How and Where to Buy Fractal (FCL) – Detailed Guide
- What is FCL?
- Step 1: Register on Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange
- Step 2: Buy ETH with fiat money
- Step 3: Transfer ETH to an Altcoin Exchange
- Step 4: Deposit ETH to exchange
- Step 5: Trade FCL
- Last Step: Store FCL securely in hardware wallets
- Other useful tools for trading FCL
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Latest News for FCL
- FCL Price Prediction and Price Movement
What is FCL?
To find out even more about this project, check out our deep dive of Fractal.
What Is Fractal (FCL)?
Fractal (FCL) is an open source zero-margin protocol built on Polkadot. Designed to replace the ad cookie and give users maximum control over their data, Fractal forms the standard for the fair and open exchange of user information. The project is part of a rapidly growing ecosystem, collaborating with KILT Protocol, Polkadex, Polymath and other partnerships that provide a decentralized authentication system.
Fractal's mission is to shape market dynamics and infrastructure to ensure a fair distribution of value in the advertising market. Thus, the company's mission is to create publicly available data to ensure equitable competition within the current market structure. Fractal balances incentives on the Internet, helping to maintain a free and open concept of work. Fractal Protocol generates a balance where the privacy interests of users are taken into account, content creators are rewarded, and the rights of advertisers are protected. As a result, user data is stored where it belongs, and Fractal helps to collect, verify, process and share information confidentially.
FCL, the utility token of Fractal, functions as the native currency of the protocol, fueling the built-in incentive mechanism. The token was launched on the Polkastarter platform on February 25, 2021.
Who Are the Founders of Fractal?
Fractal ID was co-founded by Julian Leitloff (CEO) and Júlio Santos (CPO) in 2017, the same year they acquired their first client - Ocean Protocol. Sovrin and XAIN joined the list of clients in 2018, and KILT Protocol entered the list in 2019.
Julian Leitloff is the co-founder and managing director of Fractal. He received his master's degree in Corporate Management & Economics from Zeppelin University in 2014. Leitloff successfully founded his own company Spontaneous Order GmbH and made his first million at age 22. Due to his achievements, he was named as one of Forbes 30 under 30 in 2016. Leitloff first got into blockchain in 2015, when he met Bruce Pon (future head of Ocean Protocol) at Tech Open Air.
Júlio Santos is a technical manager, software engineer, entrepreneur and most importantly - the co-founder of Fractal, where he leads the Product and Engineering team. At the company, he’s building an identity layer on the Internet using the Fractal Protocol. Santos has been involved in the world of blockchain since 2015. Over the years of his career, he has founded projects like Life on Mars (an elite software consulting firm), Gruvi (the company that creates advanced productivity marketing tools for Twitter, Disney, Sony, HBO), and Attmatr / Madmarkedet (a farm-to-table marketplace).
What Makes Fractal Unique?
Fractal is an open supply protocol that facilitates the exchange of information by ensuring an infrastructure with an emphasis on confidentiality that allows users to both securely share their data and monetize it.
Fractal Protocol seeks to define a new standard for the fair and open exchange of user information. By advancing a new, high quality version of the free Internet, the Fractal developers solve such market problems as:
- A market controlled by duopoly
- Ad-Tech costs unattributed
- Web traffic from bots
The project presents the concept of a fair industry to the community by introducing an incentive system built on a transparent and authoritative infrastructure. The developers aim to ensure the highest chance of success and the best possible results for users, publishers and advertisers.
Moreover, Fractal strives to improve the quality of user information through cutting edge technologies and focused strategies to improve advertising campaign results and guarantee a certain level of privacy of user data.
Related Pages:
Check out our deep dive of Fractal and find out everything you need to know about the Fractal NFT gaming marketplace.
Read about OpenSea - the largest NFT marketplace used by sellers, buyers and artists worldwide.
Read about Polkastarter (POLS).
The latest data about Polkadot (DOT).
Learn about web 3.0 with CoinMarketCap Alexandria.
How Many Fractal (FCL) Coins Are There in Circulation?
