Bitcoin Investment Sites for 2020: Top 6 Trusted Sites

Bitcoin invest­ment sites, also known as exchanges or “onramps,” are an impor­tant part of the industry. Onramps provide an easy way for people to buy and sell Bitcoin with their local currency.

In the last year, we’ve seen a new class of trusted onramps that focus specif­i­cally on Bitcoin, the only cryptocur­rency that really matters.

These “Bitcoin-only” onramps repre­sent a notice­able change from past ICO-mania where question­able exchanges exploded onto the scene. Many of these oppor­tunistic Bitcoin invest­ment sites have since been hacked, become insol­vent, or shut down for a myriad of other reasons.

Here at Swan we believe that being a “Bitcoin-only” invest­ment site is a compet­i­tive advan­tage and we’re ready to prove it.

In this article, we will cover:

• Why going Bitcoin-only is a smart business decision
• The benefits of setting up automatic recur­ring Bitcoin purchases
• The top legit Bitcoin invest­ment sites for buying Bitcoin. 

Don’t have much time and just want to check out the list of the sites? No problem, here they are:

• SwanBit­coin (USA)
• Amber (Australia)
• BullBit­coin (Canada)
• CashApp (USA)
• CoinFloor (UK)
• River­Fi­nan­cial (USA)

Why Businesses Should Go “Bitcoin-only”

While fans of alter­na­tive cryptocur­ren­cies might complain that their favorite token is being excluded for ideolog­ical reasons, the reality is: going “Bitcoin only” is a logical business decision.

The benefits of focusing on bitcoin:

• Lower Fees
  By focusing on a single asset, compa­nies can maintain lower support costs which leads to better service with lower fees for users. 
• Bitcoin has the majority of the volume
  As a business, it makes sense to focus on the asset (Bitcoin) that attracts high volume. 
• Increased focus
  Going Bitcoin-only means your company will have no distractions/temptations from penny stock altcoins. Altcoins are oppor­tu­nity costs. 
• Domain Exper­tise
  By focusing on a single asset, your team will become experts in that asset. Eventu­ally, your exper­tise will enable you to out-compete compa­nies who took a less focused approach. This compounds over time and leads to better products/services which attract long term customers. If you focus on altcoins, the tradeoff is you won’t be able to support Bitcoin as well. 
• Long term success
  A business built on trading altcoins might be lucra­tive for a short period of time. These altcoin onramps popup in bull markets, rise to fame, and quickly crash in just a few years. On the other hand, Bitcoin-only onramps are more robust and will outlive all the altcoin exchanges (read: altcoin casinos).
• More Secure
  Onramps that focus exclu­sively on Bitcoin allow for increased security. Every time you offer another asset, your engineers are forced to develop increas­ingly complex security methods. On the other hand, focusing on Bitcoin exclu­sively allows engineers to take advan­tage of Bitcoin’s native features, such as multi-sig which results in more secure infra­struc­ture. 
• Less Regula­tory Burden
  Bitcoin-only onramps come with fewer regula­tory risks as Bitcoin has been given a pass by most regula­tors globally. Kraken publishes an annual report listing all the requests they receive from regula­tory bodies around the world. Compli­ance is extremely expen­sive, especially if you offer a bunch of altcoins. 
• Aligned Incen­tives
  Compa­nies that focus exclu­sively on Bitcoin share aligned incen­tives with Bitcoiners. Both parties want Bitcoin to remain secure and increase in value over the long term.
• Shared Infra­struc­ture
  As more compa­nies focus on Bitcoin’s native function­ality (multi-sig, partial signed Bitcoin trans­ac­tions, etc), we’ll see more open source standards emerge. For example, Unchained Capital open sourced a multisig protocol called Caravan that anyone can leverage. 

Learn more about the benefits of going Bitcoin-only:

• Aleks Svetski explains why Amber is a Bitcoin-only Business.
• Francis Pouliot explains why Bitcoin-only makes business sense on the Tales From The Crypt podcast, episode #84 (starting at the ~23:00 mark).

Why set up Automated Recurring Buys? DCA Benefits

Here at Swan, we believe that setting up automated recur­ring Bitcoin buys is the best strategy. In investing terms, this is a called “dollar cost averaging” (DCA).

