Buy Bitcoin in New Zealand

Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency Trading in New Zealand

Since the popularization of bitcoin, different countries around the globe have had varying rates of adoption. New Zealand played a part in this by becoming the first-ever country to approve salary payments made in the digital currency.⁽²⁾

To find out more about Bitcoin in New Zealand, read on as we discuss the past, present, and future of BTC in NZ.

Adoption of Bitcoin in New Zealand

The adoption of bitcoin in NZ started off slow, and did not see as dramatic leaps as in places such as South America, Turkey, and South Africa. One of the reasons for this could be that New Zealand has a stable and healthy economy. The NZ dollar is strong, deflation is low, and New Zealanders are able to transfer money internationally with relative ease.

In contrast, people in countries such as Venezuela jumped at the chance to use cryptocurrencies as a way to escape the unmanageable rate of devaluation on their own currencies.

Although the initial use of bitcoin was gradual, as a tech hub New Zealanders quickly became interested in bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology. Things have come a long way since the early days of bitcoin. NZ's bitcoin and cryptocurrency sector is reported to be booming with developments, and at any given time there is likely to be a selection of blockchain events taking place in NZ.

A recent survey by Financial Services Council (FSC) reported that 40% of the Kiwis surveyed either already own cryptocurrencies or plan to purchase digital coins in the future. This is a rise of 7% from the March 2020 survey.

One of the easiest ways to buy Bitcoin in New Zealand is through cryptocurrency exchanges. There are several exchanges offering Bitcoin in New Zealand, allowing you to select one based on your requirements and preferences using our list outlined above. Different exchanges have different transaction fees, withdrawal limits, payment modes, and verification processes that need to be kept in mind before users select one.

Additionally, Bitcoin buyers need to keep in mind that certain exchanges might require you to get a wallet of your own before being able to buy the digital currency. Even if there is no requirement, it is recommended to have a wallet of your own for security reasons (preferably a hardware wallet).

Unfortunately for bitcoin users, New Zealand does not boast the thousands of bitcoin ATMs that the US does. Even though it is a center of blockchain innovation.

While the US is home to over 4,000 BTC ATMs, currently, there is no Bitcoin ATMs in New Zealand.

Exchange Hacks and Crypto Scams in New Zealand

Although it is unknown to many, one of the world's biggest exchanges, Cryptopia was based in New Zealand. Set up in 2014 as a hobby, the exchange saw an explosion of use as the value of bitcoin skyrocketed.

Unfortunately, in January of 2019, the exchange was hacked for $3.2 million of crypto and was liquidated shortly thereafter. The Cryptopia hack was one of the biggest of a rash of hacks that followed during 2019.⁽³⁾ It was recently reported that a worker at Cryptopia had raised concerns about the security of users' private keys and even made his own copy of the keys on a USB drive as proof of the problem. In 2021, another former employee plead guilty to the theft of $172,000 in cryptocurrency using a copy he had made of users' private keys.

Bitcoin Mining in New Zealand

Although New Zealand's name has come up a lot in connection to mining (thanks to the popular stat that bitcoin mining uses more power than the whole of NZ)—New Zealand actually doesn't do all that much bitcoin mining.

There is no exact data available. However, New Zealand's' electricity price is above the global average. This makes mining in NZ less profitable than in other countries such as Iceland or Kuwait.⁽⁴⁾

Cost of electricity in New Zealand by year - higher than global average