Where to Buy Bitcoin Maryland

Maryland is a pro-cryptocurrency state, with many avenues to buy and sell bitcoin and bitcoin derivatives.

A snapshot of Marylands Cryptocurrency Market:

It is legal for residents of Maryland to buy and sell, and use financial instruments of cryptocurrencies
Investors and traders must be at least 18 years old
Cryptocurrency exchanges and financial product providers are to be licensed
Peer to peer exchanges are not permitted

Learn which Maryland bitcoin exchanges are good, bad and to be avoided, how to buy bitcoin, bitcoin and cryptocurrency legislation and tax implications.

If you want to buy and sell bitcoin in Maryland, choose from our selected top exchanges.

Top 5 Maryland Bitcoin Exchanges

Overview of Maryland Bitcoin Exchanges

Maryland is a pro cryptocurrency and block chain state, evidenced by not only the ability to buy and sell bitcoin, but to also trade in derivatives, margin lending, and bankinn with bitcoin.

Maryland has many cryptocurrency exchanges to choose from, plus there are also financial service providers that can offer banking products (for example BlockFi and Nexo).

Maryland state laws has opened up the blockchain market, through the legalization of virtual currencies. It has formed committees to explore further and develop blockchain technology, not just with payments but to include recording, contracts, electronic signatures and financing.

When buying bitcoin in Maryland, you may also want to consider how to earn interest on bitcoin and use bitcoin as collateral for borrowing. It’s an exciting time in Maryland, because as an investor you can take advantage of bitcoin volatility with the various financial products. Other US States, do not offer the ability to take advantage of market fluctuations, but Maryland does.

Before jumping straight into it, we recommend that you understand what makes an exchange appropriate for you. There are many aspects to consider, such as trading fees, customer support, liquidity, transparency, and platform reliability. The balance of these factors will steer you in the right direction of choosing an exchange that is right for you.

Below we outline the important aspects and how they form a part of your consideration.

🔒 Safety and Security

Transparency, safety and security is important when considering buying bitcoin. Bitcoin is a digital currency, high in value that requires providing personal information to an exchange to trade. So not only do you want an exchange that protects your bitcoin, you also want one that can safeguard your personal information and your payment details. In the past, exchanges have been know to be scams, ponzi scheme and be hacked. Fortunately, with regulation and compliance requirements in Maryland, these risks are now minimal.

The safety and security risk that you should be considering is the layers of protection that an exchange gives to you personally. This will include Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), whereby you will need to verify your details with two methods. Other important safety features is the ability to whitelist trusted IP addresses, that you know only you will use to withdraw bitcoin. Some exchange will also offer online storage for you, to allow for the convenience of trading quickly. In doing so, the exchange should have insurance to protect them against stolen bitcoin via a hack.

Safety and security has improved greatly, but not to the extent that you should gloss over it. Consider the safety and security of each exchange, and balance it with how much you are going to invest with.

📞 Customer Support

Customer Support should not be overlooked. New users often think that buying and selling bitcoin is as simple as using eBay or Craigslist. It’s not. In just getting started and signing up to an exchange, though it usually is easy, you may need help with completing KYC requirements. KYC is needed by law to verify your identity and source of funds. This process is particularly onerous when creating a business acount. Even at times a personal account may take time.

Customer Support is therefore important to help you through any issues or questions that you may have. Having Customer Support at 24/7, accessible, prompt and meaningful is a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, good customer support is often a trade off with low fees.

💰 Fees

Considering trading fees is vital when buying bitcoin. Percentages may appear to be insignificant, starting from 0.4% to 5%. Sounds small, but when you are buying bitcoin in the thousands, or even in the hundreds, these fees will add up and eat into your profits. Compare the fees from exchange to exchange, but in doing so it can be difficult. Each exchange has its own fee structure and it will be tiered. Each tier has a percentage fee charge that will decrease as more volume is traded. The tiers are not consistent across each exchange, and may even vary between deposit and withdrawal methods.

