- Swap a coin you already hold into XMR with an instant swap service or the swap button in Cake Wallet or Stack Wallet. Usually no account needed.
- Buy on an exchange that still lists it, such as Kraken (not in the EEA or Canada, with monthly XMR limits) or KuCoin. ID required.
- Trade peer-to-peer on RetoSwap or Bisq, paying by bank transfer, cash or another coin. The software does not verify identities.
- Pay by card or Apple Pay through an on-ramp such as ChangeNOW. Expect ID checks.
Buying Monero got harder between 2024 and 2026. Binance and OKX dropped it, Kraken pulled it from Europe and Canada, and LocalMonero, the biggest peer-to-peer market, closed. XMR is still easy enough to get once you know which route suits you. This guide sorts the options as they stand in November 2026 and says plainly which ones ask for ID.
The routes compared
| Route | Examples | ID needed? | Speed | Typical cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Centralized exchange | Kraken, KuCoin | Yes | Fast once verified | Trading fee, spread and withdrawal fee | Buying with bank money where XMR is still offered |
| Instant swap | Trocador, ChangeNOW, Exolix, wallet swaps | Usually no, but flagged swaps can be held for checks | Depends on block confirmations on both coins | Spread plus network fees | People who already hold BTC, LTC or stablecoins |
| Peer-to-peer | RetoSwap (Haveno), Bisq | Not by the software | Minutes for crypto, up to a week for bank transfers (RetoSwap) | RetoSwap: 0.1% maker, 0.8% crypto taker, 2% fiat taker | Cash or bank payments without an exchange account |
| Card or Apple Pay on-ramp | ChangeNOW fiat, wallet buy menus | Yes in practice | Fast once verified | Provider fee plus spread, plus any card fees | Small, quick purchases |
| Earning it | Selling goods or work, XMRBazaar | No platform ID | Whenever you get paid | Network fee only | Anyone with something to sell |
Centralized exchanges: who still lists XMR
Kraken is the best-known exchange still selling Monero. Its XMR page offers purchase "via bank transfer, card or other methods", but with real limits. Kraken ended XMR trading for customers in Ireland and Belgium in 2024, stopped trading and deposits for the whole European Economic Area on 31 October 2024, and switched off XMR trading for Canadian clients on 2 September 2025. It had already dropped Monero for UK customers in 2021. Since 15 August 2026, individual accounts can deposit up to $3,500 and withdraw up to $1,500 of XMR per rolling 30 days (corporate accounts $30,000 and $10,000).
In October 2026 Kraken also sent questionnaires to some customers who had withdrawn XMR, asking about their jobs, source of funds and what they planned to do with the coins. Co-CEO Arjun Sethi called the requests unjustified, withdrew them and said XMR stays listed. The regional restrictions and limits still apply.
KuCoin offers XMR/USDT and XMR/BTC spot pairs. Its own January 2026 guide says Level 2 verification is required to withdraw privacy coins. KuCoin agreed in January 2025 to leave the US market for at least two years, so it is not an option for US residents.
Where XMR has been delisted
- Binance: delisted XMR on 20 February 2024.
- OKX: removed its XMR spot pairs in January 2024, along with ZEC and DASH.
- Kraken: UK (2021), Ireland and Belgium (2024), the wider EEA (October 2024) and Canada (September 2025).
More is coming in Europe. Under the EU's Anti-Money Laundering Regulation, crypto-asset service providers will not be allowed to handle privacy coins such as Monero from July 2027. The rule targets businesses, not people holding XMR in their own wallets, but expect the remaining EU on-ramps to shrink.
Swapping another coin into Monero
If you already hold Bitcoin, Litecoin or a stablecoin, an instant swap is the simplest route. You enter your Monero address, send your coins to a one-time deposit address, and the service sends XMR back. Most do not need an account.
- Trocador is an aggregator rather than an exchange: it shows quotes from many partner swap services side by side (26 when Bitcoin.com reviewed it in August 2025), with fixed and floating rates and no account.
- ChangeNOW swaps XMR in both directions and says customers "don't need to create any sort of accounts".
- Exolix lists XMR swaps against more than 400 assets.
"No KYC" is never a promise, though. ChangeNOW's automated risk system can put a swap on hold and ask for an ID document and the origin of the funds; if you decline, it refunds the deposit, minus network fees, within 24 hours. Other services have similar AML policies, so read them before sending a large amount. Services can also vanish: eXch, a popular no-account swap, announced its closure in April 2025, and German police seized its servers weeks later. Swap, collect your XMR, and do not leave funds sitting with any service.
