How and Where to Buy Radix (XRD) – Detailed Guide

What is XRD?

What is Radix? (XRD) Radix (www.radixdlt.com) is the first layer-one protocol specifically built to serve DeFi. Radix is “layer 1 DeFi done right” because it is the only decentralized network where developers will be able to build quickly without the constant threat of exploits and hacks, where every improvement will get rewarded, and where scale will never be a bottleneck. The Radix Public Network was launched on July 28th, 2021, and is the first step on the roadmap to creating a new, decentralized global financial system by offering three huge improvements to DeFi technology that will be released over the next three years. What Makes Radix Unique?

  1. 10x DeFi developer productivity. Right now, DeFi developers spend up to 90% of their time securing their code rather than building functionality. Despite that, there have still been over $285m of DeFi hacks, bugs, and exploits to date on Ethereum. To solve this, Radix is building a purpose-built DeFi programming environment called Scrypto, that will enable fast AND secure development, giving DeFi developers more time to focus on innovation rather than security. Scrypto is scheduled to be released in Q4 2021.
  2. 100x DeFi execution efficiency. The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is where all DeFi smart contract logic is executed and it is SLOW. So slow in fact that it is one of the biggest bottlenecks of DeFi today. The Radix Engine is designed to change the game by replacing the EVM with a lean, mean, state-executing machine. You can think of it like upgrading a 20-year-old computer CPU to Apple’s best new processors. Incredibly fast, more energy-efficient, and able to do a whole heap of stuff in parallel. The Radix Engine v1 is released with the first Radix mainnet launch on the 28th of July 2021. The Radix Engine v2 is scheduled to be released in 2022.
  3. 1000x DeFi scalability. DeFi on Ethereum is expensive to use. This is because it is not scalable, but popular, which creates a huge amount of congestion. What many underestimate is the sheer magnitude of transactions these systems will have to deal with as DeFi goes mainstream: to replace the global financial system will require processing millions of transactions per second, which is well beyond the capabilities of platforms like Ethereum 2.0 or Solana, and also completely beyond the capabilities of layer 2 scaling solutions. The Radix consensus algorithm, Cerberus, delivers something entirely unique to the blockchain industry - linearly scalable atomic composability for DeFi. This means the Radix system will deliver millions of transactions per second in an entirely DeFi native way. The fully sharded, linearly scalable version of the Radix public network is scheduled for the Xi’an release in 2023. Radix Features Radix is being built to deliver at each of the critical layers of the DeFi stack: the consensus layer, the application layer and the ecosystem layer. Combined, these give users and developers the tools needed for unparalleled scalability, ease of use, and liquidity potential. Application Layer - Radix Engine Today, DeFi developers have to choose between security and speed to market. For DeFi to continue to grow, Radix believes that developers need to be able to build fast without breaking things. To address this, Radix has a purpose-built DeFi programming environment that will enable fast AND secure development. The Radix Engine v2 is designed to bring the next generation of Secure-By-Design DeFi programming tools to help developers build complex financial applications with less bugs and less hacks. On Radix, developers will be able to quickly assemble DeFi applications from the on-ledger DeFi blueprint library. This is designed to deliver Faster-To-Market builds for DeFi app creators, as well as lower on-ledger running costs. Behind every successful DeFi component will be the potential for a successful developer. The Radix Dev Royalties are designed to provide on-ledger revenue for component contributors. This is intended to make sure that individual community members, as well as big projects, can become successful building on Radix. Radix Consensus Layer - Cerberus For DeFi to become the new global financial standard, it needs to be able to scale to meet global demand. Radix uses a proprietary consensus algorithm that enables unlimited linear scalability. This novel, academically proven consensus algorithm: Cerberus, provides the groundwork for the delivery of a public network with Linear Scalability. This means a public ledger could scale seamlessly to thousands of nodes and billions of users. Once delivered, this is designed to remove the congestion issues currently faced by Ethereum and others. Cerberus is designed to deliver True Finality, meaning that once a transaction is final, it is final. No waiting for several blocks and wondering if your transaction has gone through. More importantly, no rollbacks of dependent transactions. Lastly, Cerberus is designed to provide cross-shard Atomic Composability. This will allow DeFi applications on different shards to simultaneously work together without stalling other applications or transactions. This is a highly technical feat that, so far, only the coming Radix Public Ledger is designed to achieve. Ecosystem Layer At Radix, Improving Access for users is a key strategic goal. Radix founded GoodFi, a non-profit with the goal to get 100m users into DeFi by 2025 that already has members including Aave, Sushiswap, Chainklink, mStable, Terra & more. Radix has the ethos that the easier the ecosystem is to access, the more value can be brought on to the Radix Ledger. Liquidity is the lifeblood of any DeFi ecosystem. Radix intends to take a multi-pronged approach to Improving DeFi Liquidity. First, the Radix Engine v2 is designed to give developers the tools to quickly build liquidity incentives into their applications. Second, the Radix Ledger is designed to be low-cost and high-throughput, allowing liquidity to more easily and cheaply move between DeFi applications. Improving Access and Liquidity can also improve how attractive it is to build new DeFi applications on top of Radix. Improving Choice for the user is directly linked to improving Access and Liquidity. The Radix Engine v2 is designed so that as user choice grows, so too can the Radix developer ecosystem through the on-ledger developer royalty system and the blueprint catalog. Access, Liquidity, and Choice all feed and build on each other. At Radix this is called the DeFi Cycle, and outside of the technology, it is one of the most important factors in building traction in the ecosystem. Radix Token (XRD) XRD is the native token for the Radix Public Network. The Radix XRD token is a fixed supply token that is used to pay for transaction fees on Radix. All transaction fees on Radix are burnt, which creates a direct relationship between the frequency of token burn with the frequency of Network use. XRD can also be used by holders to participate in Delegated Proof of Stake (dPoS) on the Radix network and receive network emissions to incentivize staking. Radix Team Radix DLT founder, Dan Hughes, has been working on the problems associated with scaling public ledgers since 2013. In recent years the research work has expanded out to include academic collaborations, such as the research collaboration with the University of California Davis, and their dedicated blockchain research team. The team also includes YCombinator alumni, ex-Consensys engineers, and builders of professor-beating chess bots! The wide-ranging skills set found within Radix is augmented by backers and advisors that have founded and run multi-billion dollar businesses in finance and beyond.

