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Buying bitcoin
Several of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges listed on CoinMarketCap list bitcoin prices, but not in real time. This means that it can be hard to buy bitcoin if you want to purchase one right away, especially if you are not in the U.S.
You can buy bitcoin with a bank or credit card but it will be quicker if you go online and buy using bitcoin wallets such as COINBASE and BitPay.
However, Coinbase is slowly rolling out a cash-to-bitcoin exchange, which may be faster for buying when there is a surge of people trying to sell bitcoin at the same time.
And if you want to buy bitcoin with cash, your first step is to use a bitcoin wallet. Coinbase, BitPay, and others allow you to buy or sell bitcoin, but they usually also offer bitcoin wallets to store your bitcoin so you can safely buy and sell more.
Buying gold
Gold prices are soaring, but you can use gold coins to buy bitcoin.
"Gold typically has a nice correlation with bitcoin, but it's currently at a premium," said CoinDesk analyst Jordan Grumet.
The most widely traded gold futures contract is measured in ounces of gold.
At the end of the trading day on Thursday, the gold price was $1,229.20 per ounce. At the end of trading on Friday, gold was trading at $1,267 per ounce.
Related: Big Pharma is dropping their bitcoin investments
How to buy cryptocurrency?
Most major bitcoin wallets allow you to purchase bitcoin directly. If you don't have a bitcoin wallet, you can purchase it with a credit card at one of the exchange services.
To buy bitcoin with a credit card, download the app, sign up for an account, then follow instructions on how to buy the currency and deposit it into your wallet. To buy bitcoin with a credit card, you need to be in a payment mode with that card. You also need to have enough cash in your wallet to cover the transaction.