Benefits of Automated Recur­ring Buys (Dollar Cost Averaging):

1. No one can time the market, dollar cost averaging minimizes the risk of volatile price swings.
2. Set it and forget it, no need to log in every week.
3. Remove your cogni­tive biases, the market and media are constantly trying to manip­u­late you. Avoid fear and FOMO.
4. Avoid tax burden and fees of active trading.
5. Get rich slowly, think long term!

Top 6 Best Bitcoin Investment Sites 

Here’s a list of the top Bitcoin-only onramps avail­able today.

1. Swan Bitcoin

Avail­ability: Swan is avail­able in 49 US states. Inter­na­tional expan­sion planned for late 2020.

About Swan Bitcoin: Swan is Bitcoin investing made easy. Connect any major US bank account, set an amount, and Swan’s weekly, paycheck, or monthly savings options steadily convert your dollars to Bitcoin savings. Swan buys more when the price goes down and less when the price goes up.

Swan’s goal is to be the easiest and most user-friendly way to acquire Bitcoin. The team is also focused on educating Bitcoiners of all experi­ence levels. Swan’s mission is to onboard the next million Bitcoin users.

Features: 

• Automatic Recur­ring Buys
  Users can easily set up automatic recur­ring Bitcoin buys. Swan believes dollar cost averaging is the most effec­tive way to accumu­late Bitcoin. Select weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly recur­ring buys. 
• Educa­tional Content
  Swan focuses on creating educa­tional content to improve the entire Bitcoin ecosystem. You can read the latest articles from the Swan team and their friends at Swan Signal.
• Gifting Bitcoin
  Swan also offers GiveBit­coin, a tool for gifting Bitcoin to friends and family. It’s hands-down the easiest way to onboard your friends and family. Users can also “request Bitcoin” which enables, say, your grandma, to gift you Bitcoin easily using her normal checking account.
• Referral Program
  Swan is currently offering a referral program. When you refer a friend to Swan Bitcoin, they receive $5 and so do you.  
• Auto-withdrawals
  Users can schedule periodic Bitcoin withdrawals to move a certain amount of Bitcoin to a wallet of their choice.

2. Amber (Australia)

Avail­ability: Amber is currently only avail­able in Australia with plans to expand to Europe soon.

About Amber: Amber is an app focused on making easy recur­ring buys of Bitcoin. Currently avail­able for both Android and iOS. Amber focuses on clean design and providing a simple way to acquire Bitcoin.

Features:

• Mobile App
  Amber is avail­able on both Android and iOS
• Automatic recur­ring buys
  Users can set up recur­ring buys every day, week, or month. $5 AUD minimum purchase. Users can also make one-time purchases as they desire. 
• Educa­tion
  The Amber team, lead by Aleks Svetski, produces high quality Bitcoin content that’s avail­able to the public. We recom­mend checking out Bitcoin Times. 

3. Bull Bitcoin (Canada)

Avail­ability: Canada

About Bull Bitcoin: Bull Bitcoin is a fixed rate Bitcoin exchange that enables Canadians to buy, sell, and spend Bitcoins online. Bull Bitcoin is run by self-proclaimed Cypher­punks and Bitcoin Maximal­ists and it shows. They focus on privacy, security, and enabling users to maintain full custody of their Bitcoin.

The Bull Bitcoin team also devel­oped Cyphernode.io which is a modular Bitcoin full-node microser­vices API server archi­tec­ture and utili­ties toolkit to build scalable, secure apps/services without reliance on trusted third parties. 

Features:

• Non-custo­dial
  Bull Bitcoin never takes control of users’ Bitcoin. Instead, users are fully sover­eign over their Bitcoin at all times. 
• Bylls integra­tion
  A service that enables users to pay their Canadian bills by converting Bitcoins to Canadian Dollars. Part of the circular Bitcoin economy. 
• Automated Dollar Cost Averaging
  Users can schedule recur­ring buys at the frequency they desire (daily, weekly, etc).

4. Cash App (USA)

Avail­ability: USA

About Cash App: Cash App is an iOS/Android app that offers a Venmo/PayPal experi­ence as well as offering users to buy stocks and Bitcoin. It was created by Square/Twitter which makes it one of the most trusted Bitcoin invest­ment sites. Not to mention, Cash App is one of the most popular finan­cial apps in the app store.

Cash App has a great UX and buying Bitcoin is very fast on it. Square is the first publicly-traded company to sell Bitcoin. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square/Twitter, is very bullish on Bitcoin-only.

