Get Started with Crypto

Bitcoin is digital money secured by mathematics, not governments or banks. It has a fixed supply of 21 million coins. No central authority controls it. It moves peer-to-peer, anywhere in the world, without permission.

Bitcoin first. Regardless of where your crypto journey takes you, this is where it starts.

This is the most important step in the entire guide. Everything else depends on getting this right.

The gold standard of crypto storage is a hardware wallet. A physical device that holds your private key completely offline - a cryptographic secret that represents ownership of your funds.

You control it. Nobody else does.

No bank, no platform, no government can touch it.

Almost everyone serious about crypto uses one.

Set yours up before you buy anything.

When you set up your wallet, it generates a seed phrase - 12 or 24 words. Write it down immediately. Store it safely. That phrase is the master key to everything in your wallet. If you lose it, your crypto is gone. If someone else gets it, your crypto is gone.

But if you get this right - you own your crypto. Truly own it. Nobody can freeze it, seize it, or take it from you.

Buy direct from the manufacturer only. Never second hand. Never from an unknown reseller.

Once you have a wallet you are ready to buy. NZ exchanges and retailers are the simplest starting point - KYC required, NZD on-ramp, straightforward. That is where most Kiwis start.

Once you have bought, move your coins off the exchange immediately. If your crypto is sitting on a platform, you do not control it - they do. Exchanges get hacked. Platforms collapse. It has happened repeatedly and it will happen again.

Move it to the hardware wallet you set up in step 2. That is the only place your crypto is actually yours.

Scams - NZ has active crypto scammers and the pattern never changes. Someone promises returns, asks you to send crypto first, or wants access to your wallet or seed phrase. No legitimate person or service will ever ask for your seed phrase. If someone does, they are a scammer. Full stop.

Tax - The IRD treats cryptocurrency as property. Every time you sell, trade, or spend crypto it may be a taxable event. Keep records from day one. It is far easier than reconstructing them later.