How to start in crypto from zero without giving your money away

The first decision isn't which coin to buy. It's which money to buy it with. Spain's securities regulator, the CNMV, sums it up in one line on its MiCA page: before investing, make sure you can bear the possible total loss of what you put in. That isn't bureaucratic drama. Bitcoin fell more than 80% between December 2017 and December 2018, and some cryptocurrencies have ended up practically at zero.

Before you open any account, run these four filters. If you fail one, it's not time yet:

• Emergency fund first. Money for the unexpected, in an account you can get at right away. A common benchmark is three to six months of fixed expenses, more if your income is irregular. The Banco de España recommends keeping it separate from money you won't need in the short or medium term, which is the only money that makes sense to invest.
• No expensive debt, and no loans to invest. If you're paying high interest on a revolving credit card, clearing it is a guaranteed return that no coin can promise you.
• An amount you could watch drop by half without panic-selling. If your 1,000 euros were worth 400 tomorrow, would you sleep? If not, the amount is too high.
• A goal with a deadline. “Make money” is not a goal. “Build a small Bitcoin position over five years” is, and it tells you what to do when the price crashes: exactly what you had already planned.

In the video “Cómo empezar a invertir en criptomonedas desde CERO” (how to start investing in crypto from zero), the first block is my four golden rules before you start, with no jargon and no promise that you'll get rich. After that come where to buy, the first purchase, wallets, scams and what the Spanish tax agency says.

Cómo empezar a invertir en criptomonedas desde CERO (guía honesta 2026)12:06

Since December 30, 2024, the MiCA Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114) has applied across the European Union, and it requires crypto-asset service providers to be authorized: exchanges, custodians and the like. Spain had an 18-month transitional period that ended on July 1, 2026. Since then, as the CNMV points out on its MiCA page (in Spanish), only providers authorized by the CNMV itself or by another European authority can operate in Spain.

In plain terms: the question is no longer whether an app is famous, but whether that specific company is authorized, and for what. Checking takes five minutes:

• The CNMV register. Providers allowed to operate in Spain, whether authorized here or passported in from another EU country. It's linked from the CNMV's MiCA page.
• ESMA's interim register. CSV files on its MiCA page, updated regularly. As of October 17, 2026 it listed 376 entities with a current authorization across the European Economic Area, 16 of them based in Spain (six are banks and other financial firms that notified these services), along with who authorized them, which services they offer and in which countries.
• The legal entity, not the brand. The company name sometimes looks nothing like the app's, and the CNMV warns that MiCA protections only apply to the legal entity authorized in the EU, not to other companies in the same group. Check your contract to see who you're actually signing with.
• The services, one by one. A company can be authorized for only part of what it does. To buy with euros and leave your coins there, you need at least exchange for funds and custody.
• The blacklists. The CNMV publishes warnings about unauthorized firms, and ESMA keeps a list of entities that don't comply with MiCA. If your platform shows up there, there's nothing left to think about.

Watch out for a selling point that still gets thrown around. Before MiCA, the Banco de España kept a register of virtual currency exchange and custody providers, but it existed only for anti-money-laundering purposes. The central bank closed it on July 1, 2026 (note in Spanish) and makes it clear it was never a seal of quality:

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“Registration in this register did not imply any approval or verification by the Banco de España of the activity carried out by providers of virtual currency for fiat currency exchange services and electronic wallet custody services.”

So what do I use? I'll tell you straight, and also that the link is an affiliate link: the exchange I use is OKX, through OKX Europe Ltd, authorized under MiCA by Malta's financial regulator (MFSA) on January 27, 2025 and, according to the CNMV, allowed to serve customers in Spain since November 27, 2025. It isn't perfect: in 2025 it pleaded guilty in the United States to operating as an unlicensed money transmitter and paid more than $500 million, and in Malta its local subsidiary was fined just over one million euros for anti-money-laundering failings found in 2023. Its lowest fee also requires opening a derivatives account, which I don't recommend if you're just starting out. If it suits you, you can open your OKX account. If you'd rather compare, the exchanges section covers other MiCA-licensed platforms and how to buy bitcoin walks you through the process. Everything that changed on July 1 is in the MiCA regulation guide.

Every authorized platform has to know who you are: it's an anti-money-laundering requirement known as KYC (know your customer). Have your Spanish ID card (DNI) or foreigner identity number (NIE) at hand, be ready for a selfie or a short video, and don't be surprised if they ask about your job or where the money comes from. Depending on the platform, it takes minutes or a few days.

