Buy Bitcoin in Person, One Ride From San Francisco
The nearest counter where a person handles the trade with you is ours in downtown San Jose, about an hour south on US-101 or a Caltrain ride to Diridon. The rate and the fee are confirmed with you before you pay, cash trades run to $50,000 a day with ID, and you leave with a receipt and a wallet you control. The city itself is full of corner-store kiosks; what it does not have is a staffed counter.
Do the math before you feed the machine
A kiosk markup of 8–20% on a $2,000 buy is $160 to $400 gone before the coins reach your wallet — and the machine will not even let you do $2,000 in one day. Nationally, kiosk pricing runs around a 16% median markup (Kansas City Fed). Our counter works the other way around: you see the live market quote on screen, approve it, you pay, and the receipt comes from a FinCEN-registered business. The full side-by-side is on the Bitcoin ATM alternative page.
Getting here from the city
Driving, it is a straight run down US-101 South — about an hour to downtown San Jose, with the store just off CA-87 at 28 N Almaden Ave Suite 50. Car-free? Caltrain drops you at San Jose Diridon, a short walk from the counter, which makes us one of the few staffed Bitcoin counters in Northern California you can reach by train. Walk-ins are welcome Monday through Friday, 11 am to 7 pm.
Size trades, without the cash anxiety
Nobody wants to ride back to the city with a backpack of hundreds. For five- and six-figure positions, book the bank wire & OTC desk: the quote is confirmed in advance and settlement normally lands the same day by wire, up to $100,000+. Cashing out instead? The counter pays same-day cash up to $50,000 per day — see sell Bitcoin for cash for how a sale works step by step.
What SF customers ask us
Is there a store in San Francisco itself?
Is the trip really worth it with kiosks on every block?
Do I need an appointment?
Which coins do you trade?
Plan your visit
An hour from the city. A world away from kiosk pricing.
The rate we quote is the rate you pay. Walk-ins welcome at the San Jose store, Mon–Fri 11 am – 7 pm.