Beginner’s Guide: How To Start Investing In Solana (SOL)?

How Can I Buy Solana (SOL)?

Last Updated December 6th 2021
13 Min Read

Solana is a large-cap digital asset. In this article, Trading Education will give you detailed information that will be invaluable to your journey of investing in Solana. More importantly, you will get the know-how to buy Solana from centralized and decentralized exchanges. This will help you choose the exchange that will provide you with the safest way to invest in Solana Coins.

Solana (SOL) is one of the highly valued cryptocurrencies in the crypto finance space today. 

Just like other governance tokens of smart contracts-backed blockchains, they are used to settle transactions on its issuing authority (Solana blockchain). 

Aside from that, users of the Solana Protocol can use the token to send and receive funds among themselves without the backing of third-party financial institutions. 

As a top 10 digital asset by market capitalization, native asset, SOL, thrives on the possibilities of the Solana technology. 

This means that the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and application (DAPPS) as well as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) add more value to the token, aside from the mere speculation all digital coins are used to. 

This helps prevent the token from relying merely on its usage as a transactional currency for paying for goods and services in the mainstream. 

Solana has one of the most highly scalable blockchains in the space because founders (Anatoly Yakovenko and Greg Fitzgerald employed proof-of-stake (POS) and proof-of-history (POH) consensus.

Because of this, you will need to own more SOL coins so that you can contribute to network validation. 

Once you become a validator, you stand a chance of earning rewards in the form of SOL coins.

What Is Solana Used For? 

Before we dive into the purpose of Solana, you should know that as of Sunday, 5th December 2021, 305,641,254.47 SOL is in circulation from a total supply of 510,407,977 SOL. 

There are 59.88% of tokens in the market today with more than 40% SOL tokens still up for grabs.

Solana was created for two (2) purposes. The first one is to introduce a highly scalable platform that solves one of the biggest problems in the adoption of blockchain. This is the primary reason why several experts believe Solana is one of the few blockchains in the space today that found an answer to the blockchain trilemma (scalability, security, and decentralization). 

Aside from this, Solana was created to make decentralized finance accessible to all. DeFi is a multi-billion dollar industry. Users are also introduced to another multi-billion dollar area in the space called NFTs. 

Solana traded for $0.832 in April 2020 but has since gone on to reach numerous milestones in 2021. 

This has made it difficult for so-called experts that employ fundamental and technical analysis to make accurate predictions about the valuation of the token. 

The value of Solana depends on several factors but the most important is the trust of investors.

Some of the factors you should take into consideration before investing in SOL include cryptocurrency exchanges, personal identification documents, secure internet connection, payment methods, and digital wallets.

In this article, we will take a look at the steps involved in investing in Solana coins

This is highly essential for first-time investors, novices, or beginners. We are going to cover areas such as,   

  • Select an Exchange that lists Solana (SOL), 
  • Investing in Solana through Centralized Exchanges (CEXs), and, 
  • Investing in Solana through Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs). 

Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

Select An Exchange That Lists Solana (SOL)  

The first step towards investing in Solana is to identify a cryptocurrency exchange that meets your needs and interests. 

As a beginner, novice, or first-time investor, you should know that there are two forms of exchanges in the space today. 

The first one is centralized exchanges that are normally abbreviated as CEXs and the second one is decentralized exchanges normally abbreviated as DEXs

One of the questions that continue to trend online is which exchanges support Solana (SOL)?

Centralized Exchanges are owned by a central entity. 

More often than not, they require customers to provide personal information before they can fully open an account. 

Funds are held by representatives of the company. 

Aside from this, ownership of the coins is held by the exchange completely. 

CEXs are online trading platforms that facilitate the buying, holding, and selling of digital assets for fiat currency as well as for other tokens such as SOL/BTC, SOL/ETH, and SOL/BNB among others. Having been in the space for more than 10 years, all trades are facilitated through the company in the form of matching buyers with sellers. 

Some of the most popular and largest centralized exchanges by daily trading volume that support SOL are eToro, Binance, Coinbase, Huobi, OKEx, Gate.io, and Huobi Global.

Decentralized Exchanges are not owned by centralized entities. Instead, they are owned by individuals and groups that remain anonymous who put the power of trades in the hands of users. 

DEXs are online trading platforms that allow their users to place orders on a new type of pair-matching (SOL/ADA, SOL/TRX, and SOL/BNB) without the help of any third parties. 

The most popular decentralized exchange that lists SOL for trading is dYdX.

Millions of beginners prefer centralized exchanges (CEXs) to decentralized exchanges (DEXs) because CEXs comply with regulations. 