FCL is a utility token of Fractal that coordinates and connects all involved parties around the Fractal Open Advertising Economy. FCL does not generate any profit, nor does it grant voting or ownership rights, however, the token powers the incentive mechanism that is built into the protocol itself.
The FCL functionality ensures a consistent demand for tokens, which helps facilitate the growth of the entire ecosystem. Stakeholders of the ecosystem include: users, advertisers, verifiers, insurers, and certifiers. Fractal Protocol stimulates stakeholders involvement in the ecosystem via the following interests:
- Users seek to avoid low-quality content and intrusive ads by appreciating free services and attractive content with a focus on data privacy.
- Advertisers strive to conclude a profitable and secure deal, with minimal losses and maximum efficiency of the advertising budget.
- Verifiers (publishers and ad networks) are looking for heightened user engagement, traffic growth, and ad revenue.
- Insurers need an active advertising market to optimize staking rewards.
- Certifiers (intermediaries) aim to maximize added value for customers, as well as partner with new customers to shape sustainable business models.
According to Whitepaper of the project:
Users pay Attesters;
Advertisers pay Bid Prices;
Advertisers stake in Ad Escrow;
Verifiers stake in Arbitrage Escrow;
Insurers stake in Arbitrage Escrow;
Attesters get paid for issuing Credentials.
The maximum supply of FCL that will ever be released to the market is 465,000,000 coins. $FCL distribution:
5.3% to Pre-Sale;
0.5% to Community Sale;
14.3% to Strategic Reserve and Liquidity Treasury;
5.8% to Founders;
46.2% to Block Rewards;
11.6% to Company;
16.3% to Community Funds.
As of January 2022, the circulation supply is 16,595,270.91 $FCL.
How Is the Fractal Network Secured?
Fractal (FCL) opted for the Polkadot blockchain, which provides both the infrastructure for connectivity and the appropriate tools to deploy the protocol.
Polkadot has a serious approach to security, that's why the developers created Substrate - an SDK for Polkadot-compatible blockchain building. Shared security is Polkadot's value proposition, and economic security is established through Relay Chain validators. More specifically, validators are staked on the Relay Chain and confirm transactions from different parachains, resulting in the safe and independent interaction of chains according to the same rules.
Polkadot offers an environment where networks can control their own transaction fees and scaling is not only possible, but affordable. In addition, Polkadot focuses on development expertise by investing in an ecosystem of security tools like Substrate and Cumulus.
Where Can You Buy Fractal (FCL)?
As of January 2022, Fractal (FCL) is listed on the following crypto exchanges: KuCoin, Uniswap (V2), Bitfinex, MEXC, and BKEX.
Want to keep track of FCL prices live? Download the CoinMarketCap mobile app.
Want to learn more crypto terms? Our glossary will come in handy.
Check the top crypto coins and tokens used for Framework Ventures Portfolio here.
Get the latest product updates, partnerships and announcements from CoinMarketCap here.
FCL was first tradable on 22nd Feb, 2021. It has a total supply of 465,000,000. As of right now FCL has a market capitalization of USD $14,558,824.66. The current price of FCL is $0.0313 and is ranked 1603 on Coinmarketcap and has recently surged 59.18 percent at the time of writing.
FCL has been listed on a number of crypto exchanges, unlike other main cryptocurrencies, it cannot be directly purchased with fiats money. However, You can still easily buy this coin by first buying Ethereum from any fiat-to-crypto exchanges and then transfer to the exchange that offers to trade this coin, in this guide article we will walk you through in detail the steps to buy FCL.
Step 1: Register on Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange
You will have to first buy one of the major cryptocurrencies, in this case, Ethereum (ETH). In this article we will walk you through in details two of the most commonly-used fiat-to-crypto exchanges, Uphold.com and Coinbase. Both exchanges have their own fee policies and other features that we will go through in detail. It is recommended that you try both of them and figure out the one that suits you best.
