Risk Warning: Your Capital is at Risk.
This page covers the basics on why you may or may not trade Monero, along with a list of regulated brokers that offer Monero derivative products.
We also included a short guide on how to buy and exchange Monero, should you decide to own and manage it instead.
If you want to get started trading Monero, here are regulated brokers available in that offer Monero-based CFDs, forex, and other speculative products:
Disclaimer: Availability subject to regulations.
Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs.
Contents
Where Can I Trade Monero?
Rather than directly selling Monero, some brokers offer derivatives like options and contracts for difference (CFDs). These are contracts between you and the broker where you take a short or buy position on an instrument.
With CFDs, you do not own the underlying asset. The broker agrees to pay you the difference between your initial purchase and its current value, based on whether you bet short or long. Learn more about CFDs in or CFD Broker & Trading Guide.
Crypto Brokers Available in
Here’s a list of regulated broker available in that offer forex, options, CFDs and other trading products on cryptocurrencies such as Monero.
IMPORTANT: CFDs are not available in the USA due to local regulation, and regulated brokers do not accept US citizens or US residents as clients.
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74%-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Please Note: Availability subject to regulations. Cryptocurrency CFDs are not available to UK retail traders.
How to Buy Monero: Crypto Exchanges
So you’ve decided that you want to own Monero, rather than just trading options or other derivatives.
Now you just need to figure out where to actually get XMR. The best way to acquire XMR is through a cryptocurrency exchange. You use these exchanges to trade fiat currency for Monero.
Here is a list of crypto exchanges available in :
How To Manage Your Monero
When deciding how to get Monero you should keep in mind that using an exchange is always risky, especially for storage. You need to take extra care to keep your computer secure.
You should always enable two-factor authorization and avoid keeping all of your coins in a single wallet. If your account or wallet is compromised you could risk losing all of your Monero trades.
Are Exchange Wallets Safe To Store Monero?
Try avoid leaving your coins in an exchange wallet unless you are planning to trade them. One way to secure your cryptocurrency is in a hardware wallet or by putting them in cold storage.
Cold storage involves keeping your cryptocurrency in an offline wallet that only you have access to. This can be on a piece of hardware like Trezor or Ledger, an encrypted USB stick, or a paper wallet.
Is Monero Easy To Manage?
Managing your own Monero is not easy. To begin with, you have more obvious dangers. For example, you might get scammed by an unscrupulous user on a peer to peer exchange. Unfortunately, if a dishonest user manages to scam you out of your Monero it can be almost impossible to get it back.
On top of this, there are risks completely outside of your control. If you decide to use an exchange you are entirely in their hands.
If the owners prove to be dishonest or incompetent you could end up losing your entire Monero trade through no fault of your own. The most well-known example of this is the MtGox incident.
Should You Trade Monero?
The following reasons may determine whether traders opt for a long or short position with Monero.
Reasons You Might Trade Monero
- Leader of the Privacy coin Pack
- Planned Upgrades and Forks
Important: This is not investment advice. We present a number of common arguments for and against investing in this commodity. Please seek professional advice before making investment decisions.
One Of The Most Popular Privacy Coins
Being one of the earliest coins to deal with the issues surrounding lack of privacy in public blockchains, Monero has made the most of its ‘first mover advantage’ in the privacy niche and achieved a wide network effect.
A testament to its privacy use case is its acceptance and recommendation as payment on the dark web and dark markets.
On the dark web, the privacy of transactions is of utmost importance.
Monero Regularly Receives Infrastructure Updates
Bitcoin was stuck in a two-year block-size battle and couldn’t be upgraded. While Ethereum also took years to transition from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake, Monero has created periodic hard forks.
Every six months on average, the Monero protocol adds upgrades and new technologies through hard-forks that are anticipated network-wide.
This process has proved successful in ironing out known bugs and adding enhancements to the network.
Reasons to You May Avoid Trading Monero
- Computationally Expensive At Scale
- Fierce Competition
Monero Consumes A Lot Of Computing Power
Privacy transactions using various cryptographic proofs to create obfuscation and high levels of privacy are computationally resource heavy when compared to open blockchains.
So if Monero achieves any level of major adoption, it may become increasingly difficult to rely on the blockchain keeping up with demand.
Fierce Competition With Other Privacy Coins
Although Monero leads the pack, the privacy coin space is quickly becoming crowded.
Zcash is also widely mentioned in the media and is taking a share of the attention, as are newer and agile competitors, like PivX and Verge among others.
Some have a slew of added features like instant payments and user wallets that operate over the Tor network and that can take advantage of VPNs making them difficult to trace.
What is the Price Outlook for Monero, and What Do Experts Say on Prices?
Monero has consistently increased in value and the outlook for its price in the medium-long term is good.
This is especially true as people become more concerned about their privacy and states begin to look at ways to curtail the growth of cryptocurrencies.
You will probably see short-term volatility with gains in the long term.
While Monero might well become a thorn in the side of the taxman, experts generally take a positive view of its privacy-enhancing potential.
What Does The Jaxx Founder Say?
When questioned on the matter Anthony Di Lorio, CEO and Founder of Decentral and Jaxx said:
“I’m predicting new well-led projects emerging that provide improvements and enhancements on Bitcoin and Ethereum infrastructures. Two projects I have my eye on in 2017 are Rootstock out of Argentina and Qtum out of China. I’m also quite optimistic about Zcash, Monero, and Dash.”
Source: Bitcoinmagazine.com
Manfred Karrer’s Opinion Of Monero
Manfred Karrer, developer and founder of Bitsquare said:
“I expect three things. One, regulations on cryptocurrency exchanges will come. Two, the war on cash, gold, and cryptocurrencies will accelerate. And three, privacy-protecting technologies like Monero and Zcash will elevate in importance.”
Manfred Karrer
This is a view taken by a number of experts, such as encryption and cryptocurrency specialist Peter Todd.
He argues that Bitcoin can inadvertently expose unwanted financial information to people who might abuse it.
What Problems May Bitcoin’s Lack Of Privacy Cause For Consumers?
For example, If you pay your rent in Bitcoin, your landlord might be able to figure out how much money you earn and decide to raise your rent based on this.
Monero helps to mitigate these problems and this means that its growth is likely to continue.
Some experts have argued that links to the darkweb are causing irreparable damage to the reputation of cryptocurrencies in general.
Specifically that these seedy links play into the hands of establishment critics seeking to curtail Monero, Bitcoin, and others.
How Does Monero’s Legislative Future Look?
Big banks like Nordea are already using such links to try to encourage lawmakers to legislate against cryptocurrency.
Despite Monero’s potential utility for money laundering, its developers have designed the currency for the privacy of ordinary users. Many experts within the cryptocurrency community are supportive of Monero’s aims.
For example, when the U.S Government seized the popular dark web exchange AlphaBay, they were unable to even estimate Monero transaction volume, let alone identities.
Further Reading
If you’d like to learn more about how Monero began and how the ring signature technology works, see our Guide to Monero as a commodity.
We have trading guides for other privacy-centered cryptocurrencies like Zcash, Dash, and, Verge.
If Monero trading isn’t for you, there are many other cryptocurrencies that you can trade in the form of derivatives like CFDs and options, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash.