATOM!
Step 5: Trade ATOM
Go back to OKEx, then go to 'Exchange'. Boom! What a view! The constantly flicking figures might be a bit scary, but relax, let's get our heads around this.
In the right column there is a search bar, now make sure "BTC" is selected as we are trading BTC to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in "ATOM", you should see ATOM/BTC, select that pair and you should see a price chart of ATOM/BTC in the middle of the page.
Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy ATOM", inside of the box, choose the "Market" tab here as that is the most straight-forward type of buying orders. You can either type in your amount or choose what portion of your BTC deposit you would like to spend on buying, by clicking on the percentage buttons. When you have confirmed everything, click "Buy ATOM". Voila! You have finally bought ATOM!
But we are not done yet, since ATOM is an altcoin we need to transfer our BTC to an exchange that ATOM can be traded, here we will use Binance as our exchange. Binance is a popular exchange to trade altcoins and it has a large number of tradable altcoins pairs. Use the link below to register your new account.
Binance is a popular cryptocurrency exchange which was started in China but then moved their headquarters to the crypto-friendly Island of Malta in the EU. Binance is popular for its crypto to crypto exchange services. Binance exploded onto the scene in the mania of 2017 and has since gone on to become the top crypto exchange in the world. Unfortunately, Binance does not allow US investors so we recommend you to sign up on other exchanges we recommend on this page.
After going through a similar process as we've done before with UpHold, you will be advised to set up 2FA authentication as well, finish it as it adds extra security to your account.
Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange
Depends on the policies of the exchange you might be required to go through another KYC process, this should usually take you from 30 minutes to possibly a few days maximum. Though the process should be straight-forward and easy to follow. Once you're done with it you should have full access to your exchange wallet.
If this is your first time making a crypto deposit, the screen here may look a bit scary. But don't worry, it's basically simpler than making a bank transfer. At the box on the right, you will see a string of random numbers saying 'BTC address', this is a unique public address of your BTC wallet at Binance and you can receive BTC by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought BTC on UpHold to this wallet, click on 'Copy Address' or right-click on the full address and click copy to grab this address to your clipboard.
Now head back to UpHold, go to the Transact screen and click on BTC on the "From" field, choose the amount you wan to send and on the "To" field choose BTC under "Crypto Network", then click "Preview withdraw".
On the next screen, paste the wallet address from your clipboard, for security consideration you should always check if both addresses are matching. It is known that there are certain computer malware that would alter the content in your clipboard into another wallet address and you will be essentially sending funds to another person.
After reviewing, click 'Confirm' to proceed, you should receive a confirmation email instantly, click on the confirmation link in the email and your coins are on the way to Binance!
Now go back to Binance and head to your exchange wallets, don't worry if you haven't seen your deposit here. It is probably still being verified in the blockchain network and it should take a few minutes for your coins to arrive. Depending on the network traffic condition of the Bitcoin network, during busy times it may take even longer.
You should receive a confirmation notification from Binance once your BTC has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase ATOM!
Step 5: Trade ATOM
Go back to Binance, then go to 'Exchange'. Boom! What a view! The constantly flicking figures might be a bit scary, but relax, let's get our heads around this.
In the right column there is a search bar, now make sure "BTC" is selected as we are trading BTC to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in "ATOM", you should see ATOM/BTC, select that pair and you should see a price chart of ATOM/BTC in the middle of the page.
Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy ATOM", inside of the box, choose the "Market" tab here as that is the most straight-forward type of buying orders. You can either type in your amount or choose what portion of your BTC deposit you would like to spend on buying, by clicking on the percentage buttons. When you have confirmed everything, click "Buy ATOM". Voila! You have finally bought ATOM!
But we are not done yet, since ATOM is an altcoin we need to transfer our BTC to an exchange that ATOM can be traded, here we will use Huobi as our exchange. Huobi is a popular exchange to trade altcoins and it has a large number of tradable altcoins pairs. Use the link below to register your new account.
Huobi is originally a Chinese crypto exchange. From what it seems, it has now registered in the Seychelles. This exchange is one of the six exchanges from the Seychelles. The liquidity at Huobi is impressive. The liquidity, together with its customer support that is open 24 hours a day 365 days a year and good security. If you sign up to Huobi using our link below, you will receive a series of welcome bonuses, as follows: 1. USDT 10 when you have registered and verified your profile, 2. USDT 50 when you have deposited/bought 100 USDT worth of tokens via Huobi OTC, and 3. A chance of up to USDT 60 when you have completed a minimum of 100 USDT worth of crypto-to-crypto trading. Huobi does not allow US-investors on its exchange.
After going through a similar process as we've done before with UpHold, you will be advised to set up 2FA authentication as well, finish it as it adds extra security to your account.
Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange
Depends on the policies of the exchange you might be required to go through another KYC process, this should usually take you from 30 minutes to possibly a few days maximum. Though the process should be straight-forward and easy to follow. Once you're done with it you should have full access to your exchange wallet.
