Sending crypto to friends and family, and using crypto to pay for goods and services, is easy once you get the hang of it. Why would you want to send crypto instead of cash? Since crypto is digital, sending crypto can be as easy as sending an email. Crypto also doesn’t have any physical borders the way dollars, pesos, or euros do, so you can send crypto to friends, family, or merchants overseas as easily as sending it to someone sitting next to you. Lastly, you can send crypto without sharing your personal or banking info, making it more secure. To send crypto, you’ll need the recipient’s wallet address. A wallet address is a long string of characters, similar to a bank account number, that identifies where the crypto should go. Since crypto wallet addresses are long, they’re often shown as a QR code that you can scan in your crypto app. Once you have the wallet address, you just need to open your crypto wallet, enter the wallet address, select how much crypto you want...
A crypto wallet is a place where you can securely keep your crypto. There are many different types of crypto wallets, but the most popular ones are hosted wallets, non-custodial wallets, and hardware wallets. Which one is right for you depends on what you want to do with your crypto and what kind of safety net you want to have. Hosted wallets The most popular and easy-to-set-up crypto wallet is a hosted wallet. When you buy crypto using an app like Coinbase, your crypto is automatically held in a hosted wallet. It’s called hosted because a third party keeps your crypto for you, similar to how a bank keeps your money in a checking or savings account. You may have heard of people “losing their keys” or “losing their USB wallet” but with a hosted wallet you don’t have to worry about any of that. The main benefit of keeping your crypto in a hosted wallet is if you forget your password, you won’t lose your crypto. A drawback to a hosted wallet is you can’t access eve...