Many people want to buy bitcoin with PayPal because it’s a common way to pay online. But PayPal payments are reversible, while Bitcoin transactions are not. This makes it risky for dealers and exchanges who would let users convert PayPal to bitcoin.
However, buying bitcoins with PayPal is still possible although comes with high fees. There are only two decent ways to buy bitcoin with PayPal: VirWoX or LocalBitcoins.
Since there is a higher risk of fraud when buying bitcoins with PayPal on LocalBitcoins, we’re going to show you, step-by-step, how to buy bitcoins with PayPal on VirWoX.
Technically, VirWoX isn’t even a Bitcoin exchange. It mainly serves as a way for people to buy Second Life Lindens, a currency used in the virtual world Second Life. You can’t buy Bitcoin with PayPal directly at VirWoX, but it’s possible to first buy Second Life Lindens (SLL) and then trade your SLL for Bitcoin. This process works perfectly, but in the end will cost you about 10% in fees.
This workaround/hack has made VirWoX the easiest and most popular way to buy bitcoins with PayPal.
Buying Bitcoins with PayPal on VirWoX
Again: Using VirWoX you’re going to pay around 10% in fees, but this is still the cheapest, easiest, and fastest way to buy BTC with PayPal. You may need to wait a couple days after opening a VirWoX account before you can deposit money. After your first deposit, future deposits can be made instantly. Your initial buying limit is $90 per day or $270 per month, although these limits grow quickly with time.
This is a quick, step-by-step guide of the more detailed instructions to follow:
- Deposit dollars or euros using PayPal to VirWoX
- Buy Second Life Lindens with your dollars or euros
- Buy bitcoins with your Second Life Lindens
- Withdraw the bitcoins to your own wallet
Easy, right? Let’s get started with the full guide:
1. Open an account on VirWoX
From the home page, click on “Not registered yet?”
2. Enter the details for your account
Now you’ll enter your details in order to create an account. Don’t get confused by the section titled “Link to avatar”. You can leave this untouched.
3. Check your email
At this point, your account has been created. A temporary password will be emailed to the address you provided in step two.
This password is temporary and MUST be changed. If you don’t change this password within 24 hours your account will be deleted. We show you how to change your password in the next step.
4. Change your password
Once you login with your temporary password, click on “Change settings” in the left sidebar.
5. Create a new password
Enter a new password. Make sure you choose a strong password, since you’re dealing with money!
6. Deposit from PayPal
Once you’ve changed your password, click on “Deposit” in the left sidebar.
7. Deposit and select amount
Scroll down a bit to find the option to deposit with PayPal. Enter the amount you want to deposit on the left and then click the “Checkout with PayPal” button.
8. Login to PayPal
Sign in to PayPal. Note on the left side that I’m depositing $2. This is the amount I chose back in step 7. If this amount is not what you chose, go back and enter a new amount.
9. Verify account balance
If you followed PayPal’s directions successfully, you should now see a balance in your VirWoX account. Note that the amount displayed in your VirWoX account may be slightly less than the amount you entered in step 7. This is because PayPal charges a 2.9% + $0.30 fee per deposit.
After this, click on “USD/SLL”. If you deposited with Euro then click “EUR/SLL”.
10. Trade USD for Second Life Lindens
Remember how we said you’ll have to buy Second Life Lindens and then trade those for bitcoins? Well, now we’re buying the SLL. In this step you need to sell the USD you deposited from PayPal and get SLL.
Enter the amount of USD you want to sell.
11. Complete order
You can see in the top left of the image below that I now have a balance in SLL. If you now have SLL, that means everything has gone well.
Now click on “BTC/SLL” in the left sidebar. Now we’re going to exchange our SLL for bitcoin.
12. Trade SLL for BTC
The process is the same here. Simply enter the amount of BTC you want to buy and click “Next”.
13. Buy bitcoin!
That’s it! You should now see your balance in BTC displayed in the top left of the screen. You’ve successfully bought bitcoin with PayPal.
Once you’ve purchased your bitcoins, we suggest sending your bitcoins to a wallet you own. It may take two days to withdraw your bitcoin for your first purchase. In the future, try to buy bitcoin using other payment methods to avoid fees.
Visit VirWoX.com
Frequently Asked Questions
Is using VirWoX really the fastest and best way to buy bitcoins via PayPal?
Unfortunately, yes. PayPal bans its users from selling bitcoins for PayPal funds. Even if sellers were allowed to accept PayPal for bitcoins, the risk of fraud and chargebacks would be too large and premiums/fees would likely be higher than VirWoX. One way that may be better is if you are able to find a local dealer at a Bitcoin meetup. If someone you trust is willing to sell you bitcoins directly for PayPal, this a good option.
As a PayPal merchant, can I accept bitcoins?
There have been rumors of Bitcoin integration for PayPal merchants. At this time, however, this is still no way to accept bitcoins through PayPal’s merchant tools.
There will likely never be an easy, straight forward way to buy bitcoin with PayPal due to the irreversible nature of Bitcoin transactions. Although it does seem that PayPal is taking interest in Bitcoin. If you can, transfer your PayPal funds to your bank and buy via bank transfer. Or, transfer your PayPal funds to your bank, withdrawal as cash, and buy bitcoin with cash deposit.