XRD was first tradable on 17th Sep, 2021. It has a total supply of 12,800,192,279.85,141. As of right now XRD has a market capitalization of USD $921,771,008.91. The current price of XRD is $0.0720 and is ranked 120 on Coinmarketcap and has recently surged 25.10 percent at the time of writing.

XRD 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 XRD.

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.

uphold

Suitable for US traders

Select Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange for details:

XRD

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.
Show Details Steps ▾
XRD

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.

XRD

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.

XRD

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

XRD

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.

XRD

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:

XRD

But we are not done yet, since XRD is an altcoin we need to transfer our BTC to an exchange that XRD 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.

XRD

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

XRD

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.

XRD

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!

XRD

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 XRD!

Step 5: Trade XRD

XRD

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.

XRD

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 "XRD", you should see XRD/BTC, select that pair and you should see a price chart of XRD/BTC in the middle of the page.

Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy XRD", 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 XRD". Voila! You have finally bought XRD!

XRD

But we are not done yet, since XRD is an altcoin we need to transfer our BTC to an exchange that XRD can be traded, here we will use BitMart as our exchange. BitMart 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.

BitMart is a crypto exchange from the Cayman Islands. It became available to the public in March 2018. BitMart has a truly impressive liquidity. At the time of the last update of this review (20 March 2020, right in the middle of the crisis with COVID-19), BitMart’s 24 hour trading volume was USD 1.8 billion. This amount placed BitMart on place no. 24 on Coinmarketcap’s the list of exchanges with the highest 24 hour trading volumes. Needless to say, if you start trading here, you will not have to worry about the order book being thin. Many exchanges does not allow investors from USA as customers. As far as we can tell, BitMart is not one of those exchanges. Any US-investors interested in trading here should in any event form their own opinion on any issues arising from their citizenship or residency.

XRD

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

XRD

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.

XRD

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 BitMart 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 BitMart!

XRD

Now go back to BitMart 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 BitMart once your BTC has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase XRD!

Step 5: Trade XRD

XRD

Go back to BitMart, 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.

XRD

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 "XRD", you should see XRD/BTC, select that pair and you should see a price chart of XRD/BTC in the middle of the page.

Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy XRD", 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 XRD". Voila! You have finally bought XRD!

Last Step: Store XRD securely in hardware wallets

Ledger Nano S

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

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 XRD 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 XRD with cash?

There is no direct way to buy XRD 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 XRD 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 XRD 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.

Read more on Radix's fundamentals and current price here.

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