Swapping inside your wallet
Cake Wallet has a built-in swap that picks the best rate by default, routing through Trocador or decentralized options such as Chainflip and Near Intents, with a fixed or floating rate. Stack Wallet also has a built-in exchange that sends your coins to a third-party provider and charges a small fee of its own. Feather and the official Monero GUI and CLI wallets do not buy or swap; they only send and receive, so you would fund them from one of the routes above.
Peer-to-peer: RetoSwap, Haveno and Bisq
LocalMonero stopped trading on 14 May 2024 and closed its website that November. Its place has largely been taken by networks built on Haveno, open-source software that runs over Tor.
RetoSwap is the largest of them. You install a desktop client (there is also an Android version), and trades are locked in a multisig wallet with an arbitrator holding the third key, so the network never holds your money. Payment options include SEPA and ACH transfers, PayPal, CashApp, cash by mail or in person, and coins such as BTC, LTC, ETH and USDT. Fees are 0.1% for makers, 0.8% for crypto takers and 2% for fiat takers. RetoSwap says the software cannot verify identities and that users are responsible for following local law. Crypto trades usually finish within minutes; bank transfers can take up to a week.
Know its record before you use it. In May 2026 an attacker abused a flaw in the Haveno trade protocol to take about 7,000 XMR, roughly $2.7 million, from RetoSwap users, and trading was halted. Several security releases followed, the latest being v1.10.0 in October 2026 with stricter checks on trade participants and arbitrators. Keep the client updated and start with small trades.
Bisq is a desktop app with no registration and no identity verification. XMR is one of its most active markets, but it trades against Bitcoin, so you need BTC first. Bisq had its own exploit on 1 May 2026, which cost ten users 11.59 BTC in altcoin trades; the fix release added temporary trade-size limits and paused XMR auto-confirmation pending an audit.
Crypto ATMs are rarely an option. A few have sold XMR over the years, such as Bity's machines in Switzerland from 2018, but most sell only Bitcoin and a handful of large coins. Check Coin ATM Radar before you go anywhere.
Buying Monero with a card or Apple Pay
Few card on-ramps sell XMR directly, and you should expect identity checks with all of them.
- ChangeNOW's Monero buy page lists credit and debit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. It advertises a "flexible" KYC system but does not say what a card purchase requires, so expect to verify.
- Guardarian no longer sells XMR: in November 2026 it told us it had delisted Monero for regulatory reasons.
- Kraken's app accepts Apple Pay and Google Pay for verified accounts, with a card in your own name (US clients: debit cards only). That only helps where Kraken still sells XMR.
- Cake Wallet's buy menu goes through providers such as Onramper, MoonPay, DFX (Europe only), Robinhood Connect (US only) and Kryptonim. Which coins you see depends on your country; Cake's own note on XMR purchases said they need ID and were not available in the US.
A common pattern is to buy Bitcoin or Litecoin with a card and swap it to XMR. That works, but the card purchase is still tied to your name.
Getting paid in Monero
The route that needs no purchase at all is to earn XMR. Freelancers, small shops and individuals can invoice in Monero, and XMRBazaar is a peer-to-peer market where people sell goods and services for XMR. You pay only the network fee to move it, and there is no exchange in the middle.
Staying safe
- Use your own wallet. Withdraw from exchanges promptly, and with swaps, have XMR sent straight to an address you control.
- Check the address. Compare the first and last characters after pasting; clipboard malware swaps addresses.
- Bookmark swap sites. Phishing copies of popular swap sites exist. Type the address or use your bookmark.
- Save the swap ID and refund address until the coins arrive.
- Ignore "support" that contacts you first. Real services do not message you on Telegram offering to finish a stuck trade.
How to buy XMR and withdraw it to your own wallet
- Install a wallet first, such as Cake Wallet, Stack Wallet, Feather or the official GUI, and write down the seed phrase offline.
- Copy a receiving address from the wallet. A fresh subaddress for each purchase keeps things tidy.
- Choose your route: an exchange or card on-ramp if you are paying with bank money, a swap if you already hold crypto, or RetoSwap or Bisq for peer-to-peer.
- Do a small test first, and check the quote, including network fees and fixed or floating rate.
- Send or withdraw the XMR to your wallet address and check it character by character before confirming.
- Wait for confirmations. Your wallet shows newly received XMR as locked for a short while before you can spend it.
- Keep a record of the date, amount and price for tax purposes. To spend it, see how to pay with Monero.
