In this article:
Overview
You can buy many different crypto coins using Wealthsimple. Unlike stocks and ETFs, you can buy crypto anytime, including on holidays and outside market hours.
Before you begin
- Check our available crypto
- Crypto purchase limits vary by province and territory. Please check the purchase limits before you buy crypto.
- The minimum amount required to buy crypto is $1.00.
- You don't need to buy a whole coin or token. You can simply specify a dollar value of the crypto you'd like to buy.
- You can't buy crypto in a registered account (such as an RRSP or TFSA).
How to buy crypto
Follow the steps below to buy crypto:
- Log in to the Wealthsimple app
- Tap the search tab
- Type in the name of the crypto you'd like to buy
- Select it from the list
- Tap Buy (if you don't see this option, tap Trade to reveal the Buy button)
- Tap the menu in the top-right corner to choose the order type
- Enter the quantity or dollar amount of crypto you'd like to buy
- Tap Review
- Review the order details and tap Submit order
- Log in to your Wealthsimple profile
- Select the Search tab from the left-side menu
- Type and select the name of the crypto coin
- On the right side of the page, navigate to Buy
- Under Buy, select the Order type
- Enter the amount of crypto you'd like to buy
- Select Review
- Review the order details and select Submit order
Frequently asked questions
How is the average price defined?
Your crypto average price is the cost per coin of your current open position, including our trading fee. The fill price you receive after an order executes and the average price you see on our app or web version will differ. This is because the average price we display will include our fee.
Example
Let’s say you placed a market buy for $100 CAD worth of a crypto asset (like RENDER), and your trading fee is 0.5%.
Amount spent: $100 CAD
Trading fee: $0.50 CAD (0.5% of the $100)
Net used to purchase crypto: $100 - $0.50 = $99.50 CAD
Fill price: $14.40 CAD per RENDER (the price RENDER was trading for when you bought it)
Crypto received: $99.50 / $14.4 = 6.908596 coins of RENDER
So, although the market price was $14.40 per RENDER, your average price will be slightly higher because your $100 includes both the cost of the crypto and the trading fee.
To calculate your average price: $100.00 (total spent including fee) / 6.908596 coins of RENDER = $14.47 CAD per RENDER
Why did my crypto limit order not execute at my expected price?
When a crypto limit order is placed in CAD, it's converted to USD using our foreign exchange (FX) rate before being submitted to our liquidity providers. In some cases, the FX rate can wildly fluctuate, so it can go up or down between when the order was submitted and when the order was filled. If the FX rate moves adversely (not in your favour), while the order will still execute at the specified limit price, the final transaction value in CAD may be different than anticipated due to these rate changes. Moreover, after the order executes, and if there aren't enough funds in your trading balance to account for the adverse FX movement, this would cause a small negative balance. Learn more about our order execution process.
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