How to load your account with money and buy Bitcoin easily
Update: BVNK is now focussing on providing core banking infrastructure for digital assets and fiat to financial institutions directly, and are working closely with regulators and governments to help usher in new finance.
At BVNK we are always trying to make using cryptocurrencies as easy and as simple as possible. To help with this, we will be publishing a series of tutorial articles on how to get started with BVNK.
Tutorials
Opening a Bitcoin account on BVNK
Buying Bitcoin on BVNK (this article)
Buying Bitcoin with Mobile Money
Buying BVK Token on BVNK
How to send or receive Bitcoin
Before you can load your account with money and buy Bitcoin, you need to have signed up for a BVNK account. If you haven’t already got a BVNK account, you can follow these instructions or sign up here. You will also need a Bitcoin account, if you don’t already have one, follow these instructions. If you would prefer to buy Bitcoin with Mobile Money, click on that in the tutorial above.
Loading money to your BVNK account
When you first sign up, you will see that we have opened a ‘normal money’ account for you already. This account will either be in your local currency or US dollar if your currency isn’t supported.
To load money to your ‘normal money’ account, you need to send BVNK money through a bank transfer, MoneyGram or Western Union.
Note: we are busy working on ways to accept mobile money for our African users and will give an update on this soon.
First, log into BVNK and click on “Load Money” in the panel on the left or in the menu in the top left on mobile.
On desktop, it will look like this:
On Mobile, it will look like this:
If your bank can send money to other countries with a SWIFT payment, please scroll down and use the banking details under “Using SWIFT”. If your bank doesn’t allow payments to other countries, you can take the banking details under “Using MoneyGram, Western Union, SEPA” to your local MoneyGram, Western Union or remittance service.
Please use the email address that you signed up with as a reference for the transaction at the bank. This is what we use to know that the money is yours. If you are unsure, check the “Load Money” page and use the email address next to “Reference”.
Note: the amount of ‘normal money’ loaded to your account might be slightly lower due to the cost of bank transfers and exchange fees. You can find out how much these are by checking with your bank, MoneyGram or Western Union.
The money will take a couple of days to reach us and then we will load it to your ‘normal money’ account so that you can buy Bitcoin.
Buying Bitcoin
To buy Bitcoin you need to load money to your ‘normal money’ account. If you haven’t loaded any money yet, please follow the steps above. If you would rather buy Bitcoin with Mobile Money, follow these instructions.
Once you have logged into BVNK, click on “Buy Cryptocurrencies” in the panel on the left, or if you’re on a mobile phone, in the menu at the top left corner.
On desktop, it will look like this:
On a mobile phone, it will look like this:
Click on the box that says “Bitcoin” and choose “Bitcoin”. Then, enter how much you want to spend in the box below the “Bitcoin” box on mobile or the box next to your local currency code (in the example above it’s “ZAR”) on desktop computers. Lastly, click “Buy Now”.
Note: it takes some time to transfer Bitcoin into your account.
You will see that your account has a “Balance” and an “Available balance”. When you buy Bitcoin, your “Balance” will change straight away but the “Available Balance” will only change when the purchase has been completed in the background. Only once your “Available Balance” is also changed can you send Bitcoin to someone.
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BVNK is API driven banking infrastructure for digital assets and fiat.
We enable banks to operate more like FinTechs by providing an agile platform with which to create and integrate modern finance.
Find out more here or to get in touch to find out how we can enable your bank to integrate innovation.
