How to Set Up Automatic Recurring Bitcoin Purchases on River

A weekly $100 Bitcoin purchase made consistently from June 2023 to June 2025 turned $10,300 into $22,524. That's a 119% gain achieved not through brilliant market timing, but through the unsexy discipline of showing up every week regardless of price.

River, a Bitcoin-only exchange founded by Alex Leishman, has built its recurring purchase feature around this principle. After an initial seven-day period where standard fees apply (1.2% for purchases under $250,000), all recurring buys become completely free. No transaction fees, no spread markup.

Here's how to set it up and make the most of it.

Setting Up Your First Recurring Buy

The process is straightforward. After creating and verifying your River account, you'll navigate to the recurring orders section. The platform offers six frequency options: hourly, daily, weekly, bi-weekly, 1st and 15th of each month, or monthly.

Choose your amount and frequency based on your budget, not your market predictions. The whole point of dollar-cost averaging is removing the temptation to time the market. If you get paid bi-weekly, set your purchase for the day after payday. If you want maximum smoothing of price volatility, daily or even hourly purchases spread your exposure across more data points.

One practical detail: River pays approximately 3.8% interest on idle cash balances (paid in Bitcoin), with no lock-up period. This means you can deposit a larger sum and let your recurring buys draw from it over time, earning yield while you wait.

The Supercharged Feature

In December 2025, River introduced what they call "supercharged" recurring buys. The concept is simple: when Bitcoin's price drops 1% or more below its moving average at the time of your scheduled purchase, your buy automatically increases by a preset multiplier.

You can set this multiplier to 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% of your base order. So if you normally buy $100 weekly and choose the 100% multiplier, you'd purchase $200 worth during qualifying dips.

This feature has no additional fees. It's an interesting twist on traditional dollar-cost averaging, essentially automating the "buy more when it's cheaper" impulse that most people fail to execute consistently due to fear.

The tradeoff is obvious: you need to maintain a larger cash buffer to cover potential supercharged purchases, and you're making a bet that short-term dips below the moving average represent buying opportunities rather than the beginning of sustained declines.

What About Withdrawals?

River offers one month of free withdrawals after setting up recurring purchases. After that, standard network fees apply. For long-term holders who plan to withdraw to self-custody periodically rather than with every purchase, this is reasonable. If you're planning frequent small withdrawals, factor network fees into your calculations.

The Case For and Against This Approach

The behavioral argument for automated recurring purchases is strong. Most retail investors underperform simple buy-and-hold strategies because they buy when prices are high (when headlines are positive) and sell when prices are low (when fear dominates). Automation removes you from that emotional cycle.

The counterargument: you're paying a premium for discipline you could theoretically exercise yourself. During the first seven days, you're paying 1.2% fees. And while zero fees afterward sounds great, you should verify River's spread on execution compared to other platforms. "Zero fee" doesn't always mean "best price."

There's also platform risk to consider. River is a Bitcoin-only exchange that raised $12 million in VC funding as of 2021. That focus is either a feature (specialization) or a limitation (no diversification options), depending on your perspective. Either way, any Bitcoin held on an exchange rather than in self-custody carries counterparty risk.

Making Your Decision

River's recurring purchase feature is well-designed for its intended purpose: helping people accumulate Bitcoin consistently without overthinking it. The zero-fee structure after the initial week, the flexible frequency options, and the supercharged feature during dips create a compelling package for long-term accumulators.

The question isn't whether this is better than trying to time the market (it almost certainly is for most people). The question is whether it fits your specific situation: your income schedule, your risk tolerance, your preference for self-custody versus convenience, and your confidence in River as a counterparty.

Set it up, forget about checking prices daily, and let time do the work. That's the whole theory. Whether it plays out depends on Bitcoin's long-term trajectory, which no automation feature can guarantee.