Select Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange for details:
- UpHold
Being one of the most popular and convenient fiat-to-crypto exchanges, UpHold has the following advantages:
- Easy to buy and trade among multiple assets, more than 50 and still adding
- Currently more than 7M users worldwide
- You can apply for UpHold Debit card where you can spend the crypto assets on your account like a normal debit card! (US only but will be in the UK later)
- Easy to use mobile app where you can withdraw fund to a bank or any other altcoin exchanges easily
- No hidden fees and any other account fees
- There are limited buy/sell orders for more advanced users
- You can easily set up recurring deposits for Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) if you intend to hold cryptos long term
- USDT, which is one of the most popular USD-backed stablecoins (basically a crypto that is backed by real fiat money so they are less volatile and can be treated almost as the fiat money it's pegged with) is available, this is more convenient if the altcoin you intend to buy has only USDT trading pairs on the altcoin exchange so you don't have to go through another currency conversion while you buy the altcoin.
Type your email and click 'Next'. Make sure you provide your real name as UpHold will need it for account and identity verification. Choose a strong password so that your account isn't vulnerable to hackers.
You will receive a confirmation email. Open it and click on the link within. You will then be required to provide a valid mobile number to set up two-factor authentication (2FA), it is an extra layer to the security of your account and it is highly recommended that you keep this feature turned on.
Follow the next step to finish your identity verification. These steps are a bit daunting especially when you are waiting to buy an asset but just like any other financial institutions, UpHold is regulated in most countries such as the US, the UK and the EU. You can take this as a trade-off to using a trusted platform to make your first crypto purchase. Good news is that the whole so-called Know-Your-Customers (KYC) process is now fully automated and it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to finish.
Step 2: Buy ETH with fiat money
Once you finished the KYC process. You will be asked to add a payment method. Here you can either choose to provide a credit/debit card or use a bank transfer. You may be charged higher fees depending on your credit card company and the volatile prices when using cards but you will also make an instant purchase. While a bank transfer will be cheaper but slower, depending on the country of your residence, some countries will offer instant cash deposit with low fees.
Now you are all set, on the 'Transact' screen under the 'From' field, select your fiat currency, and then on the 'To' field choose Ethereum, click preview to review your transaction and the click confirm if everything looks good... and congrats! You've just made your first crypto purchase.
Step 3: Transfer ETH to an Altcoin Exchange
Select altcoin exchanges:
- KuCoin
- Bitfinex
But we are not done yet, since FCL is an altcoin we need to transfer our ETH to an exchange that FCL can be traded, here we will use KuCoin as our exchange. KuCoin is a popular exchange to trade altcoins and it has a large number of tradable altcoins pairs. Use the link below to register your new account.
KuCoin is a cryptocurrency exchange based in the Seychelles (previously Hong Kong). Launched in September 2017, KuCoin claims to have 5 million users from over 200 countries and regions. Often known as the People’s Exchange, KuCoin now offers crypto-related services like crypto-to-crypto, fiat-to-crypto, futures trading, staking, lending and so forth. The exchange has one of the world’s most impressive trading pair selections, with more than 250 supported coins and 440 trading pairs. KuCoin was backed by two giant traditional venture capitals when launching - IDG Capital and Matrix Partners. The exchange also announced a USD 20 million round A funding from them at the end of 2018.US-investors are not listed as prohibited from trading. If you are a US-investor, however, you should still always analyse yourself whether your home state imposes any obstacles for your foreign cryptocurrency trading.
After going through a similar process as we've done before with UpHold, you will be advised to set up 2FA authentication as well, finish it as it adds extra security to your account.
Step 4: Deposit ETH to exchange
Depends on the policies of the exchange you might be required to go through another KYC process, this should usually take you from 30 minutes to possibly a few days maximum. Though the process should be straight-forward and easy to follow. Once you're done with it you should have full access to your exchange wallet.
If this is your first time making a crypto deposit, the screen here may look a bit scary. But don't worry, it's basically simpler than making a bank transfer. At the box on the right, you will see a string of random numbers saying 'ETH address', this is a unique public address of your ETH wallet at KuCoin and you can receive ETH by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought ETH on UpHold to this wallet, click on 'Copy Address' or right-click on the full address and click copy to grab this address to your clipboard.
