Buying Bitcoin in Malaysia

While Malaysia’s Prime Minister continues to push capital controls to “protect” the ringgit, people throughout Malaysia are buying bitcoin and alt-coins at a rapid rate. After years spent investigating and finally prosecuting the former prime minister for embezzling millions, if not billions of Malaysian Ringgit from the people, many are looking to store value in the decentralized way that bitcoin offers.

Not surprisingly, the Justice Department is charging Goldman Sachs bankers for earning $600 million and assisting the Prime Ministers fraudulent activity. For a bank that beat their earnings estimates again in 2017, the cost for criminal activity that US banks are continually fined for seems to be well worth the effort.

Malaysians buying cryptocurrency and avoiding the countries Ringgit, will only increase over the years, while the government sorts out the rules for digital currencies.

Best Bitcoin Exchanges in Malaysia

While there are a few decent exchanges for Malaysians to buy and sell bitcoin, many are well aware the government is still yet to develop actual laws or rules regarding the use of crypto. This is why anonymous exchanges and person to person purchasing of crypto is so popular in the country.

The tracking of every user’s crypto purchases, by a government that just allowed a Prime Minister to rob the country blind, seems more than a little unfair to Malaysians wanting to store wealth discreetly. The best exchanges as well as the anonymous bitcoin exchanges available are noted below and will be updated as the legislation plans roll out in the country next year.

 

The best bitcoin exchanges for Malaysians currently are:

Anonymous Bitcoin Exchanges Available to Malaysians

The decentralized and anonymous crypto currency exchange bisq might be a little too much for some users on iphones or android phones in the country. For those willing to download the software, the peer to peer exchange running through the TOR network has added banking options (almost everywhere) to facilitate national currencies and cryptocurrencies trading around the world. It is lower fees than many other exchanges available for anonymous purchases, some sell for higher rate in certain countries with crypto purchased through bisq because of this.

The hodlhodl exchange and Paxful are both really popular options for no identification ways to buy bitcoin and alt-coins, with Coinmama being popular among the pre-paid Visa crowd that want small amounts of bitcoin.

The best anonymous bitcoin exchanges available to Malaysians currently are:

Other Bitcoin Purchasing Options in Malaysia

The bitcoin meetups in Malaysia are full of blockchain and cryptocurrency groups in the country. The amount of “new coins” that store zero value is never-ending in cryptocurrency, so it’s best to stick to the bitcoin groups and tell them you’re a maximalist. Unless you fully understand the decentralized value bitcoin offers, the large development team securing the network for over a decade and the network effect created by holder’s around the world, it is probably best to stay maximalist for the newcomers. Chasing “new coins” is the regret of many people who have been involved in cryptocurrency for many years.

Bitcoin ATM’s in Malaysia

The fees charged by many bitcoin ATMs are a complete robbery that need to be lessened over the next decade before people actually adopt these things. The ones in Kuala Lumpur charge 10% fees and offer tons of “altcoins” that are cheaper than bitcoin.

Tiong Bahru Plaza in Singapore (302 Tiong Bahru Road) has a 24 hour bitcoin ATM with 4.58% fee for buying bitcoin. Or you can go to HarbourFront Centre at 1 Maritime Square in Singapore and pay a 5% fee to buy bitcoin 24 hours a day rather than the 10% fee bitcoin ATMs offered in Malaysia.

Or, take a nice trip over to Vietnam and buy bitcoin at the Nguyens Cafe DCT (64 Dinh Cong Trang P. Tan Dinh, Q.1) in Ho Chi Minh City for only a 1% fee. Even those buying “new coins” can get other crypto with lower fees in a different country than Malaysia.