So like many people by now, I'm sure you have heard or seen the big boom with Bitcoin and other crypto currencies. A lot of people are asking, "is it too late to buy any crypto?" The answer is it is never a bad time. Entering 2018 this will be the year we see more ICO's and crypto currencies. As of today 1/2/18 Bitcoin the big dog in crypto currency is at $15,146.80. You can check where all coins are trading at on https://coinmarketcap.com/ and weighing in second place is Ripple (XRP) at $2.38.

What is Ripple?

![download.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmU4Zs8Zj6FKd31dkHTR6MEn6nYmpUzYzmNn46MjBERyio/download.png) If you haven't heard by now Ripple has been soaring and now it has passed up Ethereum and currently sits at the #2 spot on the market. Ripple's missions is to modernize the way we process global payments. Today the world sends more than $155 trillion* across borders. Yet, the underlying infrastructure is dated and flawed. Ripple connects banks, payment providers and digital asset exchanges via RippleNet to provide one frictionless experience to send money globally. *McKinsey, Global Payments Industry Study, 2016 ![Screen Shot 2018-01-02 at 1.08.41 PM.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmYVdvs96Byq9xx7wsHsXK2dhEXeWo7DPiwTBkNkyC7dp5/Screen%20Shot%202018-01-02%20at%201.08.41%20PM.png)

How do you buy Ripple?

Step 1

For us, in the U.S. the most popular method to buy into crypto is to start by using US Dollars and turning it into either Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, or Litecoin on Coinbase. Coinbase is a U.S. exchange that is used to make purchase on all the major coins listed prior. If you use this link https://www.coinbase.com/join/54f2833a6deee02a900000c5 and purchase $100 of any you get $10 back in Bitcoin for using the referral link. You need to have some sort of currency to make the purchase of altcoins such as Ripple since it is not available on Coinbase yet. What I do is I normally purchase whatever amount I want to buy of Ripple, say in this case $100. I would purchase $100 of the Ethereum coin on Coinbase. The reason for this is to avoid the high transaction fees Bitcoin has right now due to the congestion of the network. That's a whole another topic.

Step 2

Since Coinbase does not sell Ripple the next best place is to buy it on Binance. They are one of the listed exchanges that trade Ripple. Go to https://www.binance.com/?ref=11801706 create an account and deposit to your Ethereum wallet on Binance. ![howtobuyripple.gif](https://steemitimages.com/DQmUR6CgLjphCepHFszxWvyvy7mi7aXzdF23r4p4Jy8cMEz/howtobuyripple.gif)

Step 3

Go to the Exchange section and click on basic. Next, go to the ETH section on your right since we deposited Ethereum to purchase Ripple and look for XRP/ETH. Hit the Market tab and click to buy at 100% and buy. Congratulations you now own some Ripple! Depending on what you want to do with it, either HODL (hold) or make a profit and sell. See the GIF below. ![xrp.gif](https://steemitimages.com/DQmS2kUQgarp13vXR6P3kASysRNx3GhBovvMi6jmi1vyC3e/xrp.gif) Check out our other post on Getting started with Bitcoin/Cloud Mining here http://steemit.com/cloudmining/@rr1818/getting-started-with-bitcoin-or-other-crypto-currency-for-newbies