Fees may also be charge when making a deposit or withdrawal. These fees are “on top” of the trading fees. Merchant providers, that facilitate deposits and withdrawals will charge the exchange, which may pass on the charge to you.

Unfortunately, some exchanges are not transparent with their fee structure. For example eToro touts “zero” trading fees. While this is true, their spreads are deliberately wide to allow them to capture their fees. There are not many exchanges that behave in this manner, but be on the look out for them.

💳 Payment Methods

Attached to fees are the payment methods. Payment methods can be free or incurr a charge through a merchant provider. However, not all exchanges will offer the same payment methods. Some are limited to only wire transfers and ACH, will some will extend to debit and credit cards (with limits) and to also PayPal, ApplePay and other e-wallets.

Processing times varying between exchanges and can extend up to 3 business days for withdrawals.

🪙 Cryptocurrency Selection

When getting started with buying bitcoin, you will need to make a deposit in USD or any fiat currency that is accepted. You can also deposit with other cryptocurrencies if the exchange accepts it. Exchanges will be limited with the number of fiat and cryptocurrencies that they can support. Logistically and operationally it can be burdensome, hence some exchange simply cannot support a large range.

A limited range of support cryptocurrencies is not a problem if your investment strategy is trading with a small amount and confined to a handful of crypto. On the other hand, if you intend to invest significantly, consider an exchange with a wider range of supported cryptocurrencies.

🏷 Coupons and Discounts

You will find that exchanges will coupons that can be found various websites as a form of marketing. Coupons can be used to claim a trading discount of up to $50. It’s not huge but it’s something. Referral fees are another way of rewarding you for promoting the exchange. When you refer your friends to the exchange, you can earn a percentage of the volume that your friend trades. Each exchange has different referral programs.

Tip – Beaware that emails will be received from unsolicited exchanges pushing discounts and coupons onto you. These emails too often are scams and may even contain malware. Though there is a possibility that they might be legitimate, don’t take the risk. Don’t reply to them, immediately delete and block them.

⚙️ Platform Reliability

The last thing any trader wants is down time of the exchange. It is unavoidable that an exchange will need maintenance. Upgrades and fixes of bugs, better controls is a constant improving process for exchanges, with most exchanges performing down time during lower trading times. Sometimes, however, an exchange will need more downtime to fix bigger issues. This is where it is important to choose an exchange that has great IT support, is professional with customer service, and does not hinder your trading strategy. It may be that you are a bitcoin buy and hold person, hence platform reliability will play less of a factor. But for those who seek to trade often and regularly, consider an exchange that is a global player, with backing to ensure that the exchange is operation smoothly.

is feature of a cryptocurrency exchange is the key to keeping the traders at one place. From outages to break down of servers, malware attacks and thefts, an exchange is prone to facing any type of problem that could happen to a website. It is, therefore, necessary for the crypto-exchange to strengthen its system, in terms of platform protection and ability to resist attacks, so that traders can stay with it for a longer time period.

📈 Liquidity

Liquidity is important to facilitate buying and selling of bitcoin quickly. The more users on an exchange that is willing to buy and sell, the more liquidity there is. High liquidity often translates to better spreads and a more accurate result of exchange pricing. It’s not always the case, but it is better than an exchange with low liquidity. Trading on an exchange with low liquidity may even be pointless. Without sufficient buyers and sellers, the buy and sell price of bitcoin may never be met.

Exchanges with scale and a large customer base, is therefore more attractive to sign up to. But this needs to be balanced against the other apsects that we have mentioned.

Maryland Bitcoin Exchange Reviews

Maryland is spoilt for choice when it comes to seleting a bitcoin exchange. Nearly every exchange (excluding peer to peer exchanges) are able to offer their services in the state. In addition, exchanges are also able to supplement the buying and selling of bitcoin with other financial products.

We have chosen a select few cryptocurrency exchanges to review.