While you wait, lock the account down:

• A long, unique password you don't use anywhere else. European supervisors also ask you not to log in to your accounts over public Wi-Fi.
• Two-factor authentication with an app or a hardware key; SMS is the weakest option.
• An anti-phishing code and a withdrawal address whitelist, if the platform offers them.
• If someone from “support” messages you on Telegram or WhatsApp asking for codes, documents or your recovery phrase, it's a scam. The usual red flags are in the crypto scams guide, and everything else you need to protect your crypto is in the security section.

If you want to see the process on screen, in my OKX tutorial I walk you through sign-up, KYC, depositing euros and buying step by step, plus what MiCA means for users. It's the platform I use, but the process is very similar on every authorized one.

OKX Tutorial 2026: Cómo Registrarse, Comprar y Vender con Euros | Ley MiCA28:09

Once your account is verified, buying is the easiest part of the whole process. What makes the difference is the order type and what you pay without noticing.

Your first purchase in 7 steps

1. 01

   Check the platform

   Before you send a single euro, look it up in the CNMV or ESMA register and note the legal name and the services it's authorized for.

2. 02

   Turn on security

   Unique password, app-based two-factor and, if available, a withdrawal whitelist. Before you have a balance, not after.

3. 03

   Verify your identity

   Complete KYC with your DNI or NIE. Without it you can't deposit euros or withdraw anything.

4. 04

   Deposit euros by SEPA transfer

   From an account in your own name. Paying by card is faster, but it usually costs quite a bit more.

5. 05

   Choose the pair and the order type

   For BTC/EUR, a limit order lets you set the maximum price you'll pay; a market order fills instantly at the best price available.

6. 06

   Check the total cost before confirming

   Fee, effective price and the amount you'll receive. If the screen won't show you the total you're paying, that's a bad sign.

7. 07

   Write it down and decide on custody

   Save the date, amount, price and fee, because the Spanish tax agency will want them when you sell, and decide whether the coins stay on the platform or move to your wallet.

Market orders, limit orders and the spread

A market order buys right now, at whatever price is there. On a very liquid pair the difference is tiny, but on a small coin or during a minute of panic you can pay a lot more than what you saw: that's slippage. A limit order sets your maximum price, and if the market doesn't get there, it doesn't fill. For a planned purchase it's usually cheaper, because many platforms charge less to whoever leaves an order on the book (maker) than to whoever takes it (taker).

The best-hidden cost is the spread behind “quick buy” buttons: it doesn't show up as a fee because it's baked into the price. With example percentages, on a 500-euro purchase:

Fifty cents or nine euros won't change your life on a single purchase. Repeated every month for years, they will.

When you buy on an exchange, what you have is a balance in its system: the platform holds the keys. Under MiCA, the custodian has to keep your coins separate from its own assets, which helps if it goes bust, but you still depend on it not getting hacked or freezing your account. With your own wallet, the keys are yours, and so is the responsibility.

In “Wallet vs Exchange” I explain the difference clearly and without fuss: which one is safer, when to use each, and why leaving everything on the platform where you bought it is one of the mistakes that has cost people the most money in crypto history.

Wallet vs Exchange: dónde guardar tus criptos DE VERDAD (y no perderlas)12:15

Your first withdrawal, without the scares

1. Create the wallet and write the recovery phrase (usually 12 or 24 words) on paper. Never in a photo, an email or the cloud: whoever has those words has your funds.
2. Copy the receiving address from the wallet itself, not from your transaction history, and compare all of it, not just the first and last characters.
3. Pick the right network. Sending over a network your wallet doesn't support can leave the funds out of reach.
4. Send a small test amount first and wait until it arrives before you send the rest.
5. If you withdraw more than 1,000 euros to your own wallet, the platform has to check that the address is yours: Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 has required it since December 30, 2024. They don't suspect you; it's simply the rule.

Hot or cold wallet depends on how much you hold and how you use it; it's all in the hot vs cold wallet guide, and my pick of models is in the best cold wallets. And a warning I repeat in my videos: buy hardware wallets only from the manufacturer's official website, never from third parties. In October 2026, Ledger devices with a spy implant that read the 24 words during setup were discovered, sold by a reseller in Southeast Asia; on-chain estimates put the thefts above $70 million.

You won't find a list of altcoins to buy here. What you will find are the reasons many people start with Bitcoin, and none of them is that it's going to go up:

• It's the oldest. Its original paper was published on October 31, 2008, and the network has been running since January 3, 2009. It has been through several full cycles, including that drop of more than 80% between 2017 and 2018.
• Its rules are easy to follow. There will never be more than 21 million, and the issuance of new coins is cut in half every 210,000 blocks, roughly every four years. No company can decide to print more when it suits it.
• It's easier to evaluate. A new coin forces you to judge a team, its investors, a token unlock schedule and a use case that may not exist. Bitcoin has fewer moving parts to watch.
• And it's still very volatile. According to the ECB's May 2025 financial stability review, in 2024 Bitcoin was twice as volatile as gold and nearly three times as volatile as the S&P 500. Starting with the biggest isn't the same as starting with something safe.

