How does one acquire bitcoin?

00:01 So, how does one acquire Bitcoin? Well, 00:04 the easiest way is on a cryptocurrency 00:06 exchange. The largest cryptocurrency 00:09 exchange in the United States is 00:11 Coinbase. A lot of people though prefer 00:14 River. R I Ver River.com 00:18 uh because it's Bitcoin only, which 00:19 means you're not bombarded with a bunch 00:21 of stuff about other mostly worthless 00:24 crypto tokens and all of that. So, uh 00:26 those are the two I use, Coinbase and 00:29 River. 00:30 uh between the two I can accomplish 00:32 everything I want to do between Coinbase 00:34 and River. And the way you acquire 00:37 Bitcoin on that uh uh exchange, let's 00:40 use River for example because it's 00:41 easier for people just uh getting 00:43 started. You go to river.com and you or 00:46 you download the River on the mobile app 00:49 store and you create an account. The 00:52 easiest way to do that is like with the 00:53 you know login with Apple or the the the 00:56 auto way automatic way that your phone 00:58 does it. You log in and then it will you 00:60 can hit a button that says buy Bitcoin. 01:02 And when you hit that button, uh it will 01:04 give you the option to buy it with a 01:06 debit card. Uh sometimes they'll let you 01:08 use a credit card or the easiest way is 01:10 to link a bank account. When you link a 01:12 bank account, it will use something 01:14 called Plaid. Pli D. Plaid is an 01:18 integration that financial apps use to 01:20 link with bank accounts. Uh pretty much 01:23 every financial app I've ever used, they 01:26 all use Plaid. like it's completely 01:27 universal. Uh from Fidelity to Robin 01:30 Hood, you know, Coinbase, River, 01:33 everybody. I've never used a financial 01:35 app that app that didn't use Plaid. Now, 01:37 if you're not comfortable because in the 01:39 part in the process of using Plaid to 01:41 integrate with your bank account, it 01:43 takes you to your bank account website 01:44 where you have to enter your username 01:46 and password credentials to uh in order 01:48 to link it, which is in my opinion safe 01:50 and secure and everything. But if you 01:52 prefer, River uh will allow you to link 01:54 it with your bank account routing number 01:56 and account number. Uh if you prefer not 01:60 to do any of those because you just 02:01 don't want River or Coinbase to have any 02:04 of your account credentials, then River 02:07 specifically, it's easier to do on 02:08 River. You can get it to work on 02:10 Coinbase, but it's it's harder if you 02:11 don't have a linked bank account. On 02:13 River, it's easy. You just uh wire the 02:15 money. It gives you wiring instructions. 02:17 You take those to your bank branch and 02:18 you say, "Hey, I want to wire so much 02:20 money to this banking information and 02:23 they will wire the funds." Wire uses a a 02:26 process called Fed wire, which is how 02:28 banks transfer money uh to and from each 02:31 other. So, that's the easiest way. The 02:32 easiest way for most people, I know I 02:34 made it sound complicated, but the 02:35 easiest way for most people is just go 02:38 to river.com, link it to your bank 02:40 account, pick an amount of Bitcoin you 02:43 want to buy, and just make sure your 02:44 bank account has that much US dollars in 02:46 it, and then push the buy button, and it 02:48 just buys it, and then it's you the 02:50 Bitcoin's on River, and anytime you 02:52 want, you can uh you can sell it on 02:54 River and move the money back to your 02:56 bank account, or anything you want to 02:58 do. You can send Bitcoin to people for 02:60 free like I do to get them started. You 03:02 can do anything you want. There are 03:04 other ways of buying Bitcoin. If you're 03:06 comfortable with a brokerage account 03:08 like Fidelity or Schwab or something 03:10 like that, there's something called a 03:12 Bitcoin ETF, exchangeraded fund. Uh the 03:16 two big ones are IBIT, which is run by 03:19 BlackRock. IBIT T. Uh I because it's 03:23 part of their Eyesshares brand