Binance.US

Binance.US has had difficulty in obtain a license in some states, but not in Maryland! Prior to the entrance of FTX.US, Binance.US had the lowest trading fees and narrowest margins to give Maryland the best value for money. However, FTX.US is pipping Binance.US ever so slightly. To be honest, the difference isn’t great between the two in trading fees, but the award for the lowest currently goes to FTX.US.

Binance.US is an efficient and well run exchange, demonstrated through its sign up process. Personal account are processed extraordinarily fast, with KYC requires quite easy to complete. Business acounts take a little longer and can hit the occassional hurdle, depending on how complex the business structure is.

Supported cryptocurrencies aren’t as many as others, but they offer the major coins. If looking for a less traded coin, you may need to look elsewhere.

Safety and security is paramount at Binance.US. It operates in the US with a large amount of oversight and scrutiny, perhaps unfairly with its relation to Binance. Nevertheless the protection offered by Binance.US is top quality.

Mobility is met with both iOS and Android apps. These apps have less features than the online exchange, but is sufficient to trade when on the run.

Binance.US maybe losing ground to Crypto.com and FTX.US (whom are spending big on marketing), but it is still are very good platform to use. It’s fees are low and liquidity is high to have good value for money.

Money Transmitter License: 12-1906829
Cryptocurrencies: 64
Mobile App: iOS and Android
Fees: 0.1% – 0.5%
Payment Methods: Debit Card, ACH, Wire Transfer

BlockFi

BlockFi is a new exchange to the market, with its origins as been a bitcoin bank. It’s exchange is still developing and it not considering it is a new player. Aside from bitcoin, the number of other coins is limited. There is only one payment method (at the time of writing), and liquidity is relatively low.

Unlike other US States, BlockFi is able to offer Maryland residents deposting and lending bitcoin services. This is their bread and butter business with healthy returns on bitcoin deposits.

Money Transmitter License: 12-1873137
Payment Methods: ACH
Mobile App: iOS and Android
Fees: embedded in the spread

CEX.IO

Established in 2013 in the UK, most of its customers are from Europe. Nevertheless, it has a good customer base in the US, and is only a handful of exchanges in Maryland that could be considered as global. There are over 100 cryptocurrencies that are supported, and has an excellent history of being transparent, trusted and reliable.

There are over 4 million customers, making CEX.IO one of the most liquid exchanges. Trading fees are not the lowest, but they aren’t the highest either. A great exchange for the sophisticated trader with real time charting and other analytics.

Money Transmitter License: 12-1804170
Cryptocurrencies: 100+
Mobile App: iOS and Android
Fees: 0.15% – 0.25% + deposit and withdrawal fees
Payment Methods: Debit Card, Credit Card, ACH, Wire Transfer

Coinbase Pro

Currently the most popular crpyptocurrency exchange in Maryland. The liquidity it offers for bitcoin is very high, hence if you are searching for a quick buy and sell, it can’t get any faster than on Coinbase Pro. The fees are very reasonable, but not transparent due to the complex fee structure. Final fee charges will depend on various factors such as volume, frequency and deposit and withdrawal methods. But generally, Coinbase Pro has excellent low fees.

There is an “instant buy” facility, which is great for those who urgently need bitcoin, but beware that the fees for this is a lot higher than the standard fees charged.

Coinbase Pro is simple and easy to use and supports a massive range of cryptocurrencies and is operating in more than 30 countries. The customer support has sometime been found to be lacking. Low fee exchanges commonly don’t offer great support. Self service is the norm with a Knowledge Center with educational videos.

Coinbase offers a Bitcoin Debit Card that is widely accepted. We recommend to store the minimal amount of bitcoin on the card for security reasons and top it up regularly when you need to. This maybe inconvenient, but protection trumps inconvenience.

In summary, Coinbase Pro is excellent for beginners, it’s easier to use than Binance.US but fees slightly higher.

