How to Buy Crypto with Metro Bank
Summary: While Metro Bank doesn’t offer crypto trading on its own platform, you can easily use your account to buy crypto using a third-party crypto exchange.
There are plenty of UK crypto exchanges to choose from, we recommend using eToro as the exchange to work with.
They have most of the popular cryptocurrencies available, are easy to work with, and have fantastic support!
Buy Crypto with eToro
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As mentioned above, just like most UK banks, Metro Bank doesn’t offer cryptocurrency trading directly, as setting up a cryptocurrency trading platform is quite complex and comes with regulations and extra requirements for the banks.
There are many cryptocurrency exchanges that you can use for buying bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
You can sign up for an exchange (we will use eToro as our example because it is a trusted and worldwide exchange) and transfer funds to the exchange to trade crypto.
Table of Contents
How to buy crypto or bitcoin with Metro Bank
There are only 4 steps involved, let’s get started!
1. Choose a cryptocurrency trading platform
As mentioned above, we’ll be using eToro for this guide as they are a widely used exchange and have over 50 cryptocurrencies to choose from. They also have a few really neat features like “Copy Trading”, which enables users to copy the trades of popular investors on the platform.
You can, of course, use any trusted crypto exchange for this, the steps will be very similar for most exchanges.
Let’s get started!
2. Sign up with the trading platform
The first thing to do is to sign up with the platform.
Once you’ve completed the initial sign up process, you’ll have to go through a quick verification process (also known as KYC).
3. Funding your account
Next up is funding your account. When it comes to depositing money to your eToro account, you have the option to use a bank transfer, PayPal, credit/debit card, and more.
4. Buy crypto
Finally, just go to the eToro Markets section, find the cryptocurrency you would like, and buy it.
And that’s it, it’s all pretty straightforward, now you know how to buy bitcoin or most other cryptocurrencies with Metro Bank.
About Metro Bank
Metro Bank plc, a UK retail and commercial bank founded in 2010 by Anthony Thomson and Vernon Hill, is now in operation. It was the first high-street bank to open in the United Kingdom for over 150 years at its launch. It is listed on London Stock Exchange.
Metro Bank, after a period of high growth, found itself in trouble in 2019. It announced that it did not have sufficient capital to meet regulatory requirements. This was due to an error in how it classified its commercial loans. It had to raise another PS350m capital. The announcement and concerns about the bank's ability raise capital led to the bank's share price dropping by 75% in four months. Large depositors also began withdrawing money due to "adverse sentiment".
The Financial Services Authority granted Metro Bank its license on 5 March 2010. This was the first licence granted to a high-street bank in over 150 years. Within ten years of its founding, it planned to open 200-250 branches in Greater London. The first branch was opened in Holborn, London on 29 July 2010. The bank received $200 million more funding in 2012 from investors such as Fidelity, Steven A. Cohen, hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors, New York real estate investors, the LeFraks, David, and Simon Reubens.
Metro Bank offers banking services to both personal and business customers. It is authorized by the Prudential Regulation Authority, and regulated both by the Financial Conduct Authority as well as the Prudential Regulation Authority.
Metro Bank purchased SME Finance from SME Finance, in August 2013. The business was rebranded as Metro Bank SME Finance, in May 2014.
In August 2020, Metro Bank announced that it had acquired Retail Money Market Ltd. This London-based provider of peer to peer loans trading under the RateSetter brand. Depending on the performance of the three years, the price would range from PS2.5 million to PS12 million. The transaction was subject to regulatory approval, as well as the agreement of Retail Money Market Ltd shareholders. It was expected that the purchase would be completed in the fourth quarter 2020. Metro Bank would maintain the RateSetter brand, its operations, and new unsecured personal loans would be funded through the bank's deposit, not peer-to-peer. Metro Bank purchased RateSetter's entire loan portfolio, worth PS384m, in February 2021.
Metro Bank sold a residential mortgage portfolio worth PS3.04 billion to NatWest in February 2021. Dec 2020 was the date of the agreement.
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