The Bitcoin symbol is white and placed in the center of a circular background that transitions from gold in the middle to a gray border. The symbol is depicted as a person with a black blindfold, extending an arm to touch a black silhouette of a guide dog on the left. The other arm is holding a white cane with a red tip on the right.

How to buy on centralized exchanges

A centralized venue is a company that holds customer accounts and matches or fills orders on its own books. The coins you buy there sit in that account until you withdraw them. That is different from a wallet you control, which is chapter 6. Chapter 7 is who holds the keys.

The usual path

Kraken, Coinbase, and Robinhood are centralized exchanges. The usual path is to create an account, complete identity checks (often called KYC), buy bitcoin, ether, or another asset they list, and withdraw to a wallet you control when you are ready. Until that withdrawal confirms, the company can freeze, limit, or delay the account under its own rules and the rules it answers to.

Cash App

Cash App offers Bitcoin for many US users. It does not follow that every US resident can use it.

X cashtags and X Money

On X, as of September 2026, X Money is a fiat payments product, in beta for premium users in the United States. A cashtag such as $BTC can show a chart and a Trade button. That button sends you to partners, including Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini. X is not a crypto exchange, and X does not custody those trades. Buying from the Trade button means buying at the partner, under that partner’s account rules. X.

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Not financial advice. This page is education, as of September 2026. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell, bridge, stake, or sign a transaction, and it is not a promise about price or yield.