Money Transmitter License: 12-1163082
Cryptocurrencies: 96
Mobile App: iOS and Android
Fees: 0.5% – 4.5%
Payment Methods: Debit Card, Credit Card, ACH, Wire Transfer

Coinmama

Coinmama is cryptocurrency exchange that is perfect for beginners. The platform isn’t overcrowded with other functionality, that is rarely used by a beginner, hence intuitive and simple to use. The fees however are slightly higher than the average reaching up to 5.9%. This isn’t great, but their customer service more than makes up for it. A huge selection of cryptocurrencies is available, to help diversify conveniently instead of transfer out and signing up to other exhanges.

Coinmama is a global exchange, has a good reputation of being transparent and trusted.

Money Transmitter License: Approved
Cryptocurrencies: 96
Mobile App: iOS and Android
Fees: 0.5% – 4.5%
Payment Methods: Debit Card, Credit Card, ACH, Wire Transfer

Crypto.com (CDC)

You may have seen the Lebron James and Matt Damon advertisements marketing Crypto.com. And have also noticed that the Staples Center is now named Crypto.com. Crypto.com is making a huge push to become the market leader in Maryland, scaling up very quickly.

The are great perks when buying bitcoin via Crypto.com. Firstly, you get rewarded with their native coin CRO. The more you use Crpto.com the more coins you earn, which will grow in value as more customers join the exchange. Secondly, the Crypto.Com debit card is nothing to be sneezed at. Wanted to drive a Ferrari so that everyone can take notice, well you can do so with the Crypto.com card as well. The card is made of metal, and weighs a ton! But it is an effective way of promoting Crypto.com and gets people talking.

The card is accepted at many stores, and can convert bitcoin quickly to fiat when needed.

The trading fees are reasonable, at just a bit higher than Coinbase Pro, hence good value for money. The app is extremely reliable, perhaps the most reliable of apps on the market at the moment. Many users joke that the quickest way to fix a bug is to uninstall and reinstall the app, and then all issues are solved. If this is as hard as it gets, then Crypto.com is a winner.

Money Transmitter License: Approved
Cryptocurrencies: 96
Mobile App: iOS and Android
Fees: 0.5% – 4.5%
Payment Methods: Debit Card, Credit Card, ACH, Wire Transfer

Etoro

Etoro undoubtedly has one of the best trading platforms. It’s origins stem back to foreign currency, hence it’s almost seamless to also include cryptocurrencies. The natural first mover in the market advantage shines with an impeccable user experience that caters both the novice and experienced.

The downside is the lack of transparency in the fees. Though they declare they are a “zero” fee exchange, their spreads are much wider than others i.e. they clip a percentage through the spread margins. Although tecnically correct that they are zero fees, the intent leaves a lot to be desired.

Money Transmitter License: Approved
Cryptocurrencies: 27
Mobile App: iOS and Android
Fees: zero (but huge spreads making eToro more expensive than Binance.US and Coinbase).
Payment Methods: Wire, ACH, PayPal, e-wallets

FTX.US

If you want the cheapest exchange, then join FTX.US. They are (only just barely) the cheapest exchange for bitcoin buyers. Their user experience is also very good, with a platform that has been built from the ground up. Platform reliability, however is always an issue when building a brand new IT platform, but it is improving. Another downside, is that it only supports up to 20 cryptos, which is quite limited.

Along with Crypto.com it is shaking up the industry, with the heavy weight Tom Brady throwing his name behind it.

Choose FTX.US if you are looking for the cheapest exchange to use.

Money Transmitter License: Approved
Trading name: West Realm Shires Services Inc
Cryptocurrencies: 20
Mobile App: iOS and Android
Fees: 0.4% – 5.0%
Payment Methods: Wire, ACH, PayPal, e-wallets

Bitcoin ATMs

Just like normal banking ATMs you can find Bitcoin ATMs in Maryland. These offer the convenience of depositing in cash to buy bitcoin, and withdrawing bitcoin back into cash. Bitcoin ATMs usually require you to create an account online with the provider before using their ATM. Once an account has been created, you can then use the bitcoin ATM.

