How to set up a Solana wallet and buy SOL

Solana Introduction

Solana is growing fast as people are looking towards cheaper alternatives for transactions, the problem is that the Ethereum network is congested and transaction fees have become much more expensive in the recent months.

Solana is becoming more widely used for NFTs as it can process many more transactions per second than Ethereum, and the fees are significantly lower.

To mint and hold Solana NFTs, or easily send/receive Solana you'll need another wallet (if you have MetaMask already). This guide shows you how to create a Solana wallet with Phantom, and explains the process of transferring Sol to it.

Installing Phantom - A Solana Wallet

Step 1 - Download the Phantom wallet

Visit https://phantom.app/download and select your browser type. Follow the steps in your respective extension store to add Phantom to your browser.

There are other wallets available such as https://www.sollet.io/ and https://solflare.com/ - but we personally prefer Phantom

Make sure you pin it to your browser for easy access.

After installing, you should see Phantom open up in a new tab:

Step 2: Create your Phantom wallet

Click create new wallet and follow through the wizard to begin setup. For the first step you will need to create a secret recovery phrase, and keep it safe.

Your secret recovery phrase is a 12 word sequence - It's the only way to get back into your wallet if you were to lose access for any reason.

Tip: Keep your recovery phrase printed out somewhere safe as an extra physical backup.

After taking down your phrase, set your password and finish the wizard. That's it, you've now got a Phantom wallet that can hold Solana and Sol NFTs. You can access it by opening the extension in your browser.

Buying and Transferring Solana

Step 1 - Purchase Solana

Now you've got your wallet set up it's time to load it up with some Solana. You can use almost any exchange to buy Sol - here's some we recommend:

Binance - https://www.binance.com/en
Coinbase - https://www.coinbase.com/
FTX - https://ftx.com/en
Bisq - https://bisq.network/

Once you've chosen an exchange to use you will need need to deposit some cash using your card or another transfer method. Once you're deposit is in, choose your preferred currency pair to trade for Solana and buy the amount you need.

Step 2 - Transfer Solana to your Phantom wallet

Once you have your desired amount of Solana in your exchange wallet, all that's left is to send it to your shiny new Phantom wallet. Open your phantom extension and copy your address at the top.

Once you have your address copies, initiate a withdrawal from your preferred exchange. I'm using Binance as an example, but the process is similar for each exchange.

As below - Paste your Phantom address in the field and make sure you've selected Solana as the network. Double check your address and how much you want to send, then hit withdraw.

Once that's confirmed, your Sol will now be on its way to your Phantom wallet.

Done!

After a few minutes, check your Phantom wallet and your Sol should be ready for you.

You can also now easily send Sol to other people by opening Phantom and clicking the send button, then filling out the recipients details.

If you're familiar with MetaMask, Phantom is very similar and even better in some regards. You can even view your NFT collection right in the extension.