If this is your first time making a crypto deposit, the screen here may look a bit scary. But don't worry, it's basically simpler than making a bank transfer. At the box on the right, you will see a string of random numbers saying 'BTC address', this is a unique public address of your BTC wallet at Huobi and you can receive BTC by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought BTC on UpHold to this wallet, click on 'Copy Address' or right-click on the full address and click copy to grab this address to your clipboard.
Now head back to UpHold, go to the Transact screen and click on BTC on the "From" field, choose the amount you wan to send and on the "To" field choose BTC under "Crypto Network", then click "Preview withdraw".
On the next screen, paste the wallet address from your clipboard, for security consideration you should always check if both addresses are matching. It is known that there are certain computer malware that would alter the content in your clipboard into another wallet address and you will be essentially sending funds to another person.
After reviewing, click 'Confirm' to proceed, you should receive a confirmation email instantly, click on the confirmation link in the email and your coins are on the way to Huobi!
Now go back to Huobi and head to your exchange wallets, don't worry if you haven't seen your deposit here. It is probably still being verified in the blockchain network and it should take a few minutes for your coins to arrive. Depending on the network traffic condition of the Bitcoin network, during busy times it may take even longer.
You should receive a confirmation notification from Huobi once your BTC has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase ATOM!
Step 5: Trade ATOM
Go back to Huobi, then go to 'Exchange'. Boom! What a view! The constantly flicking figures might be a bit scary, but relax, let's get our heads around this.
In the right column there is a search bar, now make sure "BTC" is selected as we are trading BTC to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in "ATOM", you should see ATOM/BTC, select that pair and you should see a price chart of ATOM/BTC in the middle of the page.
Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy ATOM", inside of the box, choose the "Market" tab here as that is the most straight-forward type of buying orders. You can either type in your amount or choose what portion of your BTC deposit you would like to spend on buying, by clicking on the percentage buttons. When you have confirmed everything, click "Buy ATOM". Voila! You have finally bought ATOM!
But we are not done yet. We need to convert our BTC into ATOM. As ATOM is currently listed on PancakeSwap we will guide you through how to convert your BTC on the platform. Unlike other centralised exchanges the conversion steps will be a little different on PancakeSwap since it is a decentralised exchange (DEX) which does not require you to register an account nor going through any KYC process, however, trading on a DEX requires you to manage your own private key to your altcoin wallet and it is suggested that you take extra care of your wallet private key, because if you lost your keys, it means that you will lost access to your coins forever and no customer support will help you retrieve your assets back. Although if managed properly it is in fact more secure to store your assets in your own private wallet than on exchange wallets. If you are still uncomfortable with using a DEX just yet, check if ATOM is available on any other traditional centralised exchanges on the tab above. Otherwise let’s follow these steps carefully.
Convert your BTC into BNB on Binance
PancakeSwap is a DEX that is similar to Uniswap/Sushiswap, but instead it runs on Binance Smart Chain (BSC), where you will be able to trade all BEP-20 tokens (as oppose to ERC-20 tokens in the Ethereum blockchain), unlike Ethereum, it greatly reduces the trading(gas) fees while trading on the platform and is gaining popularity recently. PancakeSwap is built on an automated market maker (AMM) system which relies on user-funded liquidity pools and that is why it can work perfectly without a traditional order book from centralised exchanges.
In short, as ATOM is a BEP-20 token running on Binance Smart Chain, the quickest way to buy it is to transfer your BTC to Binance (or the exchanges listed on the table below for US traders), convert it into BNB, then send it to your own wallet via Binance Smart Chain and swap your BNB for ATOM on PancakeSwap.
US traders should consider signing up on the exchanges below.
Once you have registered on Binance or the exchanges suggested above, head over to the wallet page and choose the BTC and click deposit. Copy the BTC address and head back to UpHold, withdraw your BTC to this address and wait for it to arrive, this should take around 15-30 minutes depending on usage of the BTC network. Once arrived, trade your BTC to Binance Coin (BNB).
Transfer BNB to your own wallet
Here comes the trickiest part of the process, now you need to create your own wallet to hold both BNB and ATOM, there are several options to create your own wallet, the best option is to use a hardware wallet, such as Ledger Nano S or Ledger Nano X. They are secure hardware that provide various layers of security to protect your assets, you only have to store the seed phrases in a safe place and never put it online (i.e. do NOT upload the seed phrases to any cloud services/storage/email, and also do not take photo of it). If you are planning to stay in the crypto scene for a while, it is highly recommended that you get a hardware wallet.
Alternatively you can create your own wallet, here we will use MetaMask as an example to show you how to set up your wallet.
Add MetaMask extension to Chrome
We recommend using Google Chrome or Brave Browser here. Go to Chrome Web Store and search for MetaMask, make sure the extension is offered by https://metamask.io for safety and then click Add to Chrome.
Proceed with "Get Started" and then click on "create a wallet" in the next screen, read all the instructions on the next screen and then click "Agree"
Next choose a secure password to secure your MetaMask wallet, this password is not your private key or seed phrases, you only need this password to access the Chrome Extension.
