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Buying your first SOL on an exchange

How a crypto exchange turns your dollars or euros into SOL, what it costs, and how to do it on Bybit.

On this page
  1. What to expect
  2. Buying SOL on Bybit
  3. What it costs
  4. Quiz

Your wallet can hold SOL, but it cannot turn bank money into SOL by itself. For that, most people use a centralized exchange, or CEX: a company that takes your card or bank payment and sells you crypto. Big names include Bybit, Coinbase, Kraken, OKX and Binance. Which ones you can use depends on where you live.

What to expect

  • An identity check (KYC). Exchanges ask for an ID document and often a selfie before you can buy with a card or withdraw. It is a legal requirement in most countries, not a scam.
  • Two-factor login (2FA). Turn it on right away with an authenticator app. Bybit asks for both an email code and a Google Authenticator code before it sends crypto to a new address.
  • Ways to pay. A bank card is fastest. A bank transfer, or the exchange's own P2P market, is often cheaper but slower.
  • Fees. You pay something to buy, and something again to withdraw. The screen shows both before you confirm.

Buying SOL on Bybit

We use Bybit in this example. Trenchpilot has a referral link with Bybit (code OLKRQG), and we may earn a reward if you sign up through it. Any exchange that is legal where you live works the same way.

Bybit does not serve everyone. Its own list, updated in October 2026, excludes the United States, mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and a few other places. It also stopped new sign-ups from people who live in the United Kingdom in September 2026 and in Japan in late 2025, and accounts there now face restrictions. If you live in any of these places, use a licensed exchange in your own country.

If you live in the EU (except Malta), Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein, Bybit is limiting its global site for you and points you to Bybit EU at bybit.eu instead. Bybit EU is a separately licensed company with its own sign-up, products and fees. Our referral link and the card fees below are for Bybit's global site, bybit.com.

Bybit and other exchanges compared, with our referral link
Example

Buying with a card on Bybit

The website route, as Bybit's help center describes it. The phone app has the same steps with slightly different buttons.

  1. Step 1: Create an account, then complete identity verification. Card purchases need it.
  2. Step 2: Turn on Google Authenticator in your security settings. You will need it to withdraw.
  3. Step 3: Open Buy Crypto, then One-Click Buy.
  4. Step 4: Choose your currency, choose SOL, type the amount and pick your bank card. Add the card if you have not yet. The name on the card must match the name on your account.
  5. Step 5: Check the quote, which refreshes every 30 seconds. Click Confirm, then approve the payment in your bank app if it asks.
  6. Step 6: The SOL lands in your Bybit account within seconds.

What it costs

On its global site, Bybit's card fee depends on where your card was issued. In its fee table updated on 22 October 2026, cards issued in EU countries pay 2.10%, and most other Visa and Mastercard cards pay 3.70%. Bybit EU publishes its own, separate fee table. Your bank may add its own currency conversion fee on top.

The cheaper way to buy is the spot market, where you trade with other users. Bybit's spot fee page says a regular account pays 0.1% per trade, and the rate can differ by region. The catch: the money must already be on the exchange, and not from your card, because buying USDT (a stablecoin worth about one dollar) by card costs the same card fee. It can arrive by a bank deposit in your own currency, if Bybit offers one where you live, or through the exchange's P2P market. Bybit shows the deposit fee when you pick a method, and on a small amount a flat fee can cost more than the card. Bybit charges no P2P fee in most currencies, but sellers set their own price, so compare it with the market price first.

Example

Card versus spot, $100 each

Say SOL costs $100 and your card was issued outside the EU.

  1. Step 1: By card: $100 x 3.70% = $3.70 fee. You get about $96.30 of SOL, roughly 0.963 SOL.
  2. Step 2: Card into USDT, then spot: the card fee is the same $3.70, and the spot trade takes 0.1% more. You get about 0.962 SOL, a little less than buying SOL by card.
  3. Step 3: Bank deposit, then spot, if the deposit is free: $100 x 0.1% = $0.10 fee on a pair such as SOL/EUR. You get about 0.999 SOL. A flat $11 deposit fee would leave about 0.889 SOL, worse than the card.
  4. Step 4: The card is the easy first step. If a free or cheap bank deposit works where you live and you buy more than once, it saves real money.

Check what you learned

0 of 4 answered

  1. Question 1What does KYC at an exchange mean?
  2. Question 2Bybit's card fee for a Visa card issued outside the EU was 3.70% in October 2026. About how much SOL do you get for $200?
  3. Question 3Why do you need your own wallet to trade new memecoins?
  4. Question 4TrickyA P2P seller on Telegram offers SOL 5% below the market price if you pay them by bank transfer directly. What is the catch?

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This guide is for learning. It is not financial advice. Most memecoins go to zero and most people who trade them lose money. Only ever trade what you can afford to lose.