How and Where to Buy Shimmer (SMR) – Detailed Guide
- What is SMR?
- Step 1: Register on Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange
- Step 2: Buy USDT with fiat money
- Step 3: Transfer USDT to an Altcoin Exchange
- Step 4: Deposit USDT to exchange
- Step 5: Trade SMR
- Last Step: Store SMR securely in hardware wallets
- Other useful tools for trading SMR
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Latest News for SMR
- SMR Price Prediction and Price Movement
What is SMR?
$SMR is the native token of the Shimmer network, the official incentivized staging network of the IOTA distributed ledger technology (DLT). $SMR serves as the network’s economic backbone, facilitating value transactions and interactions within the Shimmer ecosystem. Users of Shimmer use the $SMR token to launch new DeFi applications, DEXs, NFT, DAOs and other dApps. It is also used to reward participation by the community in the Shimmer network, in the form of freshly minted SMR tokens.
What is IOTA?
The IOTA DLT – known as “The Tangle” – goes beyond blockchain by providing scalable and feeless DLT, with the goal of being the most reliable DLT infrastructure for Web3 applications and digital economies. IOTA uses its unique open-source technology to solve three fundamental problems with blockchain: high fees, scaling and centralization, and by avoiding the energy-intensive miners common to traditional blockchains, IOTA promotes itself as a green alternative in the crypto market.
IOTA currently relies on an additional security feature issuing milestone called “the coordinator”; once this is removed, and the network becomes fully decentralized, both IOTA and Shimmer will be secured by the Multiverse consensus. The Shimmer network helps to accelerate the transition to a fully decentralised, permissionless and feeless network.
Visit www.iota.org for more information.
What is Shimmer?
Shimmer is the official validation network, helping to properly test and harden any new feature and the leaderless Fast Probabilistic Consensus mechanism. Shimmer is a rapid innovation playground with short development cycles, allowing developers to build applications and use features that are not yet available on the IOTA mainnet, before moving their applications onto the main IOTA network (though it is envisioned that Shimmer will evolve into its own community-governed network after the launch of IOTA 2.0, and several projects will choose to remain on Shimmer).
Several new updates are developed by IOTA, each one bringing it closer to reaching its goal of being the most scalable, affordable, and efficient DLT network. But, given that these updates potentially open the door to bugs and other vulnerabilities, each one needs to be thoroughly tested, before they are released on the IOTA mainnet.
The Shimmer network is where updates are put to the test. It receives all features earlier than the IOTA mainnet and makes these features available for use, testing and adoption before they are available on the IOTA mainnet.
Shimmer is designed as a development network, an ambitious ecosystem that mirrors the IOTA network with all of its applications and frameworks, use-cases and economy, and which users can explore, test, build on – and even attack. To incentivize users, Shimmer is also host to its own token economy (SMR).
What is the Shimmer token ($SMR)?
Through its own token economy, Shimmer offers opportunities for users to put the Shimmer network thoroughly to the test. Before its launch, the Shimmer token is awarded to anyone actively staking the IOTA token during a period of three months. This makes Shimmer the first DLT project to fairly distribute its entire token supply on IOTA, with more to follow. During the staking event prior to the network launch, users are rewarded with one $SMR every 10 seconds for each staked MIOTA. Once the Shimmer network has been launched, users can stake Shimmer tokens to help secure the network and get rewarded with even more Shimmer tokens.
The $SMR token also plays an important role in encouraging attackers to put the Shimmer network to the test and find certain loopholes or attack vectors.
Overall, the Shimmer token has the following utility:
- Staking rewards: Users are awarded Shimmer tokens when they stake on the Shimmer network, as well as receive Mana (the IOTA reward mechanism that promotes users’ transactions and messages, voting rights etc., which secures the network. By staking, earning and delegating $SMR tokens, users contribute to the growth of the Shimmer network.
- Access to innovations: Using the $SMR token fast-tracks users to the latest innovations of IOTA, giving them early advantage in developing dApps and participating in the ecosystem.
- New yield opportunities: Any new economy that wants to thrive needs participating users. Token holders will be able to benefit from a vast ecosystem of new DeFi, NFT and GameFi dApps. The token utility of Shimmer will be expanded with the growth of the ecosystem.
Beyond being a test laboratory for innovations before integration with the IOTA mainnet, Shimmer is designed to evolve into its own ecosystem and community. The $SMR token is an integral part of that evolution.
SMR was first tradable on 19th Nov, 2021. It has a total supply of 1,813,620,509. As of right now SMR has a market capitalization of USD $98,708,126.06. The current price of SMR is $0.0544 and is ranked 2384 on Coinmarketcap and has recently surged 16.33 percent at the time of writing.
SMR 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 USDT 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 SMR.
Step 1: Register on Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange
You will have to first buy one of the major cryptocurrencies, in this case, USDT (USDT). 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 USDT 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 USDT, 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 USDT to an Altcoin Exchange
Select altcoin exchanges:
- BitForex
- Bitfinex
But we are not done yet, since SMR is an altcoin we need to transfer our USDT to an exchange that SMR can be traded, here we will use BitForex as our exchange. BitForex 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.
BitForex is another one of those cryptocurrency exchanges from off-shore (Seychelles). This exchange is one of the six exchanges registered in the Seychelles. In an email sent out to its users on 23 October 2019, BitForex informed that they now have more than 3 million users. The exchange also has a decent selection of trading pairs (92 different trading pairs) and a very impressive liquidity. BitForex does not state that US-investors can’t trade here. So, we believe that US-investors can trade here. However, all US-investors should form their own opinion on whether state rules or federal rules affects their foreign trading activities or not.BitForex does not state that US-investors can’t trade here. So, we believe that US-investors can trade here.
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 USDT 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 'USDT address', this is a unique public address of your USDT wallet at BitForex and you can receive USDT by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought USDT 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 USDT on the "From" field, choose the amount you wan to send and on the "To" field choose USDT 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 BitForex!
Now go back to BitForex 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 USDT network, during busy times it may take even longer.
You should receive a confirmation notification from BitForex once your USDT has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase SMR!
Step 5: Trade SMR
Go back to BitForex, 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 "USDT" is selected as we are trading USDT to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in "SMR", you should see SMR/USDT, select that pair and you should see a price chart of SMR/USDT in the middle of the page.
Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy SMR", 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 SMR". Voila! You have finally bought SMR!
But we are not done yet, since SMR is an altcoin we need to transfer our USDT to an exchange that SMR 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 USDT 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 'USDT address', this is a unique public address of your USDT wallet at Bitfinex and you can receive USDT by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought USDT 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 USDT on the "From" field, choose the amount you wan to send and on the "To" field choose USDT 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 USDT network, during busy times it may take even longer.
You should receive a confirmation notification from Bitfinex once your USDT has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase SMR!
Step 5: Trade SMR
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 "USDT" is selected as we are trading USDT to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in "SMR", you should see SMR/USDT, select that pair and you should see a price chart of SMR/USDT in the middle of the page.
Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy SMR", 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 SMR". Voila! You have finally bought SMR!
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 SMR 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 SMR 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 SMR 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 SMR
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 SMR with cash?
There is no direct way to buy SMR with cash. However, you can use marketplaces such as LocalBitcoins to first purchase USDT, and finish the rest of the steps by transferring your USDT 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 SMR 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 SMR 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.
SMR Price Prediction and Price Movement
SMR is up 14.58 percent over the last three months, while its market capitalization is still considered relatively small, which implies that the price of SMR 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, SMR 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 SMR'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.