Now head back to UpHold, go to the Transact screen and click on ETH on the "From" field, choose the amount you wan to send and on the "To" field choose ETH under "Crypto Network", then click "Preview withdraw".
On the next screen, paste the wallet address from your clipboard, for security consideration you should always check if both addresses are matching. It is known that there are certain computer malware that would alter the content in your clipboard into another wallet address and you will be essentially sending funds to another person.
After reviewing, click 'Confirm' to proceed, you should receive a confirmation email instantly, click on the confirmation link in the email and your coins are on the way to KuCoin!
Now go back to KuCoin and head to your exchange wallets, don't worry if you haven't seen your deposit here. It is probably still being verified in the blockchain network and it should take a few minutes for your coins to arrive. Depending on the network traffic condition of the Ethereum network, during busy times it may take even longer.
You should receive a confirmation notification from KuCoin once your ETH has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase FCL!
Step 5: Trade FCL
Go back to KuCoin, then go to 'Exchange'. Boom! What a view! The constantly flicking figures might be a bit scary, but relax, let's get our heads around this.
In the right column there is a search bar, now make sure "ETH" is selected as we are trading ETH to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in "FCL", you should see FCL/ETH, select that pair and you should see a price chart of FCL/ETH in the middle of the page.
Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy FCL", inside of the box, choose the "Market" tab here as that is the most straight-forward type of buying orders. You can either type in your amount or choose what portion of your deposit you would like to spend on buying, by clicking on the percentage buttons. When you have confirmed everything, click "Buy FCL". Voila! You have finally bought FCL!
But we are not done yet, since FCL is an altcoin we need to transfer our ETH to an exchange that FCL can be traded, here we will use Bitfinex as our exchange. Bitfinex is a popular exchange to trade altcoins and it has a large number of tradable altcoins pairs. Use the link below to register your new account.
Bitfinex is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange located in British Virgin Islands. There are 150+ coins and 310+ trading pairs on the exchange. Bitfinex is an advanced, veteran cryptocurrency exchange with a haunted past of hacks and allegations. The exchange is well suited for advanced traders and also supplies the option for margin trading and lending. Bitfinex does not accept US customers.Unfortunately for US-investors, this exchange prohibits US-investors from trading on its exchange. So if you are a US-investor and wants to trade here, you’ll have to consider one of the other top crypto exchanges we recommend here instead.
After going through a similar process as we've done before with UpHold, you will be advised to set up 2FA authentication as well, finish it as it adds extra security to your account.
Step 4: Deposit ETH to exchange
Depends on the policies of the exchange you might be required to go through another KYC process, this should usually take you from 30 minutes to possibly a few days maximum. Though the process should be straight-forward and easy to follow. Once you're done with it you should have full access to your exchange wallet.
If this is your first time making a crypto deposit, the screen here may look a bit scary. But don't worry, it's basically simpler than making a bank transfer. At the box on the right, you will see a string of random numbers saying 'ETH address', this is a unique public address of your ETH wallet at Bitfinex and you can receive ETH by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought ETH on UpHold to this wallet, click on 'Copy Address' or right-click on the full address and click copy to grab this address to your clipboard.
Now head back to UpHold, go to the Transact screen and click on ETH on the "From" field, choose the amount you wan to send and on the "To" field choose ETH under "Crypto Network", then click "Preview withdraw".
On the next screen, paste the wallet address from your clipboard, for security consideration you should always check if both addresses are matching. It is known that there are certain computer malware that would alter the content in your clipboard into another wallet address and you will be essentially sending funds to another person.
After reviewing, click 'Confirm' to proceed, you should receive a confirmation email instantly, click on the confirmation link in the email and your coins are on the way to Bitfinex!
Now go back to Bitfinex and head to your exchange wallets, don't worry if you haven't seen your deposit here. It is probably still being verified in the blockchain network and it should take a few minutes for your coins to arrive. Depending on the network traffic condition of the Ethereum network, during busy times it may take even longer.
You should receive a confirmation notification from Bitfinex once your ETH has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase FCL!
Step 5: Trade FCL
Go back to Bitfinex, then go to 'Exchange'. Boom! What a view! The constantly flicking figures might be a bit scary, but relax, let's get our heads around this.