Features:

• Buy/Sell Bitcoin
  Users can buy and sell Bitcoin through Cash App. $10k weekly purchase limit. 
• Purchase Stocks
  Users can acquire as little as $1 worth of a US stock.
• Direct Deposit Paychecks
  Users can elect to have their paychecks direct deposited into Cash App.
• Cash Card
  Users can receive a Visa debit card attached to their Cash App account. 
• Inter­na­tional payments
  Users can now send payments between the US and the UK. 

5. Coinfloor (UK)

Avail­ability: UK

About Coinfloor: Coinfloor is the longest-running Bitcoin invest­ment site in the UK. They started by offering many different cryptocur­ren­cies and then later realized that it was a better business decision to focus on Bitcoin only. In early 2020 they removed support for all assets besides Bitcoin.

Inter­est­ingly, Coinfloor is the only exchange in the world to provide Bitcoin audits (aka Proof of Reserves) from the very begin­ning. According to the Coinfloor websites, their services are specif­i­cally designed to serve corpo­rate and insti­tu­tional investors, sophis­ti­cated investors and profes­sional traders. The minimum deposit was recently reduced from $1,300 to $300. Coinfloor supports just two trading pairs, BTC/GBP and BTC/EUR.

Features: 

• Proof of Reserves
  Coinfloor publishes a weekly audit of its Bitcoin reserves, hopefully lending some legit­i­macy. Theoret­i­cally, this reduces the risk of finan­cial insti­tu­tions running a deficit without customers being aware. Nic Carter, a partner at Castle Island Ventures, is pleased about that.
• Automatic Recur­ring buys (coming soon)
  Coinfloor antic­i­pates releasing Automatic Recur­ring buys soon. 
• OTC trading desk
  Users get access to buy/sell through Coin Floor’s OTC desk. 
• Bitcoin multisig custody
  They take advan­tage of Bitcoin’s native multi-sig capabil­i­ties which can be used to improve security. 

6. River Financial (USA)

Avail­ability: Currently River is avail­able in 8 US states (CA, TX, MA, PA, MD, WY, MT, WI). River intends to be avail­able in 40 US states by the end of 2020. Monitor avail­ability here.

About River Finan­cial: River is focused on finan­cial services for Bitcoin holders. Similar to a Fidelity brokerage account but for Bitcoin. River is looking to differ­en­tiate by offering users access to more advanced Bitcoin technolo­gies including Partially Signed Bitcoin Trans­ac­tions (PSBTs), native multi-sig, and a language called Script Descrip­tors. Being Bitcoin-only enables more resources to be allocated to native Bitcoin features.

Why such limited avail­ability? As a brokerage, River must apply for a Money Trans­mitter License in the US which is done on a state by state basis. The team has invested heavily in this area and they plan on contin­u­ally rolling out new states over time.

Features: 

• Recur­ring Buy Orders
  This feature allows users to set up an automatic purchase order of BTC at prede­ter­mined inter­vals. Users who sign up for automatic buys unlock a 20% discount off of River fees.
• Perfor­mance Tracking
  River provides users with some tools to track how well your Bitcoin invest­ments are performing.
• Deposits and Withdrawals
  Users can add Bitcoin to their River wallet as well as move Bitcoin from River to another wallet. 
• Insti­tu­tional Accounts
  Enables finan­cial insti­tu­tions to buy, sell, and use Bitcoin. 

Support trusted Bitcoin-only onramps and start buying Bitcoin today

As businesses realize the benefits of going Bitcoin-only, we’ll see more and more legit Bitcoin invest­ment sites focused exclu­sively on Bitcoin.

This trend will likely continue as Bitcoin-only compa­nies will outcom­pete compa­nies who are spread too thin supporting 100s of illiquid tokens.

Here at Swan Bitcoin, we highly recom­mend two things:

1. Investing in your personal Bitcoin educa­tion (we recom­mend our Swan Signal blog).
2. Setting up an automated recur­ring Bitcoin purchase. For example: Every Saturday, you buy $50 worth of Bitcoin. 

Be sure to sign-up at SwanBitcoin.com/signup.

P.S. After you join, make sure you pass around your unique referral link. Both you and your friends will receive $5 worth of free Bitcoin for each person who signs up (limited time offer).