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@ hit with a hint of s
2023-04-20 23:21:34I have been in the crypto space for a while, but only recently, I got hooked up on Lightning Network, Nostr and Zapping. This is also my first post on Habla, so please be gentle.
By the way. I am not a financial advisor, and this is not financial advice. These are just services I use, and I decided to share my experiences.
If you are like me, you probably ask, "How to buy and stack small amounts of sats? Does it make sense to buy £10 worth of BTC every week? How much will be eaten up by the fees?" And these turned up to be very valid questions for me. At the level of 10£, fees can be humongous.
As you can guess by the "£" sign, I live in the UK and found myself out of the EU a few years ago. Some banks stopped offering their services to us, and everything suddenly became more expensive. So there could be easier or cheaper options in the EU or elsewhere; I am talking about my limited UK experience.
Binance (minimum £15)
best for balanced purchase automation (KYC required)Recurring buy with a card. Transaction fee 2.07% = £0.31 My £15 bought me 61992 SATS
Recurring buy with a balance. Binance will charge 1£ for processing a bank transfer. Moving £61 every four weeks and setting weekly buys of £15 would work out slightly better than the option above.
Withdrawals The withdrawals must be manual, and Binance has not yet integrated with LN. Withdrawals to BTC have a minimum of 30kSATS, and the network fee is set to 20kSATS. Minus LN network fees, my Alby LN address was credited with only 41871. That's roughly 2/3 of my purchase, definitely not the best of the deals for small amounts.
Crypto.com (minimum £12)
best for purchase automation of larger amounts (KYC required)Recurring with a card. it will set you back a whopping 2.99%. Crypto.com will add the £0.45 to the charge on your card.
Recurring buy with a balance. On a positive note, there is no fee for processing inbound transfers(!) Like with Binance, the withdrawals must be manual, and no LN integration exists. Withdrawals to BTC have a minimum of 120kSATS. This means I would need to buy at least £30 worth of BTC to be able to withdraw it. However, the fee is whooping 60kSATS which means my lN address would be credited with only 50%. Wow!
Nexo (minimum top-up £10)
best value - totally manual (KYC required)Unfortunately, there is no recurring purchase option nor integration with LN so maybe I should not include it, However: There are no processing costs for inbound transfers. The platinum level gives five free withdrawals and requires 10% of the overall portfolio value to be held in NEXO. Assuming that we 'r rather hold our crypto in self-custody - this might not be that hard to achieve.
Mt Pelerin
full stacking automation - especially interesting for small amounts (no KYC )Located in Switzerland and integrated with LN. It cannot be simpler. You send a bank transfer, and your chosen currency in your selected network will be credited. The list is impressive, and you can even specify your self-custodial addresses. The first 500 CHF worth of transactions every year is completely free. This limit can be raised when holding their MPS token. Out of experience, best to send transfers from the UK in CHF. The Revolut fee is only £0.3. Don't forget to provide a reference number.
Summary
These are by no means all possibilities, just all that I tried. There is also no clear best option. At level £10 a month, Mt Pelerin seems to be a no-brainer, but the more you want to buy, the more complex things will get. I am still on the lookout for better options. Shout if you know of any.
If you'd like to sign up - my referral links are: * Binance - https://accounts.binance.com/register?ref=42469060 * Crypto.com - https://crypto.com/app/btgvb3gp3d * Nexo - https://nexo.com/ref/p0qh72rpbp * Mt Pelerin - https://mtpelerin.com/join?rfr=Vx1MzVyn
Don't be a stranger, and find me on Nostr.
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