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Buy Amp in Canada

Amp made simple

Everything you need to know about Amp and how to start investing in it.

Current Price

This one’s easy: the price the coin or token is trading at right now.

$0.010119 CAD

-$0.000708 (-6.54%) past 24 hours

Market Cap
The value of the entire supply of a specific cryptocurrency or token. It’s calculated by taking the price of a coin/token and multiplying it by the total number of that coin/token in circulation.
$1,080,861,834.09
Circulating Supply
The amount of coins that have already been created and are available in the market.
$86,166,099,158.95
24h low - high range
Low-high range over the past 24 hours.
0.01062936 - 0.011583579

Amp 101

Cryptocurrencies are a great tool for transferring stores of value between two wallets. One major problem, however, is that some blockchain transactions can take several hours to go through — or even days during peak congestion periods. That’s because each transaction has to be confirmed multiple times by blockchain validators before it is added to the blockchain — a huge decentralized ledger powered by a vast network of anonymous computers.

So if a shop wanted to accept Bitcoin, it would have to contend with the reality that a transaction usually takes several minutes to process. In other words, the payment will probably clear long after the customer has left the shop. And because Bitcoin can be so volatile, its price might have changed by the time the vendor wants to convert it into cash.

People aren’t likely to buy things with crypto if they have to wait around for their purchases to go through. And while decentralization and multiple transaction confirmations make blockchains secure and reliable, it makes life difficult for vendors who want to accept cryptocurrencies but don’t want to deal with volatile prices and slow transaction times.

Amp (also known by its capitalized ticker, AMP), is a token that aims to decentralize the risk inherent to buying things with crypto, making it more convenient for vendors and buyers. How? By offering up its own token, Amp, as collateral for transactions. The Amp token is used to power the Flexa network, a payments network that shops can use to accept crypto.

To mitigate the risk that the transaction for some reason fails, or that the price of that Bitcoin should swing wildly while it is being confirmed by the Bitcoin blockchain, a buyer stakes Amp as collateral. The vendor can receive cash straight away, and the buyer receives their Amp back once the transaction has settled.

Amp thus serves as a huge assurance fund that compensates for how blockchains take an age to settle transactions, without sacrificing any of the security advantages that blockchains offer. The Amp protocol aims to become a universal clearing layer for crypto transfers, one which allows you to efficiently buy things with assets housed on a transaction layer that requires multiple confirmations.

The Amp token brings two major innovations that make this process seamless. The first is collateral managers — kind of like customizable, programmable escrow accounts. The second is token partitions, where collateral managers can enforce different rules on tokens.

Here’s how the system might work: imagine that you’re buying a big bar of chocolate through the Flexa network. For the transaction to go through, the buyer sends crypto equivalent to the value of the transaction — say, $10 in bitcoin — plus $10 in Amp tokens, provided by a pool within the Flexa Network. The AMP is locked up by the collateral manager, who can instruct the seller to release the bar of chocolate to the buyer. Once the payment of $10 in bitcoin goes through a while later, the Flexa network releases Amp tokens back into its network. If the transaction fails, the Flexa network liquidates the collateral from the pool, and the cost of the failed transaction is distributed across everyone who has staked Amp within the respective collateral pool.

Right now, Gemini Pay taps the Flexa network to let you pay with crypto in retail stores across the U.S. Flexa has also built an API that allows vendors to integrate their point of sale systems with crypto assets. But the applications are, potentially, even broader than real-time settlements. DeFi platforms could integrate Amp to increase the quality of collateral, and individuals could stake Amp to collateralize asset transfers in order to cut down on transfer settlement time.

Amp is built on Ethereum and is an ERC-20 compatible token. That means that any Ethereum-based DeFi protocol can use the token. A previous version of the AMP token was known as Flexacoin (FXC). Flexa is the company that created Amp together with ConsenSys.

More info

Why Wealthsimple Crypto?

Wealthsimple Crypto lets you buy and sell cryptocurrencies all in one easy-to-use app. And as Canada’s first regulated crypto platform, you can trust that your coins are in good hands. How simple is it?

  • Sign up in minutes right from your phone or laptop
  • Start trading crypto with as little as $1
  • No account minimums
  • No clunky dashboards — just one super simple app
  • Best of all: you don’t need to be an expert in crypto or blockchain to get started
Get started with Crypto

What can you do with Amp?

You can buy Amp and hold it for speculative purposes. It trades on several centralized and decentralized exchanges, and on other platforms, including Wealthsimple Crypto.

Broadly, the price of Amp is related to the value of the real-world applications of the Flexa network, which itself is a function of the number and quality of apps that use it and merchants that accept it.

