Sharesies Crypto: the easy button, with a few strings attached

Sharesies Crypto in NZ: what it is

Sharesies is the Wellington investing app that got a generation of Kiwis buying shares and funds with spare change. In 2025 it added crypto. Co-founder and co-CEO Leighton Roberts announced the move in July 2025, saying customers had been asking for it, and the service rolled out over the second half of that year with a short list of major coins and no wallets or private keys for customers to manage.

It runs as a separate product, Sharesies Crypto, inside the same app. You top up your Sharesies wallet in NZD, tap a coin and buy. There are no order books, no charts full of candles, no leverage. If you already hold an NZX index fund and a few US shares in Sharesies, crypto now sits on the same screen.

Who runs it, and who holds the coins

Sharesies set up two new New Zealand companies for crypto, both registered on the Financial Service Providers Register in September 2025: Sharesies Crypto Limited (FSP1010535), which provides the service, and Sharesies Crypto Custody Limited (FSP1010537), which holds customer assets. Both are Wellington-based. That makes Sharesies one of very few crypto services in New Zealand run by a local company rather than an offshore group.

The actual coins sit with Kraken, the US exchange that has operated since 2011. Sharesies names Kraken as its custodian and service provider, and says customers are the beneficial owners of their crypto — in other words, the coins are held for you, not owned by Sharesies. Kraken’s co-CEO even appeared on a Sharesies podcast about the partnership. If you’re curious about Kraken itself, see our Kraken NZ review.

Which coins can you buy?

Seven, when we checked on 15 October 2026: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), XRP, Dogecoin (DOGE), Chainlink (LINK) and Polygon (POL). Sharesies says more are planned. The minimum order is tiny — generally US$5 to US$10 depending on the coin — so you can start with pocket money. You can’t buy stablecoins, and you can’t convert one crypto directly into another; every trade goes through US dollars.

That’s a narrow menu compared with exchanges listing hundreds of assets, and that’s partly the point. Sharesies has chosen large, liquid coins that most beginners have heard of. If you want to buy something newer or more obscure, this isn’t the place.

Sharesies crypto fees, with a worked NZ$1,000 example

The pricing page sets out two charges. First, a 0.8% transaction fee on every buy and sell, with no fee cap — unlike Sharesies’ share trading, where caps and plans soften the cost. Sharesies plans don’t cover crypto at all. Second, because crypto is priced in US dollars, converting your NZD costs a 0.5% currency exchange fee, taken off the amount you enter. Sharesies uses any USD you already hold first.

So the headline gap on a single NZ$1,000 buy is about seven dollars, before Swyftx’s spread narrows it. The bigger difference shows up on the way out: selling on Sharesies costs another 0.8%, and converting the USD back to NZD another 0.5%, so a full round trip runs to about 2.6% in stated fees. On NZ$10,000 invested and later sold, that’s roughly NZ$260. Because there’s no cap, the percentage never gets better as you invest more — at NZ$50,000 you still pay 1.3% on the way in.

Is that expensive? Compared with a Bitcoin ATM at around 16%, it’s cheap. Compared with the cheapest NZD exchanges, it’s a premium for convenience. Our guide to the cheapest ways to buy crypto in NZ lays out all the options side by side.

Transfers in yes, transfers out no

This is the single most important limitation. Sharesies now lets you transfer selected crypto in from another platform or a personal wallet, with a minimum of US$100 per coin. It also accepts stablecoins — USDC on Ethereum, Solana and Base, and USDT on Ethereum and Solana — which are then sold for USD in your account. Sharesies doesn’t charge for incoming transfers, though the sending platform and network fees still apply.

Transfers out are not available. You cannot send your Bitcoin to a hardware wallet, to another exchange, or to pay someone. The only exit is to sell inside Sharesies and withdraw NZD. For many investors that’s fine — they just want price exposure. But it means you never hold your own keys, and if you later decide to move to self-custody, you’ll have to sell (usually a taxable event) and buy again elsewhere.

What you can and can’t do on Sharesies Crypto

Security, KYC and support

If you already use Sharesies, you’ve already done the ID checks: the same verified account covers crypto, subject to accepting the crypto terms. New users verify with an NZ driver licence or passport, as for shares. Two-factor authentication is available and worth switching on. Support runs through the app’s help centre and in-app messaging, handled by the Wellington-based company rather than an offshore call centre.

On the custody side, you’re relying on Kraken’s security record, which is among the strongest in the industry — no major customer-fund hack in fifteen years. You’re also relying on Sharesies’ own systems and the legal structure of a separate custody company. Neither removes market risk, and Sharesies itself warns that crypto may not suit people who’d be uncomfortable losing some or all of what they put in.

Tax: same rules, simpler records

Crypto bought through Sharesies is taxed the same way as crypto anywhere else. IRD treats crypto-assets as property, and profits on disposal are generally taxable if you acquired the coins for the purpose of selling — which IRD says is usually the case for crypto. Selling on Sharesies, or selling in order to move platforms, counts. The upside is record-keeping: every trade sits in one NZD-denominated account history. Our crypto tax guide walks through worked examples.

Buying your first coin on Sharesies, start to finish

If you already have a Sharesies account, the process takes a few minutes. Open the app, find the crypto section and accept the Sharesies Crypto terms — they’re separate from the share-trading terms because a different company provides the service. Top up your wallet by bank transfer from any NZ bank if you don’t already have NZD sitting there. Then pick a coin, enter a dollar amount and review the order screen, which shows the transaction fee and the currency exchange fee before you confirm. Your coins appear in your portfolio alongside everything else.

Selling is the same in reverse: choose an amount, confirm, and the proceeds land in your wallet as USD, which you can keep for future US purchases or convert back to NZD (paying the 0.5% FX fee again) and withdraw to your bank. There is no separate crypto withdrawal fee for getting NZD out, but because every sale is a disposal, keep an eye on the tax side if your coins have gone up.

Sharesies Crypto or Kraken directly?

Since Kraken holds the coins anyway, some Kiwis ask whether they should skip the middleman. Going direct to Kraken gets you hundreds of assets, order-book pricing from 0.40% maker on Kraken Pro, and the ability to withdraw to your own wallet. But Kraken has no NZD: you’d wire US dollars by SWIFT and absorb your bank’s exchange margin and international fees, which easily cost more than Sharesies’ 1.3% on small amounts. Kraken also has no NZ registration. For a few hundred dollars a month, Sharesies is the more sensible route; for larger, more active trading, Kraken or an NZD exchange makes more sense.

Who Sharesies Crypto suits, and alternatives

It suits beginners who want a small, deliberate slice of Bitcoin or Ethereum without learning a new app; existing Sharesies investors who like seeing their whole portfolio — shares, funds and now crypto — in one place, alongside their longer-term saving; and anyone who would rather not deal with wallets, seed phrases or exchanges at all. It suits people who buy regularly in modest amounts more than those making large trades, because the uncapped percentage fee adds up on big numbers.

It doesn’t suit people who want to self-custody, use crypto for payments, trade actively, or buy anything beyond the seven majors. For them, an NZD exchange is the better tool:

Our Swyftx review covers the main NZD exchange with free bank deposits and wallet withdrawals, and if Bitcoin is all you want, the buy Bitcoin in NZ guide includes Bitcoin-only apps that send straight to your own wallet.