Can I Buy Crypto (Bitcoin) on TD Ameritrade?
TD Ameritrade is well known for its stock and options trading platforms, but can you trade cryptocurrency on TD Ameritrade? Let’s explore crypto trading on TD Ameritrade and discuss crypto trading on Webull as an alternative.
What Type of Cryptocurrency Trading Does TD Ameritrade Offer?
Unfortunately, TD Ameritrade does not currently offer trading directly in cryptocurrencies. However, they do offer multiple other ways to gain indirect exposure to cryptocurrencies. The types of products that TD Ameritrade offers for gaining indirect exposure to crypto are stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, and futures.
Trading Cryptocurrency Stocks on TD Ameritrade
Trading crypto stocks on TD Ameritrade allows you to gain indirect exposure to different aspects of the crypto markets. You can trade crypto stocks such as Coinbase (COIN), MicroStrategy (MSTR), or Riot Blockchain (RIOT). Each of these companies’ stocks will have varying degrees of correlation to cryptocurrency prices.
TD Ameritrade offers commission-free stock trading for U.S. exchange-listed stock trades placed online. For online trades of over-the-counter (OTC) stocks, TD Ameritrade charges $6.95 per trade. TD Ameritrade doesn’t currently offer a way to search for crypto-related stocks on any of its platforms.
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Trading Cryptocurrency Mutual Funds on TD Ameritrade
There are only a few mutual funds currently available in the U.S. that have investment strategies
around cryptocurrency trading. Two examples of crypto mutual funds available for trading on
TD Ameritrade are BTCVX and BTCFX. The BTCVX fund has a minimum initial investment amount of $100,000
and a transaction fee to buy on TD Ameritrade.
The BTCFX fund has a minimum initial investment amount of $1,000 and no transaction fee to buy on TD Ameritrade.
Trading Cryptocurrency ETFs and Coin Trusts on TD Ameritrade
There are lots of different cryptocurrency-related ETFs available for trading on TD Ameritrade. Many
cryptocurrency funds are actually not technically ETFs, they are trusts that behave like closed-end funds. For simplicity, we will group all of the crypto trusts with the ETF category.
You can search for cryptocurrency ETFs on TD Ameritrade by logging in, then going to the “Research & Ideas” tab at the top of the website, then selecting “Categories” under the “ETFs” menu, then selecting “Digital Assets” as the fund category. This search brings up over 45 ETFs related to digital assets, aka crypto, available for trading on TD Ameritrade.
You should be aware that crypto trusts such as ETHE and GBTC trade OTC and therefore, carry a commission of $6.95 per trade on TD Ameritrade. True crypto ETFs such as WGMI and BITS can be traded commission-free on TD Ameritrade.
What Type of Cryptocurrency Trading Does Webull Offer?
As an alternative to not being able to directly trade cryptocurrencies on TD Ameritrade, you can trade
cryptocurrencies on Webull. In addition to offering
direct cryptocurrency trading, Webull also offers trading in crypto stocks and crypto ETFs. Webull does not offer crypto mutual fund trading or crypto futures trading.
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Trading Cryptocurrency Stocks on Webull
Webull offers access to trading the same type of crypto stocks that TD Ameritrade does such as Coinbase (COIN), MicroStrategy (MSTR), or Riot Blockchain (RIOT), while also offering commission-free trading, same as TD Ameritrade. However, Webull only offers OTC trading in about 200 specific securities. So, if you are looking to trade a cryptocurrency-related stock that trades OTC, you would have to use TD Ameritrade.
Trading Cryptocurrency ETFs and Coin Trusts on Webull
You can enjoy the same commission-free trading of cryptocurrency ETFs on Webull like you can on
TD Ameritrade. One disadvantage of trading crypto ETFs on Webull compared to TD Ameritrade is that a lot of the crypto ETFs that are technically considered trusts trade OTC and, as mentioned, Webull only offers OTC trading of a limited number of securities. However, Webull’s advantage is that eligible OTC securities such as GBTC and ETHE, are commission-free.
Trading Cryptocurrency Directly on Webull
Webull currently offers commission-free trading in over 40 different cryptocurrencies:
- Aave (AAVE)
- Algorand (ALGO)
- Apecoin (APE)
- Avalanche (AVA)
- BAT (BAT)
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
- Cardano (ADA)
- BNTUSD (BNT)
- Chainlink (LINK)
- Chiliz (CHZ)
- COMPUSD (COMP)
- Cosmos (ATOM)
- Crypto.com Coin (CRO)
- Curve DAO (CRV)
- Dash (DASH)
- Decentraland (MANA)
- ENJUSD (ENJ)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Ethereum Classic (ETC)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
- Fantom (FTM)
- FILUSD (FIL)
- Gala (GALA)
- ICPUSD (ICP)
- LINK (LINK)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Loopring (LRC)
- Maker (MKR)
- Polygon (MATIC)
- REN (REN)
- SHIB (SHIB)
- Solana (SOL)
- Stella Lumens (XLM)
- Sushi (SUSH)
- Stella Lumens (XLM)
- Terra (LUNA)
- Tezos(XTZ)
- The Graph (GRT)
- UNI (UNI)
- USD Coin (USDC)
- XLM (XLM)
- yearn.finance (YFI)
- Zcash (ZEC)
You can trade crypto on Webull starting with as little as $1.
Crypto trading on Webull is available 23 hours a day, 7 days a week on its app and website.
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Trading Cryptocurrency Futures on TD Ameritrade
The investment product on TD Ameritrade that will give you the closest exposure to directly trading cryptocurrencies is cryptocurrency futures. TD Ameritrade currently offers four different cryptocurrency futures products which are CME Bitcoin Futures, CME Ether Futures, CME Micro Bitcoin Futures, and CME Micro Ether Futures. Each of these futures offers different contract sizes, margin requirements, and notional values.
To be eligible to trade cryptocurrency futures on TD Ameritrade, you need to have margin and options level 2 approval, apply for a futures trading account, and enable advanced features during the futures application process. You can only trade cryptocurrency futures in a non-retirement account on TD Ameritrade.
Cryptocurrency futures trading hours are Sunday, 6 p.m. to Friday, 5 p.m. ET on TD Ameritrade. Trading crypto futures on TD Ameritrade costs you a fee of $2.25 per contract.
Can You Buy Crypto on TD Ameritrade Conclusion
Even though TD Ameritrade offers some great ways of trading to get indirect exposure to cryptocurrencies, you have to go with Webull to trade crypto directly. If you are looking to trade crypto mutual funds or crypto futures, however, TD Ameritrade is your place to go. For trading crypto stocks or ETFs, it depends on the specific security for which broker is the better option of the two.
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Updated on 1/20/2023.
Paul Johnson is a Licensed Stockbroker with 7+ years of experience in the financial services industry. Paul enjoys teaching about investing and writing about financial topics. He is a husband and father of twin boys.
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