Finding money is difficult so several beginners believe they would be better off trusting a central entity. 

This is because these exchanges prioritize Knowing Your Customer (KYC) which helps verify the person behind the personal computer.

The resultant effect of this is a reduction in Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and efforts to counter terrorism financing. 

Aside from that, they are chosen for having insurance, security, and reputation

This does not mean CEXs are perfect, they also come with disadvantages such as relatively higher transaction fees and hacking risk

On the other hand, several beginners and experienced investors who love the anonymous nature of the crypto finance prefer decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to centralized exchanges (CEXs). This is because there are several advantages of using DEXs such as mitigating hacking risk and preventing market manipulation

In addition to this, users are free from the highly intensive and time-consuming verification process CEX customers are required to go through. 

Verification can be annoying especially when there is a dip in the crypto market and you want to take advantage of low-priced assets. 

At the time the verification process is completed, the markets may have gone back up leaving you with relatively fewer coins than you could have purchased. 

DEXs also come with disadvantages such as complexity, lack of fiat payment methods, and liquidity struggles.

Don't Miss: The 5 Best Ways To Buy Solana (SOL)

Investing In Solana Through A Centralized Exchange 

Centralized Exchanges have millions of registered users and thousands of active users daily. 

Their reputation cannot be called to question. 

Before you select a centralized exchange, you should factor regulation, security, liquidity, speed, geographical restriction, customer service, fees, ease of use, payment methods, limits, reputation, and insurance into account. 

Centralized exchanges have the same registration process. 

As an e-learning organization, it is our responsibility to recommend the best exchange to buy Solana in 2022 and beyond. 

From our experiences using several CEXs, we would like to recommend eToro as the best place to buy Solana. 

This is because eToro is one of the safest, fastest, and cheapest places to buy Solana. 

Follow the steps below and you would be on your way towards becoming a Solana token holder.

1. Register For an Account 

You should know that you are dealing with money and a central entity. Therefore authenticity must be prioritized. eToro will ask you to provide a full legal name

Aside from that, the exchange will require an active contact number and email address

Lastly, you will be asked to provide a residential address

As part of the verification process, your email address and contact number will be verified first.

2. Verify Your Account 

When it comes to investing in Solana and cryptocurrencies in general, verification is highly essential. 

This is because digital coins continue to be associated with darkweb activities daily. 

Representatives of eToro and all centralized exchanges will ask you to upload highly important documents. 

The first document is a government-issued card

You should know that not all forms of cards are allowed. 

You need a national ID card, passport, or driving license. 

You should note that ID cards without your signature embossed will not be accepted. 

The second document is proof of residence

Depending on the document available to you, eToro requires you to upload one of a bank statement, credit card statement, utility bill, or internet bill

Bills or statements more than 6 months old will not be accepted.

On several centralized exchanges, you can verify your account within minutes, hours, or days. The timespan of the verification process depends on how cooperative you are as a customer.

3. Deposit Funds 

On eToro and most centralized exchanges, fiat currencies remain the primary way of making deposits as well as withdrawals. 

You can choose from a range of payment methods such as bank wire transfer, debit/credit cards (Maestro, Visa, MasterCard, and Visa Electron), and online payment wallets such as (PayPal, Skrill, iDEAL, Neteller, and Rapid Transfer). 

The primary fiat currencies normally accepted are the United States Dollar (USD), Euro (EUR), and the United Kingdom Pound (GBP).

4. Navigate to the Solana Page and Place Orders 

After locating the Solana Page, you can place a BUY ORDER for one or several SOL tokens that are in line with your budget. 

Your order will be calculated, processed, and added to your account.

Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

Investing In Solana Through A Decentralized Exchange 

Many ask the question, how do I get Solana tokens

DEXs provide awesome platforms that can help you get SOL coins. Decentralized Exchanges have seen increased utility in 2021 as a result of the increased patronage of cryptocurrencies. 

Aside from this, it has benefited invaluably from the extensive patronage of decentralized finance (DeFi) as well as decentralized protocols and applications (DAPPs).

Due to the private nature of DEXs, they continue to see more than 200,000 active users every day.  

According to Dune Analytics, the total volume for all DEXs in the last 24 hours up to the time of writing is $8.68 billion

The total volume for all DEXs in the last 7 days up to the time of writing is $31 billion

There are several DEXs such as Uniswap, SushiSwap, Balancer, Curve, Ox Native, Bancor Network, 1inch Limit Order Protocol, DODO, Synthetix, AirSwap, Clipper, Mooniswap, Kyber, LINKSWAP, 1inch LP, and dYdX.

