How to Buy Tezos | Buy XTZ in 4 Steps (December 2023)

Tezos (XTZ) is a fourth-generation blockchain network that incorporates advanced protocols to enable a host of functionalities. Primarily, the platform supports the development of decentralized applications (DApps) and the coding of smart contracts.

To learn more, visit our Investing in Tezos guide.

How to Buy Tezos (XTZ) in 4 Steps

The whole process can take as little as 10 minutes, and all you'll need is a smartphone or computer, photo identification, and a means of payment.

1. Compare Crypto Exchanges – We list the top cryptocurrency exchanges that offer the ability to buy Tezos (XTZ) cryptocurrency.
2. Create an account – Verify your email address and identity.
3. Make a deposit – Debit Card, Credit Card, Wire Transfer, or Bitcoin.
4. Buy Tezos – Use your funds to Buy XTZ.

We list the top 7 exchanges that offer the ability to buy Tezos (XTZ) cryptocurrency with a credit card or debit card.

1. Uphold

A top exchange in the United States & UK, Uphold is an experienced and extremely innovative trading platform that should be able to meet your needs for trading across a number of cryptocurrencies, including Tezos (XTZ). Beyond the ease of use and innovative features within the trading platform, what stands out about Uphold is the credibility it has gained in the industry.

Uphold offers both a desktop and mobile app trading experience that is extremely intuitive. The trading view is completely customizable with the assets that you trade the most and is very easy to navigate while providing a modern feel on both desktop and mobile. It is a very popular and suitable choice, particularly for new traders.

Besides being visibly appealing, the Uphold trading platform allows you to place your trades with great ease. Just a couple of clicks, and you can make trades directly from your deposit method without even having to wait for funds to clear to your account. This one-step ordering is another innovation from a company that prides itself on the usability of its platform. Uphold also provides the ability to execute limit orders.

Best of all, Uphold offers XTZ staking opportunities.

German & Netherlands residents are prohibited.

Read our Uphold Review or visit Uphold.

Uphold Disclaimer: Terms Apply. Cryptoassets are highly volatile. Your capital is at risk. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment, and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong..

2. Kraken

Founded in 2011, Kraken is one of the most trusted names in the cryptocurrency industry, with over 9,000,000 users and over $207 billion in quarterly trading volume.

From humble beginnings, Kraken now offers over 200 digital assets, including Tezos (XTZ). For more sophisticated investors, Kraken also offers futures and margin trading.

Kraken has continued to evolve its platform, and its commitment to the industry by being one of the first exchanges to offer buying opportunities on new tokens.

Kraken offers trading access to over 190 countries, including Australia, Canada, Europe, and is our most recommended exchange for USA residents. (Excluding New York & Washington state)

Read our Kraken Review or visit Kraken.

3. KuCoin

KuCoin is a well-known name in the industry, and one of the most competitive when it comes to fees and trading costs. The exchange has grown exponentially from its early days of offering only crypto to crypto trading.  It now offers a varied range of services, including a P2P exchange capability, and purchasing with credit or debit cards.

KuCoin currently offers Tezos (XTZ) cryptocurrency trading as well as over 300 other popular tokens.  It is often the first to offer buying opportunities for new tokens.

USA residents are prohibited.

Read our KuCoin Review or visit KuCoin.

4. Binance

Binance is one of the largest and most well-known cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. The benefits of purchasing Tezos (XTZ) here are both lower fees than competing exchanges, and increased liquidity enabling you to buy and sell quickly to take advantage of market-moving news.

This exchange is best for investors residing in Australia, Singapore & internationally. Canadian, UK & USA residents are prohibited.

Read our Binance Review or visit Binance.

Use Discount Code: EE59L0QP for 10% cashback on all trading fees.

5. Paybis

Paybis is designed for simplicity and is an extremely trustworthy starting point for buying Tezos (XZT) and other cryptocurrencies.  This exchange has been operating since 2014 and has assisted numerous traders in beginning their crypto trading journey, offering the convenience of purchasing with just a credit or debit card.  Unlike other exchanges where you buy tokens from other users, with Paybis, you purchase directly from the exchange, making the process much simpler and smoother.

Paybis is a truly global company offering services to residents from 180+ countries, including Canada, Europe, UK, & USA.

The fees you will encounter here are good value and competitive with others in the sector, depending on the payment method you use.

FinCEN Department of the Treasury, United States of America Money Service Business Registration: 31000224635628.

Read our Paybis Review or visit Paybis.

6. HTX

Established in 2013, HTX has since become one of the world’s largest digital asset exchanges, with an accumulated trading volume of US $1 trillion. Having once accounted for half of the world’s digital asset transactions, HTX now serves more than 5 million users in over 130 countries around the globe. It should be noted that HTX currently does not accept USA or Canadian residents.

HTX is one of the top exchanges that currently offer Tezos (XTZ) trading opportunities.

Read our HTX Review or visit HTX.

7. WazirX

Launched in 2018, WazirX is India’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange with over 6,o00,000 users, and is expanding rapidly. It is one of the most reputable exchanges to currently offer Tezos (XTZ) trading opportunities and currently accepts clients from all over the world. This exchange is part of the Binance Group, which ensures a high standard of quality.

