Buying cryptocurrency with fiat money is incredibly easy. I went on a quest to find out if exchanging your crypto back to cash would be just as easy...
Being Realistic
Some people like to call me a pessimist, but I prefer to consider myself a realist. In most situations, I think it’s important to consider and prepare for both the best and the worst outcome.
This is not different for my cryptocurrency investments. Up until now I’ve been quite lucky and have been able to turn a relatively small investment into a huge profit. (I use the word ‘lucky’ deliberately, because I have no technical background myself. I just keep my eyes an ears open and base my investments on other people’s analysis reports.)
A Bubble Or Not A Bubble, That’s The Question
And if it does, I want to make sure I can get out as soon as possible.
That’s why I decided to do some research on how easy or difficult it would be to convert my profits into Euro again. Just in case ...
Like I said: I like to be prepared.
A Bumpy Road
My first idea was to turn to Coinbase. After all, that’s where it all started for me. But after reading litterally dozens of complaints about withdrawing on Coinbase, I started looking for other opportunities.
Most of my portfolio I filled with fiat money, so I’m not very familiar with exchanges. I use them like three times a year or so.
I checked out a couple of those exchanges, but noticed pretty fast I would be selling my Bitcoin for a price that would be much lower than the market price. Also, since I rarely use them, I would first have to go through the account validation process, which would take an awful lot of time. For example: Bitfinex makes clear that it could take up to 20 days to process the verification. Because of the volatility of cryptocurrencies, a lot can happen in 20 days...
So I visited a couple of other exchanges and submitted the requested verification documents here and there - just in case. There was not a single one where I would receive an amount of Euro that was close to the actual price of Bitcoin.
After reading loads of reviews and Reddit articles I came to the conclusion that none of all those sites could be trusted completely.
Buying cryptocurrencies is easy as 1-2-3, but for selling them, options appear to be very limited.
The Test
I actually ended back on Coinbase. Since my bank account has been connected to their services for more than a year, I decided to give it a try, in spite of all the negative reviews. I had moved all my cryptos to my hardware wallets before the first Bitcoin hard forks, but to my big surprise I still had a little over €60 worth of Bitcoin in my account.
I used that amount to perform the test, and I requested a withdrawal to my bank account. Coinbase told me the funds would be completely transferred on Thursday, so all I can do is wait and see if they deliver.
Conclusion
To be honest, i am a bit shocked about how easy it is to get in, but how difficult (not to mention expensive) it appears to be to get out.
It shouldn’t be like that, and I think it’s important to share this information with people who are considering investing in crypto.