You can also stake Amp within DeFi protocols — i.e., to lock it up in order to earn returns. Most prominent is Flexa Capacity, which, as of March 2022, secured $700 million of spending capacity for the Flexa network. All you need to do to stake Amp is to connect a Web3 wallet, such as MetaMask, containing Amp, and stake it within the protocol.

Amp is also a governance token, meaning that you can use it to exert influence over the network. One AMP is equivalent to one vote. Governance takes place off the blockchain through a site called Snapshot, meaning you don’t have to spend any money on transaction fees in order to exercise your voting rights or submit proposals.

Is Amp a smart investment?

Crypto carries risks — but generally speaking, our advice (regardless of whether you’re investing in Amp or stocks) is: never invest what you can’t afford to lose. The smartest way to grow your money long term is with a diversified, low-cost portfolio that tracks the market.

How we keep your Amp safe

As Canada’s first regulated crypto trading platform, we’re required to meet certain requirements — like using only qualified custodians (like Coinbase Custody) for cold storage.

FYI: Wealthsimple Crypto is not an exchange itself. Instead, we work with multiple exchanges to give you the best Amp prices.

And to make sure your coins are extra protected, we’ve partnered with Coincover for an extra layer of security.

If you’re holding crypto outside of Wealthsimple, that’s no problem. You can safely transfer your Amp to your Wealthsimple account in just a few taps.

Other cryptos to explore

More info about Amp

Want to take a deeper dive? Check out these articles about Amp and the world of crypto.

Explore all articles on Crypto

Ready to get started?

Download the Wealthsimple Trade app, create your account, and start trading Amp with just $1. It’s that simple.

By clicking “Create account”, you agree to Wealthsimple’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

FAQs

Blockchain payments are secure but slow, and transactions can take several minutes or even days to settle. That’s too slow for using crypto at the supermarket. It’s inconvenient to wait for the transaction to go through – you’d be better off using cash – and vendors don’t want to take on the risk that you leave the shop, only for your transaction to fail a few days later.

Amp is a cryptocurrency that is designed to mitigate this kind of risk for crypto payments. Whenever you make, say, a Bitcoin payment through the Flexa network, a payments network built by the creators of AMP, your transaction is collateralized by an equivalent amount of AMP. With the added security of the Amp securing the Bitcoin, the transaction is settled instantly, meaning the vendor doesn’t lose out if your Bitcoin transaction fails a couple of hours later. The result, theoretically, is that you can shop with crypto without any inconvenience.

As of March 14, 2022, there are 42 billion AMP tokens in circulation. That’s out of a total supply of 100 billion. The supply is fixed and non-inflationary. According to data from FSInsight, all of the token’s supply will be in circulation by 2045. When Amp launched, the protocol earmarked 25% of the supply for funding integration with merchants, and a further 25% for developer grants. The team kept 20%, a further 20% was sold in a token sale and a final 10% was reserved for network development.

You can use Amp to collateralize crypto payments made using the Flexa network, the payments system created by Flexa, the inventors of Amp. You can stake Amp to secure the network and earn rewards, hold the token to speculate on its price, or use the token for purposes of governance to influence the parameters on which the token operates.

Yep! When you open a Wealthsimple Crypto account, you can get started with anywhere from $1 to $1,500 instantly.

Generally speaking, the CRA treats cryptocurrencies as a commodity. Here’s what they say:

Any income from transactions involving cryptocurrency is generally treated as business income or as a capital gain, depending on the circumstances. Similarly, if earnings qualify as business income or as a capital gain then any losses are treated as business losses or capital losses.

Always keep solid records of any Amp transactions. If you use Wealthsimple Crypto to buy or sell cryptocurrencies, we’ll generate some of those tax documents for you.

Amp’s current market cap is 1,080,861,834.

The current price for Amp in Canadian dollars is $0.01.

Buying Amp with Wealthsimple is, well, simple. The first thing you need to do is open and fund a Crypto account in the Wealthsimple Trade app. You can connect your bank account and add up to $1,500 instantly.

From there, follow these steps: 1. Tap the magnifying glass icon in the top right corner of your screen 2. Type in Amp 3. Tap Buy 4. Enter the dollar value of cryptocurrency you'd like to buy and tap Continue 5. Review the order details and tap Confirm order

You can choose between two different order types when buying Amp. A market order lets you buy or sell crypto immediately at the best available price at the time. A limit order lets you buy or sell crypto at a specific price or better.

You can withdraw funds from the cash balance in your Crypto account and move those funds to your bank account. Withdrawals typically take around 2 - 3 business days.

A crypto wallet — often called a “hot wallet” — is a location for holding crypto “on-chain” (i.e. linked to the blockchain versus off-chain cold storage.) Many users use wallet applications to help them manage their blockchain addresses, since each chain uses its own addresses.