Bitcoin Forum

I've read Coinbase works with European banks, but the fact that it's based in the U.S. is very concerning to me (I assume they would have to hand over my bitcoins if Uncle Sam decided he wanted them).

Are there any reputable bitcoin exchanges that are not based in the U.S. that work with European (and specifically French) banks?

try then btc-e and bittrex they are in europe for sure
also have positive experience with btc-e but they have little coins on exchange

You should never leave coins on an exchange anyway so it's a bit moot worrying about The Man confiscating them.

The big ones will be Kraken, that's a Euro market but it's San Francisco based so that might be a turn off for you. Bitstamp is Slovenia based but you'd have to wait for them to convert your money into dollars. There's also Bitcoin.de which is p2p but very rapid. I'm not sure what the score is for non Germans.

I wouldn't bother with btc-e myself. It's expensive and time consuming to get money on and off there.

Living in Europe i can advice kraken. I got some very good experience with them.
I also trust them with around 5k EURO on the exchange. (fiat offcourse, my bitcoins are safely in my wallet.

I like the dutch site bitonic.nl they are well known here and reliable.
If you are looking for an international party then coinbase is good too.

I don't get it.

What do you want?

1. Bitcoin wallet (to store your bitcoins)
2. To sell your bitcoins and get your cash on paypal or something?
3. To buybitcoins ?

I'm really new to bitcoins, so thanks for your help!

I purchased bitcoins on Coinbase and they are now in my Coinbase wallet. I am wanting:

1. To move them to someplace safer than a U.S. based exchange
2. Have the ability to sell some of my bitcoins as needed in exchange for fiat (Euros) and easily transfer to my French bank account

I have read about offline wallets (storing on my laptop), but it concerns me because if my laptop were stolen I would be screwed.

kraken is in euro, they have a german bank, the sepa is very fast especially if you have a german bank account, like with deutesche bank

The listed below are the few services used in Europe :
https://www.itbit.com [Based in US but should work for EU customers too]

https://www.kraken.com/

https://localbitcoins.com/

1. Storing them on computer is the safest way. Of course you can have a backup on USB or even more backups.
2. For transfers to bank you can probably use https://bitcoinxc.net , they have the Bank option but i am not sure if they support EUR or only USD. You will need to ask them.

Kraken and Coinbase have been the best though, but if you are very much concerned about your coins to be stolen, then you should go for Localbitcoins as you will be able to find some cash transactions too to hide everything and do it anonymously...

I think I have most commonly seen Bitstamp and localbitcoins suggested for Europeans. because As I saw price is also and little safety better than other exchanges.But be aware of scammers as well.;) Take a look and see if that works well for all.

Kraken has better security record vs bitstamp remember stamp lost 16k bitcoin and kraken has lost zero.  One thing you can say for stamp is they stuck around despite going through bad times.  My vote is still with kraken.

Good one Sir.
I am with them also for a long time. Never had any problems with them.
The withdrawal fee is a little high, so therefore I always wait to have 1 BTC before i withdraw from their exchanges.

Yeah i think the bitstamp team improved their security a few notchs after the lasts hacks. But kraken.com never had any breach of this size.
In that regard, I would go for kraken too.

I replied in another thread that my favourite one is coinbase.

Getting funding for your project from investors mean they have analyzed it and believe in your project.
Having said that, coinbase already did some very big innovations by adding bitcoin purchases from so many countries.

If you have a little bit bitcoin, i would use localbitcoins.

If we are talking about 10+ go with coinbase or kraken.com (in that order). Both are trusted exchanges with a good reputation.

Do you recommend Kraken over BitFinex?

Well, to protect my bitcoins I decided to use Coinbase's multisig vault. I'm also trying to open an account with Kraken, but they're throwing some hoops in my way to get me to "prove" residency in France before approving my account.

What do you want to do. Trade or just buy occasionally? Bitfinex will take a lot longer to get money in and out of because of its location and there's a currency conversion to go through.

I would go with kraken. Make sure to trade from or to bitcoin and then withdraw your funds if you are not too sure about them.

But ask any experienced users and they will vouch for kraken.

Offcourse it depends on what you will do and the volume.
When you have a lot of bitcoins/money I would go for a smaller exchange like btc-e.

Since you can save a lot on fees; deposit, withdrawal and offcourse trading fees.

As far as i know France allows sepa transaction within the europe zone,
I have seen an ad here in forum about bitok and they seems pretty good with sepa transactions

That's some good advice bro.

I have been using kraken for a year now. Never had any problems, nor any downtime.
There was a little attack a few weeks ago (DDOS), but we can't blame them for this.