Regulations and taxes
Rules on privacy coins differ by country and are changing, as the EU's 2027 restrictions show. Use routes that are lawful where you live. Taxes apply whichever route you choose: in the US, for example, the IRS treats digital assets as property, so exchanging one coin for another can be a taxable event. Keep records and check your local rules. This guide is general information, not financial advice.
What to do next
Once you hold XMR, the point is to use it. Our guide to where to spend Monero covers the main categories. Gift cards are the easiest bridge to everyday shops: Cake Pay and Trocador gift cards both take XMR. Privacy tools are a natural fit too, and many of the VPNs and proxies in our directory accept Monero directly.
Questions people ask
Where can I buy Monero in 2026?
As of November 2026, Kraken and KuCoin still list XMR, with regional restrictions. You can also swap another coin into XMR with an instant swap service or a wallet such as Cake Wallet, trade peer-to-peer on RetoSwap or Bisq, or use a card on-ramp such as ChangeNOW.
Can I buy Monero without KYC?
Swapping a coin you already hold into XMR usually needs no account, although services like ChangeNOW can hold a flagged swap and ask for ID. Peer-to-peer software such as RetoSwap and Bisq does not verify identities. Exchanges and card on-ramps ask for ID. Follow the laws where you live.
Can I buy Monero with Apple Pay or a debit card?
Yes, through on-ramps. ChangeNOW's fiat page lists debit and credit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay for XMR. Expect identity checks with any card purchase.
Is Monero still on Kraken?
Yes, outside the regions where it was delisted: Kraken ended XMR trading in the EEA on 31 October 2024 and in Canada on 2 September 2025. Since 15 August 2026, individual accounts can deposit up to $3,500 and withdraw up to $1,500 of XMR per rolling 30 days.
What happened to LocalMonero?
LocalMonero, the largest peer-to-peer Monero market, stopped trading on 14 May 2024 and closed its website later that year. Haveno-based networks such as RetoSwap are the main replacement.
Why did exchanges delist Monero?
Exchanges cite regulation. Binance delisted XMR on 20 February 2024, OKX in January 2024, and the EU's anti-money laundering rules will bar crypto service providers from handling privacy coins from July 2027.
Sources
- Kraken: Monero price and buy page kraken.com
- Kraken: Support for Monero (XMR) in Europe support.kraken.com
- Kraken: Notice of delisting for Monero (XMR) in Canada support.kraken.com
- Kraken: Notice of asset delisting in Ireland and Belgium for Monero support.kraken.com
- Kraken: Deposit and withdrawal limits support.kraken.com
- Kraken: Digital wallet purchases (Apple Pay, Google Pay) support.kraken.com
- Cointelegraph: Kraken ends Monero support in the EEA cointelegraph.com
- The Coin Republic: Kraken co-CEO admits Monero checks went too far thecoinrepublic.com
- KuCoin: 2026 Monero trading guide kucoin.com
- US DOJ: KuCoin pleads guilty, agrees to exit US market justice.gov
- The Block: Binance to delist Monero theblock.co
- Invezz: OKX to delist spot pairs for XMR, ZEC and DASH invezz.com
- The Block: LocalMonero to shut down theblock.co
- Cointelegraph: EU to ban anonymous accounts and privacy tokens by 2027 cointelegraph.com
- Bitcoin.com News: Trocador overview news.bitcoin.com
- ChangeNOW: Monero swaps changenow.io
- ChangeNOW: KYC FAQ changenow.io
- ChangeNOW: Buy Monero changenow.io
- Exolix: XMR exchange exolix.com
- Security Affairs: German police seized eXch securityaffairs.com
- Cake Wallet docs: Swap docs.cakewallet.com
- Cake Wallet docs: Buy support docs.cakewallet.com
- Cake Wallet blog: Buy Monero in Cake Wallet blog.cakewallet.com
- Stack Wallet stackwallet.com
- Feather Wallet featherwallet.org
- Monero downloads (official wallets) getmonero.org
- RetoSwap retoswap.com
- RetoSwap releases (GitHub) github.com
- KuCoin News: RetoSwap hacked via Haveno protocol vulnerability kucoin.com
- Halborn: Explained, the RetoSwap hack (May 2026) halborn.com
- Bisq bisq.network
- Bisq wiki: Trading Monero bisq.wiki
- Bisq: Security incident post-mortem bisq.network
- crypto.news: Bity ATMs add Monero (2018) crypto.news
- Coin ATM Radar coinatmradar.com
- IRS: Digital assets irs.gov
Checked November 2026. Prices and payment options change, so confirm with the business before you pay. Found something out of date? Let us know.