USA residents are prohibited.

Read our WazirX review or visit WazirX

What are Tezos (XTZ)?

Tezos is an open-source, blockchain-based platform.  It is decentralized in nature and makes use of its native ‘XTZ’ tokens to support various features.

What does it do?

Features supported by Tezos are numerous.  The following are the most commonly noted of these capabilities.

• Facilitating two-party value transactions eliminates the need for ‘middlemen’ parties.
• Smart contract capable (self-executing contracts, based on built-in parameters)
• Self-amending
• On-chain governance supporting growth and eliminating forks

How does it Work?

Tezos takes a somewhat unique approach to how it achieves functionality.  Through a coding language known as ‘Michelson’, the network is able to function under a proof-of-stake (PoS) model.

Where Tezos differs from many, is its approach towards network governance.  In an effort to ensure forward progress and incentivized network participation, Tezos makes use of what it calls ‘bakers’.

Bakers are similar to the commonly used ‘miners’ on proof-of-work networks – with a few key differences.  While both are essential for their networks, bakers operate through delegated proof-of-stake to verify transactions and thereby secure the network.

The role of the baker goes beyond transaction verification. However – this group is responsible for casting protocol changes based on the desire of the token holders who have delegated their network power to said baker.

A factor that maintains network decentralization is the ability for anyone to act as a baker.  All that is required is a ‘roll’ of XTZ (each roll consists of 8000XTZ).  As anyone can become a baker, and contribute to network growth, Tezos is typically viewed as a more democratic project than many others.

Projected Developments?

With crypto markets experiencing a resurgence, Tezos is, once again, gaining in popularity.  This trend is expected to continue, as there are various important developments underway.  With assets held by the Tezos Foundation having grown to roughly $630M at the time of writing, network development should not be hindered by finances.

Primary among expected network developments is privacy.  While there are various ways to achieve greater levels of privacy, Tezos developers have made the decision to utilize what is known as ‘zkChannels’.

zkChannels are an intriguing upgrade, as it will not only facilitate privacy transactions but open the possibility to bridge the Tezos blockchain with others utilizing its codebase.  One example of this is the popular ‘zCash’.

Underlying Ideology?

Tezos is built on a solid foundation of ideologies – more than most.  When the idea of the network was first taking shape among its founders, its growth was shaped by recognizing the deficiencies of Bitcoin and Ethereum and improving on them.

While Bitcoin was founded with the idea of financial inclusion and decentralization, it did not seamlessly pull off this feat.  Due to the structuring and governance utilized by Bitcoin, the network was subject to inefficiencies, and being forked any time a forward path was not agreed upon among its community – an issue that continues to plague Bitcoin to this day, with many forks continuing to be created.

By utilizing a more democratic method of governance (DPoS), Tezos is able to avoid being bogged down by indecision and avoid potential forks.

Its structuring also means that the network should be able to attain a higher level of decentralization, and transparency – each traits which underpin the ideologies that Bitcoin and Ethereum are based upon.

Acceptance and Controversies?

With steady growth being seen within the world of blockchain, Tezos has done well with regard to adoption.  In the past few months, Tezos has seen an increase in interest, specifically among companies involved with digital securities.  The following are just a few examples of this recent adoption.

• Vertalo
• BTG Pactual
• TokenSoft

While adoption has seen an uptick, Tezos is no stranger to controversy.  Until recently, contention surrounding its $232M ICO held in 2017 surrounded the project.

Some of the aforementioned points of contention are as follows.

Uncapped ICO – Many felt that this uncapped ICO was unnecessary, and took advantage of an immature sector in the midst of an unsustainable boom.

Fund misuse – Almost immediately upon raising funds, there were disagreements among the Tezos team on how it should be used. This, among other reasons, led to a delay in post-ICO token distribution.

Civil lawsuits – For multiple years, Tezos was battling a civil lawsuit in which investors in the ICO alleged that the event represented the illegal sale and distribution of securities. After battling for multiple years, this lawsuit recently came to a conclusion, as Tezos agreed to a $25M settlement, with no admittance of wrongdoing.

Thankfully for Tezos, these early troublesome days appear to be a thing of the past.

Regulation?

Despite the controversies and civil lawsuits that have plagued Tezos in the past, no official statement has been made by regulators to date, on the status of XTZ as a security.

The Crypto Ratings Council (CRC), built to assess the nature of tokens/coins and their likely asset class, has noted that XTZ does, indeed, share some traits with a security.  In their rankings, a 1 represents an asset not sharing any traits with securities, while 5 demonstrates all of the required traits.  In its assessment, the CRC ranks Tezos with a score of 3.75/5.  This score places it alongside other blockchain projects such as Stellar, Polymath, and Loom.

It is important to note that the CRC is an independent council, with no actual power to classify an asset.  This task resides with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  The CRC simply provides a service providing an educated guess on asset classification, based on traditional assessment tools.

Who Made It?

While the development of Tezos is the work of many, the project is largely credited to its two cofounders.

• Arthur Breitman
• Kathleen Breitman

This blockchain ‘power couple’ has been enveloped in the technology dating back to the early days of Bitcoin.