Violet Rollergirl’s guide to using cryptocurrency via Venmo
As you may know, Venmo is a popular, US-based digital payment service famous for trying to make payments amongst friends into a public or “social” activity feed, and easily shared. But you can also use Venmo to buy major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and then use your Venmo-held crypto assets to purchase goods and services from providers or vendors who accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment.
This makes Venmo a very convenient app with which to pay your provider even if your provider doesn’t have Venmo, themselves! If your provider accepts cryptocurrency donations, tips, or considerations, then you can use your Venmo account to pay them. This page explains how.
ⓘ This page is for clients or customers. If you are a provider, seller, or vendor you should instead read Violet Rollergirl’s Resources for Providers Using Cryptocurrency (as a Sex Worker).
In this article
- Sign up for Venmo
- Add a payment method to your Venmo account
- Complete your crypto purchase via Venmo
Sign up for Venmo
Just in case you don’t already have a Venmo account, you can make one very easily. Either adult type of Venmo account (Personal or Business) will work, but if you’re making an account anew, I suggest a Personal account because business accounts require extra eligibility criteria. Click the button below to sign up for Venmo:
Once your Venmo account is created and activated, you can proceed to adding a payment method.
Add a payment method to your Venmo account
With a Venmo account, you can use all their payment and exchange services but you still need to supply Venmo with payment information so that you can swap your existing US Dollars (or other local currency) into cryptocurrencies. Venmo enforces different purchase limits on different payment methods, but in general any payment method you have like a debit card or bank account will work. They also have good guides to help you add payment methods, so follow those instructions now:
Depending on the payment method you chose and how you linked it, you may be able to buy crypto immediately or you may need to validate the method with a confirmation loop of some kind. Either way, once linked and activated, you are ready to get your first crypto coins.
Complete your crypto purchase via Venmo
Once you sign up for Venmo and add a payment method to it, you can use Venmo to exchange some of your existing local money into crypto.
The first time you either buy or withdraw crypto from Venmo, you may also need to verify your identity, such as by uploading legal identity documents.
Do this to buy crypto via Venmo:
- Go to the Crypto tab in your Venmo account.
- Choose a cryptocurrency to buy. I recommend you stick with these popular options, but you could always check with your provider:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Solana (SOL)
- Enter the dollar amount you want to buy.
- Click the Review button.
- Remember to be sure you are buying enough to cover both how much you will be sending to your provider and any of Venmo’s own fees.
- In general, buying 20% more than you think you need is a good rule of thumb; you’ll still probably have lots leftover.
- Click the Buy button.
At this point, Venmo will show you that you have a positive crypto balance in your “wallet” (which is really a bank account, not a true wallet). You can now use that balance to pay your worker in crypto!
