How to buy Ethereum (ETH): compare your options
Buying Ethereum online comes down to how you pay, where you buy, and which wallet and network the ETH is delivered to. The payment methods available to you, and what each costs, are shown by the provider before you confirm. For a full comparison of buying routes across crypto generally, including exchanges and peer-to-peer marketplaces, see the guide to buying crypto. What follows covers the parts that are specific to Ethereum.
Which network is your ETH delivered on?
ETH is the native asset of Ethereum mainnet, and it is also represented on other networks, including Ethereum layer-2 networks. When you buy, the ETH is delivered on a specific network, and the receiving Ethereum wallet has to support that network for the balance to appear and be usable.
This is easy to get wrong because Ethereum and EVM-compatible networks share the same address format, beginning with 0x. An address can look correct and still belong to a network your wallet does not support. Check which network the purchase is being delivered on, and that your wallet supports it, before you confirm.
Sending ETH using an unsupported address or network can make the funds difficult or impossible to recover.
Ethereum gas fees
Gas is the mechanism Ethereum uses to price computation and transaction execution. Users pay transaction fees in ETH based on the gas used and the network's fee conditions, so the same action can cost more when the network is busier.
This matters after the purchase as well as during delivery. Any later transaction from your wallet needs ETH available to cover the fee, including moving tokens that live on Ethereum. Keeping a small ETH balance for fees is a practical consideration if you intend to use the wallet rather than only hold.
ETH and ERC-20 tokens
ETH is Ethereum's native asset. ERC-20 tokens are separate tokens issued on Ethereum by other projects, following a common standard. Buying an ERC-20 token is not the same as buying ETH, even though both are held in the same wallet and use the same address.
On Ethereum mainnet, transaction fees are normally paid in ETH. That is why a wallet holding only ERC-20 tokens, with no ETH, can be unable to move them.
Using ETH after you buy it
Once ETH is in a wallet you control, it can be used as well as held. In practice that means you can:
- pay gas on Ethereum, including when moving ERC-20 tokens;
- send ETH to any address on a network your wallet supports;
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