Among them, the DEX that supports the trading of Solana (SOL) is dYdX.

If you choose to invest in Solana (SOL) through dYdX, kindly follow two separate steps below to the detail.

1. Create a Wallet 

To use DEXs, the first thing you have to do is to create a wallet. Many types of wallets support SOL and they are Coin98, D’CENT, SimpleHold, Solong Wallet, MathWallet, Atomic Wallet, Ledger Nano S, Exodus, Zelcore, and TrustWallet

Trading Education would like to recommend TrustWallet for the storing of your SOL tokens. 

But before you store SOL tokens, you must go through the process summarized below.

Firstly, you must search for TrustWallet

On your phone, you can visit Apple Store, Windows Shop, or Google Play Store. Search for TrustWallet. Once you find the application, install it on your phone.

Secondly, open the installed application and create a new wallet

Once you tap on the TrustWallet application, it opens to a new page. You will be given a chance to set up a password. 

This password can be in the form of words, numbers, and symbols such as Trad1234! 

In addition to this, you will be given private keys also termed passcodes. 

It comes in a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 24 words that are arranged in a particular order. 

Trading Education continuously advises our clients, customers, and readers to write these keys in at least 4 places. 

You can store them in Microsoft Word, Diary, Notepad, and Google Docs

Hold on to your passcodes with all your might. 

This is because if they should go missing, you would not be able to access your wallet and SOL holdings.

Thirdly, place an order to buy Ether (ETH). 

dYdX is one of the most powerful open trading platforms for crypto-assets and derivatives that is housed in the Ethereum ecosystem. Therefore, the only way you can buy Solana is with the native asset that settles transactions on the Ethereum Network, ETH. 

Based on your investment budget, buy an amount of ETH that can be converted to the number of SOL tokens you want to have in your investment portfolio.

Fourthly, there is a mild verification process

Depending on your preferred payment method, TrustWallet will verify your contact number and email address. 

Codes will be sent to enable verification. 

Once this phase is completed, your fiat will be converted into Ether (ETH) and will be reflected in your account.

2. Go to the dYdX Exchange 

On the homepage of TrustWallet, you will see sections such as wallet, DApps, DEX, and Settings. 

Tap on DApps and you will be taken to a new page. 

On this page, scroll down to Exchanges

When you see Exchanges, tap on See All.

There are more than 20 DEXs listed. 

Scroll downwards and you will find the dYdX Exchange.

Tap on dYdX Exchange and the app will synchronize details of your TrustWallet

You can input the amount of ETH coins you will like to swap for SOL. 

The exchange rate will appear on the dYdX platform. 

This will inform you as to the number of SOLs you are going to hold. After this, the swapping order between Ether (ETH) to Solana (SOL) will be executed, processed, and added to your account.

Check Out: Should You Buy Solana (SOL)? 4 Pros, 4 Cons

Conclusion 

In your quest to invest in Solana (SOL) as a beginner, you must watch out for cybercriminals since they have made off with billions of dollars. 

Do not respond to advertisements on social media and emails that promise to help you make huge returns in a short period. 

The guide provided here has impacted positively in your trading and investing in SOL journey. This does not mean you should stop researching. 

Aside from the information here, you should embark on independent research about the pros and cons of using centralized exchanges (CEXs) against decentralized exchanges (DEXs). 

Most beginners often ask the question, are centralized exchanges better than decentralized exchanges? 

As someone who knows little about the crypto finance space, you would be better off investing in Solana through a centralized exchange. 

This is because despite the positive anonymity DEX brings, there is little or no insurance. 

On CEXs, your identity would be verified. 

More importantly, you will have the chance to pursue a case against your selected exchange should something go wrong. 

If you assess the rewards of investing in Solana through DEXs and they outweigh the possible consequences of risks associated with using DEXs, you can go on and invest in Solana through highly decentralized exchanges. 

Before you choose any CEX or DEX, you should know the pros and cons of the platform. In addition to this, research the pros and cons of investing in Solana before risking your hard-earned money. 

This is because Solana is categorized as a highly volatile asset that has created several crypto millionaires and brought huge losses to others.

eToro – The Best Platform To Buy Solana

eToro have proven themselves trustworthy within the Crypto industry over many years – we recommend you try them out.

Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

Read More:

When Is The Right Time To Invest And Sell Solana (SOL)?

Is Solana (SOL) Safe To Invest In?

What Are The Safest Ways To Store Solana (SOL) Coins?

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