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learnhns

Archive Notice: This documentation was originally published by Namebase (closed June 2026) and is preserved by the LearnHNS community. Pages may reference services that no longer exist — see current guides at /start/ or SkyInclude's wind-down explainer.

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Buy Handshake coins (HNS)

In order to acquire Handshake names, you’ll need to first purchase Handshake coins (HNS).

Info Namebase is closed (June 2026). The sections below describe current ways to acquire HNS. Tutorial: Liquidity Spot on SkyInclude.

Option 1: Liquidity Spot (P2P, BTC ↔ HNS)

Liquidity Spot is a decentralized person-to-person trading platform built for the Handshake ecosystem. It supports experimental atomic swaps between HNS and Bitcoin — useful when centralized exchanges have thin liquidity.

  1. Download Bob Wallet and create a wallet.
  2. Visit liquidity.spot and browse open offers.
  3. Complete a trade and confirm HNS arrives in your Bob Wallet.

See the full walkthrough at skyinclude.com/blog/liquidity-spot/.

Option 2: Centralized exchanges

As of mid-2026, these exchanges still list HNS:

ExchangeURL
CoinExhttps://www.coinex.com/
MEXChttps://www.mexc.com/

Warning Gate.io and Namebase no longer list HNS. Always verify an exchange still supports HNS before depositing funds.

General CEX workflow

  1. Create an account on CoinEx or MEXC and complete any required verification.
  2. Deposit funds (USDT, BTC, or another supported asset).
  3. Trade for HNS on the spot market.
  4. Withdraw HNS to your own wallet — we recommend Bob Wallet. Never leave large balances on an exchange long-term.

Option 3: OTC / community

The Handshake Telegram community sometimes facilitates over-the-counter trades. Exercise caution, use escrow when possible, and prefer established P2P platforms like Liquidity Spot when you can.

Historical: Buy HNS with BTC on Namebase

Warning The content below is preserved from the original Namebase documentation. Namebase.io is offline and these steps no longer work.

Namebase previously let users send BTC to convert into HNS credits. That service closed in June 2026. If you still have assets on Namebase, see SkyInclude’s wind-down guide for withdrawal instructions that were published before shutdown.