How to buy and sell bitcoin on Lava

Lava lets you buy and sell bitcoin directly from your USD balance, and it charges no platform fee on either side of the trade. Bitcoin you buy stays in the same account as your dollars. You can hold it as long-term savings, or use it as collateral to borrow dollars without selling it.

How it works

1. Fund your USD balance. Add dollars through a supported bank transfer, direct deposit or a stablecoin deposit.

2. Buy bitcoin. Use any part of that balance. Lava doesn’t charge a platform fee on the purchase.

3. Hold it, or put it to work. Your bitcoin sits in segregated cold-storage addresses, and Lava never lends it out, trades it or rehypothecates it. If you later need dollars, you can use it as collateral for a bitcoin line of credit (BLOC) instead of selling.

4. Sell when you choose. The dollars return to your available USD balance, again with no platform fee. From there you can spend them with Lava Card, move them into the Lava Yield Account, withdraw them to a supported bank account or send them as stablecoins.

Costs and fees

Lava charges $0 in platform fees to buy or sell bitcoin. Per-trade fees add up if you buy regularly. A 1% fee on $500 a month costs you $60 a year, and a 2% fee costs $120. On Lava, the platform fee on the same purchases is $0.

No platform fee isn’t the same as no cost. Lava doesn’t add a spread to its buy and sell prices, but moving dollars onto or off Lava can carry costs. Supported bank routes, currencies, fees and transfer times vary by location, and the app shows the options available to you.

Risks and limits

The price of bitcoin moves, so the dollar value of what you hold can fall as well as rise. Lava is built around holding bitcoin as long-term savings, not frequent trading. Buy an amount you’re comfortable holding through price swings.

Bitcoin you hold on Lava is kept in institutional-grade cold storage. Keys are held across several geographically distributed entities, which removes any single point of failure. It only moves when you deposit or withdraw it, or open or close a loan.

Supported funding methods and bank routes depend on where you live. For large purchases or sales, Lava Prime offers direct access to Lava’s OTC (over-the-counter) desk, where a dedicated team executes large trades.

Who it’s for

Buying on Lava is built for people who want a simple, low-cost way to build bitcoin savings: regular buyers, everyday investors and experienced holders. If you’re tired of paying a fee on every trade, or of juggling separate accounts to buy bitcoin, borrow against it, spend dollars and reach your bank, Lava keeps all of it in one place.

It also fits people already using Lava. A BLOC borrower can buy bitcoin and add it as collateral. A Lava Card or Lava Yield Account user can move between bitcoin and dollars without sending money to another platform. International customers can fund their balance with stablecoins, buy bitcoin and later sell back into dollars they can spend or withdraw.

Get started

Start building your bitcoin savings at lava.xyz/buy-btc.