What about the rest? Back in 2021, the CNMV and the Banco de España estimated there were more than 7,000 cryptocurrencies. My Entiende Cripto series breaks down the main ones one by one, with their risks up front, and the cryptocurrencies section explains what each one is and what can go wrong, but understanding a project is not the same as buying it. Before you complicate things, make sure you know what Bitcoin is and how it works.

The simplest way to stop depending on when you get in is DCA (dollar cost averaging): investing the same amount every week or every month, no matter what. Benjamin Graham coined the term in The Intelligent Investor (1949). You buy more units when the price is low and fewer when it's high, without having to guess anything.

The full method, limits included, is in the Bitcoin DCA guide.

The second piece is rebalancing: you decide in advance the maximum share of your net worth that can be in crypto, and you review it every so often. With example figures, if your cap is 10% and a rally takes it to 18%, you sell back down to 10%; if a crash leaves it at 5%, you top it up. It's a boring way to take profits in the euphoria and not run in the panic. Just remember that selling at a gain is taxable.

In “Si empezara en cripto con 20 años haría esto” (what I'd do if I were starting crypto at 20) I go through the mistakes I made at the start and the three pieces of advice I'd follow today. The second is about being careful with gambling, which was my big mistake; the third is about a long-term mindset, exactly what a written plan forces you to have.

Si empezara en cripto con 20 años haría esto8:25

Losing money in crypto is almost never bad luck: it's repeating mistakes half the world has already made. A February 2023 bulletin from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) concluded that, with data from August 2015 to December 2022, most crypto app users in nearly every economy studied lost money on their bitcoin. These seven mistakes come up again and again:

1. Investing money you're going to need. If in six months it's the down payment on an apartment, you're not investing: you're betting with an expiry date.
2. Buying on FOMO after a vertical rally because someone on social media said so. European supervisors warn that influencers can be paid to promote crypto-assets.
3. Not knowing who holds your coins or what happens if the platform goes bust. FTX customers found out in November 2022.
4. Sharing your recovery phrase with fake support staff, a website or a fake app. No legitimate company will ever ask you for it.
5. Using leverage from day one. At 10x, a drop of around 10% can liquidate you. With CFDs, supervisors' studies put the share of retail accounts that lose money at between 74% and 89%.
6. Chasing “cheap” coins. A price of a few cents doesn't mean it can multiply: what counts is the total value of the project, not the price per unit.
7. Forgetting about the taxman. Every sale and every swap of one coin for another can create a gain you have to declare. Without records, your tax return turns into archaeology.

In the video “7 errores que ARRUINAN a los principiantes en cripto” (7 mistakes that ruin crypto beginners) I have my own countdown, from 7 to 1: the mistakes I made, the ones I see everyone make and the ones that have cost a huge number of people their money. Number 1 is the most dangerous of all, and I'm not going to spoil it here.

7 errores que ARRUINAN a los principiantes en cripto (evítalos antes de perder dinero)12:34

If you also want to trade, read the risk management and psychology guide first: position sizing, stop-losses, leverage with real numbers and when to stop.

Taxes: the bare minimum

If you're a tax resident in Spain, buying with euros and holding doesn't by itself create anything to pay in income tax (IRPF): what gets taxed is disposing of it. According to the Spanish tax agency's income tax manual, selling for euros produces a gain or a loss (sale value minus purchase value, fees included), and swapping one coin for another does too, because it counts as an exchange. If you bought in several batches, you're deemed to sell the ones you bought first, even if they sit on different platforms.

Those gains go into the savings tax base, which on the 2025 tax return is taxed in brackets from 19% to 30%. Forms and worked examples are in the crypto taxes in Spain guide. This is a heads-up, not tax advice.

What the supervisors keep repeating

In February 2021, the CNMV and the Banco de España issued a joint statement that still holds in essence: cryptocurrencies are not covered by the Deposit Guarantee Fund or the Investor Guarantee Fund, and their price has a speculative component that can mean losing everything you put in. In October 2025, the European authorities (EBA, ESMA and EIOPA) updated their warning with MiCA already in place, and the CNMV, the Banco de España and the Directorate-General for Insurance and Pension Funds endorsed it.

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“Crypto-assets can be risky and your protection, if any, may be limited.”

The warning asks for three checks before you invest: that you understand the product and the risk fits your situation, that the provider is authorized in the EU for those services, and that your devices and keys are secure, because losing your private keys results in the “permanent and irreversible loss of access and ownership” of your crypto-assets.

If you still want in after all this, start small, with a written plan and no rush. The videos for starting from zero cover the rest of the road. This is NOT financial advice: always do your own research.