Here comes the backup phrase generation step, on the screen you will see a list of random words appearing after you click "reveal secret words", write these words down on a piece of paper and do not ever save them online, anywhere. For extra security you may even consider getting a Cryptosteel Capsule from Ledger to store your phrases securely and physically.
Once you have saved your seed phrases securely, confirm on the next screen by verifying them. And you’re done! Read the tips once more to ensure you’re fully aware of the security issues and click all done, now your wallet is ready. Now click on the MetaMask icon on the extension bar on the browser and unlock your wallet with your password. You should see your initial balance afterwards.
Now you are ready to deposit your BNB to your wallet, head over to PancakeSwap, click "Connect" at the top and choose MetaMask.
If this is your first time to connect with MetaMask you should be asked immediately if you would like to add the Binance Smart Chain network to your MetaMask, please do proceed with this step as it is very important that you make sure you are sending your BNB via the right network. After adding the network, switch to the network on MetaMask and you should be able to see your BNB balance on the Binance Smart Chain. Now copy the address to clipboard by clicking on the account name.
Now head back to Binance or whichever exchange you bought BNB. Go to the BNB wallet and select Withdraw, on the recipient address, paste your own wallet address and make sure it is the correct address, then on transfer network, make sure you have selected Binance Smart Chain (BSC) or BEP20 (BSC)
Click submit and follow the verification steps afterwards. After successfully withdrawing your BNB it should arrive very shortly to your own wallet. Now you’re ready to buy ATOM finally!
Head back to PancakeSwap, select Trade > Exchange on the left sidebar
You should see a relatively simpler interface here with basically just two fields, from and to, and a big button saying either "Connect Wallet" or “Swap”.
Click on Connect Wallet if you haven’t done so already. Otherwise you should be able to see your BNB balance here at the from field, enter the amount you would like to exchange for ATOM and then on the to field, choose ATOM from the dropdown, the corresponding amount of ATOM should show up immediately. Verify and then proceed with "Swap". In the next screen, confirm the transaction once more by clicking Confirm Swap. Now MetaMask should pop up and ask you if you want to allow PancakeSwap to spend your BNB, click Confirm. Wait for the confirmation screen until it shows "Transaction Submitted", congratulations! You have finally bought ATOM!! After a short while you should be able to see your ATOM balance on your MetaMask Wallet.
Last Step: Store ATOM securely in hardware wallets
Ledger Nano S
- Easy to set up and friendly interface
- Can be used on desktops and laptops
- Lightweight and Portable
- Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
- Multiple languages available
- Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
- Affordable price
Ledger Nano X
- More powerful secure element chip (ST33) than Ledger Nano S
- Can be used on desktop or laptop, or even smartphone and tablet through Bluetooth integration
- Lightweight and Portable with built-in rechargeable battery
- Larger screen
- More storage space than Ledger Nano S
- Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
- Multiple languages available
- Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
- Affordable price
If you are planning to keep("hodl" as some may say, basically misspelt "hold" which get popularised over time) your ATOM for a considerable long time, you may want to explore ways of keeping it safe, although Binance is one of the safest cryptocurrency exchange there had been hacking incidents and funds were lost. Because of the very nature of the wallets in exchanges, they will be always online("Hot Wallets" as we call them), therefore exposing certain aspects of vulnerabilities. The safest way of storing your coins to date is always putting them into a type of "Cold Wallets", where the wallet will only have access to the blockchain(or simply "go online") when you send out funds, reducing the chances of hacking incidents. A paper wallet is a type of free cold wallet, it's basically an offline-generated pair of public and private address and you will have it written somewhere, and keep it safe. However, it is not durable and is susceptible to various hazards.
Hardware wallet here is definitely a better option of cold wallets. They are usually USB-enabled devices that store the key information of your wallet in a more durable way. They are built with military-level security and their firmware are constantly maintained by their manufacturers and thus extremely safe. Ledger Nano S and Ledger Nano X and are the most popular options in this category, these wallets cost around $50 to $100 depending on the features they are offering. If you are holding your assets these wallets are a good investment in our opinion.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I buy ATOM with cash?
There is no direct way to buy ATOM with cash. However, you can use marketplaces such as LocalBitcoins to first purchase BTC, and finish the rest of the steps by transferring your BTC to respective AltCoin exchanges.
LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange. It is a marketplace where users can buy and sell Bitcoins to and from each other. Users, called traders, create advertisements with the price and the payment method they want to offer. You can choose to buy from sellers from a certain nearby region on the platform. is after all a good place to go to buy Bitcoins when you can't find your desired payment methods anywhere else. But prices are usually higher on this platform and you have to do your due diligence to avoid getting scammed.
Are there any quick ways to buy ATOM in Europe?
Yes, in fact, Europe is one of the easiest places to buy cryptos in general. There are even online banks which you can simply open an account and transfer money to exchanges such as Coinbase and Uphold.
Are there any alternative platforms to buy ATOM or Bitcoin with credit cards?
Yes. is also a very easy to use platform for buying Bitcoin with credit cards. It is an instant cryptocurrency exchange that allows you to exchange crypto fast and buy it with a bank card. Its user interface is very easy to use and the buying steps are pretty self-explanatory.
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