In the right column there is a search bar, now make sure "ETH" is selected as we are trading ETH to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in "FCL", you should see FCL/ETH, select that pair and you should see a price chart of FCL/ETH in the middle of the page.
Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy FCL", inside of the box, choose the "Market" tab here as that is the most straight-forward type of buying orders. You can either type in your amount or choose what portion of your deposit you would like to spend on buying, by clicking on the percentage buttons. When you have confirmed everything, click "Buy FCL". Voila! You have finally bought FCL!
Apart from the exchange(s) above, there are a few popular crypto exchanges where they have decent daily trading volumes and a huge user base. This will ensure you will be able to sell your coins at any time and the fees will usually be lower. It is suggested that you also register on these exchanges since once FCL gets listed there it will attract a large amount of trading volumes from the users there, that means you will be having some great trading opportunities!
Gate.io
Gate.io is an American cryptocurrency exchange that launched 2017. As the exchange is American, US-investors can of course trade here and we recommend US traders to sign up on this exchange. The exchange is available both in English and Chinese (the latter being very helpful for Chinese investors). Gate.io’s main selling factor is their wide selection of trading pairs. You can find most of the new altcoins here. Gate.io also demonstrates an impressive trading volume. It is almost every day one of the top 20 exchanges with the highest trading volume. The trading volume amounts to approx. USD 100 million on a daily basis. The top 10 trading pairs on Gate.io in terms of trading volume usually have USDT (Tether) as one part of the pair. So, to summarize the foregoing, Gate.io’s vast number of trading pairs and its extraordinary liquidity are both very impressive aspects of this exchange.
BitMart
BitMart is a crypto exchange from the Cayman Islands. It became available to the public in March 2018. BitMart has a truly impressive liquidity. At the time of the last update of this review (20 March 2020, right in the middle of the crisis with COVID-19), BitMart’s 24 hour trading volume was USD 1.8 billion. This amount placed BitMart on place no. 24 on Coinmarketcap’s the list of exchanges with the highest 24 hour trading volumes. Needless to say, if you start trading here, you will not have to worry about the order book being thin. Many exchanges does not allow investors from USA as customers. As far as we can tell, BitMart is not one of those exchanges. Any US-investors interested in trading here should in any event form their own opinion on any issues arising from their citizenship or residency.
Last Step: Store FCL securely in hardware wallets
Ledger Nano S
- Easy to set up and friendly interface
- Can be used on desktops and laptops
- Lightweight and Portable
- Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
- Multiple languages available
- Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
- Affordable price
Ledger Nano X
- More powerful secure element chip (ST33) than Ledger Nano S
- Can be used on desktop or laptop, or even smartphone and tablet through Bluetooth integration
- Lightweight and Portable with built-in rechargeable battery
- Larger screen
- More storage space than Ledger Nano S
- Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
- Multiple languages available
- Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
- Affordable price
If you are planning to keep("hodl" as some may say, basically misspelt "hold" which get popularised over time) your FCL for a considerable long time, you may want to explore ways of keeping it safe, although Binance is one of the safest cryptocurrency exchange there had been hacking incidents and funds were lost. Because of the very nature of the wallets in exchanges, they will be always online("Hot Wallets" as we call them), therefore exposing certain aspects of vulnerabilities. The safest way of storing your coins to date is always putting them into a type of "Cold Wallets", where the wallet will only have access to the blockchain(or simply "go online") when you send out funds, reducing the chances of hacking incidents. A paper wallet is a type of free cold wallet, it's basically an offline-generated pair of public and private address and you will have it written somewhere, and keep it safe. However, it is not durable and is susceptible to various hazards.
Hardware wallet here is definitely a better option of cold wallets. They are usually USB-enabled devices that store the key information of your wallet in a more durable way. They are built with military-level security and their firmware are constantly maintained by their manufacturers and thus extremely safe. Ledger Nano S and Ledger Nano X and are the most popular options in this category, these wallets cost around $50 to $100 depending on the features they are offering. If you are holding your assets these wallets are a good investment in our opinion.