and Bit 03:25 because it's the first three letters of 03:26 the word Bitcoin. I bit. And the other 03:28 one is FBTC as in Fidelity because 03:31 Fidelity runs it. And BTC as in Bitcoin, 03:35 the the threeletter symbol that 03:36 represents Bitcoin, BTC, FBTC, Fidelity 03:40 Bitcoin. Um, and you can buy a Bitcoin 03:42 ETF just like you can buy TSLA for Tesla 03:45 or AMZN for Amazon or MSFT for 03:48 Microsoft. Basically, the exact same way 03:50 that you can buy any type of stock or 03:53 bond or anything like that on a 03:54 brokerage account, which means a market 03:56 investing account. You can buy Bitcoin 03:58 way just entering the letters of a 04:00 Bitcoin ETF. And again, if you want 04:03 Black Rockck, it's IBIT. If you want 04:05 Fidelity, it's FBTC. I personally have 04:07 all of my retirement funds in uh 04:09 Fidelity rather than Black Rockck. So, I 04:12 usually recommend SBTC, but Black Rockck 04:14 is larger. Uh but Fidelity custodies the 04:17 Bitcoin themselves rather than having it 04:19 uh held with Coinbase and others. So, I 04:22 like Fidelity because just because it's 04:23 got fewer risk vectors in my opinion. Uh 04:27 so anyway, that's the lay of the land. 04:29 Um easiest way again is to just log into 04:31 somewhere like Coinbase or River, create 04:34 an account, link it to your bank 04:35 account, and buy Bitcoin. Um and again, 04:38 if you are not comfortable logging in, 04:39 you can link it with a a routing number 04:42 and a account number um on River, but it 04:45 does take a couple days because they 04:46 have they send you like two small 04:48 deposits for different amounts of money 04:50 and you have to uh enter those on the 04:52 River platform to verify you control 04:54 that bank account. Um, so there's 04:56 there's extra hoops to jump through. If 04:58 you link it with Plaid, it's super easy. 05:01 You literally it's you enter your, you 05:03 know, you log into your bank account 05:04 through the Plaid integration and then 05:06 it's an automatic link. And again, all 05:08 the financial apps use that regardless 05:09 of, you know, what you're trying to do. 05:11 Um, so anyway, it's that simple. 05:13 River.com, link it to a bank account and 05:16 buy Bitcoin or use a debit card. If 05:17 you're using, if you want to buy really 05:19 small amounts of Bitcoin, you can even 05:20 use a debit card, but the uh the fees 05:22 are always higher to use a debit card. 05:23 So that is how get and if you want to 05:25 use retirement funds call your financial 05:28 analyst or advisor and tell them you 05:30 want one of the Bitcoin ETFs and it's 05:33 either Fidelity FBTC or it's a a 05:36 BlackRock IBIT. And if they tell you 05:40 that you're not allowed to buy Bitcoin, 05:42 change financial advisors. Any financial 05:44 adviser in the year 2025 that refuses to 05:47 let you buy Bitcoin with your money 05:50 should not be in the business of being a 05:51 financial adviser. Bitcoin is the fifth 05:54 largest asset in the entire world 05:57 and gold which is much much much larger 05:59 and I believe Apple, Microsoft and 06:02 Amazon I think are the only three 06:04 companies that are larger in market 06:06 capitalization than Bitcoin. So if your 06:08 financial adviser is telling you you 06:09 cannot buy the fifth most valuable asset 06:12 in the entire world then they shouldn't 06:14 even be in the business and I would 06:15 change financial advisors or move your 06:18 IRA 401k Roth IRA move that over to 06:21 Fidelity because if you move it to 06:22 Fidelity rather than wherever it's stuck 06:25 uh absolutely Fidelity will encourage 06:28 and enable you to buy Bitcoin with it 06:30 and um they have been a supporter of 06:32 Bitcoin back to like 2014 for more than 06:34 a decade now. So, I am a big fan of uh 06:37 of Fidelity. So, anyway, hope that 06:40 helps. That's how you buy Bitcoin. Lots 06:41 of ways to do it. Uh the easiest way is 06:44 river.com and link it to a bank account. 06:46 It's that simple. Have a great day, 06:47 everyone. Thanks.