Beware that the fees incurred in using a Bitcoin ATM is significantly higher that an online cryptocurrency exchange. Think twice before using a Bitcoin ATM, because your profits will be offset with larger fees.

Maryland Cryptocurrency Tax Ruling and Rates

Before discussing Maryland taxes, please seek professional tax advice from a CPA or tax account. The below is general discussion points.

The IRS requires all US tax payers to declare any profit from trading bitcoin. There is very limited way is getting around this, however some have tried to sign up to exchanges that do not require KYC. This is not an option in Maryland, and though it’s understandable that everyone wants to reduce tax, and the end of the day it is unavoidable.

Tax rates are applied to any realized capital gains that occurs as a result of a taxable event. An event may include the selling of bitcoin, or using bitcoin to purchase a good or service. When a profit is realized the IRS expects tax to be paid on the gain. The tax rate is determined on whether the bitcoin has been held for at least one year or not. If under one year, the tax rate is at the individual tax rates. If over one year it is at the long term tax rate.

The IRS requires supporting documentation for bitcoin trading. Units, buy price and sell price are just some details, which can be obtain from an exchange. Some exchanges will even provide for a tax report that can be integrated into tax software.

Bitcoin Cryptocurrency Laws and Legislation

Maryland bitcoin laws are the most progress in US States.

In 2018, HB1634 and SB1068 was introducted to explore the use of cryptocurrencies under the department of Financial Consumer Protection Commission.

The two bills initiated the Financial Consumer Protection Act 2018 to authorise the discovery of blockchain technology and its use in the fintech industry. In its assessment, the fact that money transmitters did not require a license was noted. Subsequently the Money Tranmissioin Act was amended to include virtual currencies.

Proactively the Depart of Labor, Licensing and Regulation has been warning the public of the risk of buying and selling bitcoin.

In 2019, Maryland became of the first US States to begin addressing state taxes and bitcoin. With HB1301, virtual currency used by businesses or person can be deemed as “marketplace facilitators”. They would be required to collect sales tax on the exchange for goods and services. This bill is pending approval.

Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Wallets

Some exchanges also offer wallets. It’s not necessary for a good exchange to offer a wallet to their clients, though it can be a nice to have for new investors. However, be aware that online wallets offered by exchanges are normally hot wallets. That is, these wallets are connected permanently to the internet. This can be quite risky to use a wallet that is controlled by the exchange and not by yourself.

Hence it’s not necessarily a good thing if an exchange offers a wallet, but it’s a nice to have, if you are looking for an exchange with their own wallet.

Online Wallets: Every crypto-exchange has their own wallet where traders can store their coins or cryptocurrencies for as long as they want. However, there are two types of these wallets that traders have to decide about which wallet they want to use for their trading.
Maryland Hot Wallets: Since the inception of bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, wallets have been transformed and divided into two forms- desktop and online. Digital wallets are free and can hold any cryptocurrency that traders want. They enable them to get easy access to their cryptocurrencies via mobile devices. They are perfect for beginners who want something easy to start with.
Maryland Cold Wallets: These specifically designed devices work as physical cryptocurrency storage that allow traders to bring their cryptos with them, no matter where they are going. Though, the only considerable thing is their expensive nature with limitations of storing certain cryptocurrencies for future use.

Minimum Legal Age

The minimum legal age to buy and sell bitcoin in Maryland is 18 years old.

Summary

Maryland is a pro-cryptocurrency state with many options to buy and sell, trade and utilize options and derivatives for bitcoin. Choosing an exchange requires assessing several factors which align with your investment strategy. After buying bitcoin, select a safe haven for storing your coins, it can either be on the exchange or on your own wallet. If you profit from buying and selling bitcoin, lawfully you are required to pay tax.

Buying and selling bitcoin is legal in Maryland, with the minimum legal age of 18 years old to sign up and trade at an exchange.