Other useful tools for trading FCL
Encrypted Secure Connection
NordVPN
Because of the very nature of cryptocurrency – decentralised, it means that users are 100% responsible for handling their assets securely. While using hardware wallet allows you to store your cryptos in a safe place, using an encrypted VPN connection while you trade makes it harder for hackers to intercept or eavesdrop your sensitive information. Especially when you are trading on the go or in a public Wifi connection. NordVPN is one of the best paid (note: never use any free VPN services as they may sniff your data in return of free service) VPN services out there and it has been around for almost a decade. It offers military-grade encrypted connection and you can also opt-in to block malicious websites and ads with their CyberSec feature. You can choose to connect to 5000+ servers in 60+ countries base on your current location, which ensures you to always have a smooth and secure connection wherever you are. There is no bandwidth or data limits that means you can also use the service in your everyday routines such as streaming videos or downloading large files. Plus it is among the cheapest VPN services out there (only $3.49 per month).
Surfshark
Surfshark is a much cheaper alternative if you are looking for a secure VPN connection. Although it’s a relatively new company, it has already 3200+ servers distributed in 65 countries. Apart from VPN it also has some other cool features including CleanWeb™, which actively blocks ads, trackers, malware and phishing attempts while you are surfing on your browser. Currently, Surfshark does not have any device limit so you can basically use it on as many devices as you want and even share the service with your friends and family. Use the signup link below to get an 81% discount(that’s a lot!!) at $2.49/month!
Atlas VPN
IT nomads created Atlas VPN after seeing a lack of top-notch service within the free VPNs field. Atlas VPN was designed for everyone to have free access to unrestricted content without any strings attached. Atlas VPN set out to be the first trustworthy free VPN armed with top-notch technology. Furthermore, even though Atlas VPN is the new kid on the block, their blog team’s reports have been covered by well-known outlets such as Forbes, Fox News, Washington Post, TechRadar and many others. Below are some of the feature highlights:
- Strong encryption
- Tracker blocker feature blocks dangerous websites, stops third-party cookies from tracking your browsing habits and prevents behavioural advertising.
- Data Breach Monitor finds out whether your personal data is safe.
- SafeSwap servers allow you to have many rotating IP addresses by connecting to a single server
- Best prices on the VPN market (only $1.39/month!!)
- No-log policy to keep your privacy safe
- Automatic Kill Switch to block your device or apps from accessing the internet if the connection fails
- Unlimited simultaneous connections.
- P2P support
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I buy FCL with cash?
There is no direct way to buy FCL with cash. However, you can use marketplaces such as LocalBitcoins to first purchase ETH, and finish the rest of the steps by transferring your ETH to respective AltCoin exchanges.
LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange. It is a marketplace where users can buy and sell Bitcoins to and from each other. Users, called traders, create advertisements with the price and the payment method they want to offer. You can choose to buy from sellers from a certain nearby region on the platform. is after all a good place to go to buy Bitcoins when you can't find your desired payment methods anywhere else. But prices are usually higher on this platform and you have to do your due diligence to avoid getting scammed.
Are there any quick ways to buy FCL in Europe?
Yes, in fact, Europe is one of the easiest places to buy cryptos in general. There are even online banks which you can simply open an account and transfer money to exchanges such as Coinbase and Uphold.
Are there any alternative platforms to buy FCL or Bitcoin with credit cards?
Yes. is also a very easy to use platform for buying Bitcoin with credit cards. It is an instant cryptocurrency exchange that allows you to exchange crypto fast and buy it with a bank card. Its user interface is very easy to use and the buying steps are pretty self-explanatory.
FCL Price Prediction and Price Movement
FCL is up 77.29 percent over the last three months, while its market capitalization is still considered relatively small, which implies that the price of FCL can be very volatile comparing to those with larger market cap during big market moves. However, with a stead growth over the past three months, FCL has the potential to grow further and may yield some very decent gains. Again traders should remain cautious at all time.
Please note that this analysis is purely base on FCL's historic price actions and is by no means financial advice. Traders should always do their own research and be extra careful while investing in cryptocurrencies.