Your first Monero trade.
Start with an offer you understand. Know who you are trading with, how payment works and what you will receive before you commit.
01. Set up your own wallet
Choose a Monero wallet from the Monero project’s downloads. Store its recovery phrase safely and never share it with a trader. Your receiving address is the address you use to receive XMR when buying.
02. Compare offers
Choose your currency, payment method and amount in the marketplace. Check the trader’s completed trade count, available reviews, limits and terms. A new trader has no review score yet.
Offer prices include the trader’s markup or discount to the reference market price. The platform fee is separate, as explained below.
03. Review before starting
Check the fiat amount, XMR estimate and payment window. Prices can change until the trade is created. A missing or outdated price must be refreshed before you can start.
Keep the trade’s conversation and payment instructions in its chat. Moving to Telegram or WhatsApp can leave important information outside the trade record.
04. Follow the trade status
The intended sequence is: trade started, escrow funding verified, fiat payment sent, then XMR settlement. Do not treat a seller’s message or screenshot as evidence that funds are held in escrow.
Before sending money, make sure you understand who controls the escrow, how funding is verified and how disputes and refunds are handled. Do not proceed if this information is unavailable. Confirm receipt in your own wallet or payment account, rather than relying only on a status label.
Understand the price and fees
The displayed offer rate includes the trader’s margin. The current platform calculation deducts 1% of the calculated XMR amount from the buyer’s allocation.
At an offer rate of €500 per XMR, €100 converts to 0.200000 XMR before fees. The 1% platform fee is 0.002000 XMR, leaving 0.198000 XMR before the network fee. If the network fee were 0.000050 XMR, the buyer would receive 0.197950 XMR. These figures are illustrative, not a live quote or a network-fee estimate.
The buyer pays the actual Monero network fee: it is deducted from the buyer’s XMR payout in addition to the 1% platform fee. The network fee is determined when the payout transaction is prepared, so a pre-trade estimate is not the final amount received. Your bank or payment provider may charge separate fees.
Availability and other ways to get XMR
Exchange availability depends on your country. Kraken discontinued XMR trading for EEA customers on 31 October 2024. The previous advice to deposit euros there and buy XMR is not a valid EEA buying route. Read Kraken’s notice.
The Monero project’s exchange directory lists alternatives. Check the provider’s current regional access, identity-verification rules and withdrawal conditions before depositing.