Yeah stable coins are the way to go. Robinhood is a good exchange to buy crypto, i have heard people having bad experiences with crypto.com for a few different things and say its a pain in the ass, but do not have experience with them myself. There are a couple of hot wallets you can use, alot of people say exodus is good. The wallet i use lets me convert coins for like $5, which is good because i cant buy USDT on robinhood. Some chinese vendors only accept USDT and not USDC, so its useful having the convert feature for me. Also, if a vendor needs to refund you for anything, they will refund you in the exact amount of bitcoin you sent, and over weeks the value of bitcoin can drop alot. But primal accepts USDC through email (i think the site is set up only for bitcoin) and the transfer fee is like 60 cents or something like that, way cheaper than bitcoin losses. Some people dont want to deal with the hassel of learning about hot wallets, but over many orders those bitcoin gas fees and money lost to volatility add up very quick. And eventually you will have to, because cashapp or paypal will eventually suspend your account. Any crypto you have in your account you will have to fight to get back and will take a little while. It might be a pain in the ass learning about hot wallets now, but will save you a much bigger headache later. Once you have the process down, it is simple and you should have it down after your first transaction. Youtube is your friend