Set crypto price alerts to know when to buy and sell

The prices on ether, bitcoin and other popular cryptos are constantly fluctuating – the valuation you see in the morning probably won’t be the price you see in the evening. Whether that’s a good thing depends on whether you buy and sell – and when you do it.

As a buyer, you want to buy crypto coins or tokens during a dip – when the value of an asset has decreased. As a seller, you want to liquidate crypto assets when they are at their peak. To optimal success in crypto trading, you need to be aware of the price of your crypto at all times. Even if you only have a few hundred dollars in crypto, you still want to know when the price rises or falls.

Enter crypto price alerts. Websites, apps, and Twitter bots let you quickly set up price alerts to alert you when a coin hits a certain price target or changes in value by a certain percentage—helping you know when to buy and sell.

How to set up crypto price alerts. For more information, discover our best crypto exchanges and best crypto and bitcoin wallets.

What are different types of crypto price alerts?

A typical price alert allows you to receive alerts whenever a particular cryptocurrency goes below or above a price target. For example, you can receive an alert when ether goes below $1000, in case you want to buy at a lower price.

You can also set a price threshold option. For example, you can set a threshold of 20% to trigger a price alert when a particular coin increases by 20% (eg from $1000 to $1200) or decreases by 20% (eg from 1000 to 800 dollars).

And you can use a price tracker to see the price of a coin at specific time intervals. Twitter has a bot that tweets out the price of ethereum every 15 minutes. If you have enabled alerts for that profile, you will receive general price alerts every 15 minutes.

Why do I need crypto price alerts?

The cryptocurrency market is volatile and prices change by the second, depending on factors such as supply and demand, stock exchange availability, regulations and more. A random tweet from a billionaire can drastically change the price of your coin at any time of the day or night.

Because of these fluctuations, it is important to stay on top of crypto prices, especially if you want to invest in a coin or already own coins and want to sell them. Of course, knowing the current price doesn’t always help you know where it will go next, but at least you have a number to compare to the price it was last year, month or week – or yesterday.

How do I set up crypto price alerts?

The best way to schedule your own crypto price alert is through sites like Cryptocurrency Alerting and Coinwink, which allow you to pick a coin, set a threshold, and choose who to alert and how.

On cryptocurrency notification, you can choose the following:

• Notification type: Choose how you want to receive notifications: email, text message, push notification, phone call or web browser.
• Coin/Token: Choose your cryptocurrency — ethereum, bitcoin, tether, dogecoin or tens of thousands of others.
• Threshold: Choose whether you want a notification when the price goes up above or under a specific point.
• Price: Enter the specific price to trigger the alert.
• Currency: Select the target for your price alert: US dollars, a foreign fiat currency (such as the euro), or crypto (such as Bitcoin).
• Platform: Choose an exchange platform like Coinbase, Binance or FTX for crypto price data.

Once you’ve selected your metrics, click or tap Set notice and create a free account to start receiving crypto price alerts.

Cryptocurrency Alerting has dedicated apps for the App Store (iOS) and Play Store, which can provide you with price alert push notifications directly through your mobile device’s operating system.

A simpler option for crypto price alerts is Coinwink, which pulls data from the Binance-owned data site CoinMarketCap. Unlike Cryptocurrency Alerting, Coinwink does not require you to create an account to receive price alerts. All you need to do is:

• Choose how you want to be notified (email or text message)
• Select the coin you want to track
• Enter your email or phone number
• Enter the threshold price you want to trigger an alert

You can also choose to be notified when a price increases or decreases by a certain percentage. Use the switch at the top right to switch from price-based to percentage-based alerts. Hit Create alert when are you finished.

Do any of my crypto apps offer price alerts?

Most popular exchange platforms offer built-in features on their apps and websites that send you push notifications when the price of a cryptocurrency changes.

For example, with Binance you can search for a cryptocurrency, press “Alert” at the bottom, and select an alert type (eg a price rises above a certain threshold), a price, and the frequency for which you want to receive alerts.

In Coinbase, you can receive daily alerts for all coins you have purchased in the past, as well as coins you currently own. However, you cannot choose the parameters of these price alerts – you will receive them based on what Coinbase deems important (eg a significant drop).

Robinhood allows you to receive alerts for 52-week highs or lows. If the price of a coin reaches its highest or lowest point in the last year, you will receive an alert.

And in mobile payment services like Venmo and Cashapp, both of which now support cryptocurrency, you can set percentage price movement alerts for cryptos like bitcoin.

Every exchange platform will have some form of price alert. Explore the app or website settings to enable them, if they are not already enabled automatically.

Check prices with trackers and Twitter bots

Apart from price alerts, you can easily track the price of any cryptocurrency using websites and social media. Time NextAdvisor (owned by Red Ventures, which is also CNET’s parent company) has dynamic price tracking pages for both BTC and ETH that include historical data, 24-hour highs and lows, daily trading volume, and market cap data.

On Twitter you will find dozens, if not hundreds of bots tracking the price of ethereum. @Ethereum8Newsmade of @totigm8tweets out the price of ETH every 15 minutes, pulling data from Binance. @Bitcoin8News do the same for bitcoin, and @BNB8News tracks binancecoin. You can find other tracker bots by searching your coin name plus “price tracker” or “updates”.

If you follow any crypto price tracking accounts on Twitter, you can tap the notification icon at the top right of their profile pages to receive notifications whenever the bots send out tweets.

For more, learn how to protect your crypto coins and tokens from being stolenand see How the US government might regulate crypto in the future.