How to Purchase IOTA in the US
Overview on how to purchase IOTA in November of 2017 in the US. For the sake of simplicity I am going to use Ethereum (ETH) as an example. Bitcoin (BTC) could also be used here (w/ higher fees).
Create a Coinbase Account (recommend 2-factor authentication)
Create a GDAX Account (owned by Coinbase, same market)
Link a new bank account (Increase your Buy and Sell limits ASAP if necessary)
Transfer funds from linked GDAX account (which now has access to your Coinbase bank account, this will not require any fees! It will take 3-5 business days to transfer.)
Buy ETH using LIMIT/STOP (this allows you to do market orders without fees)
Transfer your cryptocurrency to another exchange where IOTA is traded, such as Binance where you can buy IOTA for ETH (lower fees than BTC). Visit GDAX accounts to withdraw your cryptocurrency from it to a Binance equivalent. This transfer will accrue fees, as it is from one ETH address to another.
Trade ETH for IOTA, it will also accrue ETH fees for each transfer that occurs.
Congratulations you’ve purchased IOTA!
What now?
Generate a seed and store your IOTA seed in a safe place such as in paper form or protected by KeePass. If you lose your seed, you lose your IOTA. I do not recommend storing your IOTA on any exchange for long term.
Learn More
Official IOTA Site
What is IOTA?
Conversion Tools
Slack Channel
Github Organization
For free IOTA to play with visit r/IOTAFaucet
Google Authenticator for 2 factor authentication Android or iOS
IOTA Wallet
Note
This is not the only way to buy IOTA in the US. Hopefully going thoroughly through a real world example helps you understand what you need to do. Especially if you decide to deviate from the above example.