How To Cash Out Your Crypto to Dollars

How to “cash out” of your bitcoin or cryptocurrency to dollars

At some point, you are going to want to take some of your profit from your investment into cryptocurrency. The most common question I get at the Bitcoin Chick sites is “How do I get the cash back out?”
Think of it just like regular currency, in the sense that you have the same options.

Sell your coins and take profit
Go to a Bitcoin ATM and withdraw cash from your coin wallet
Apply for a Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ethereum debit card
Sell them peer-to-peer

Let’s discuss how you would execute each of these options.

Sell your coins and take profit
If you have a wallet like Coinbase, which the majority of people in the US and Canada have, you simply would need to attach a bank account to your wallet (side note: this takes about a week to 7 business days to get verified through your bank, so you’ll want to plan ahead). Alternatively, you can send bank wires through sites like Coinbase and Gemini.

Personally, I recommend setting up a secondary account to buy and sell coins to. This is for your own protection. It is not required, and is generally considered safe to connect it to a checking or savings account, but who knows what hackers are capable of, so this is why I recommend a secondary account.

After your account is ready, you will go into Coinbase and add a method of payment. It is similar to Paypal where they will send two small transactions that you will need to verify the exact amounts they give you.

After this process has been verified, and you have received the verification emails that you are set up, you are ready to “sell” your coins. You would go into the “Accounts” tab and select your coin that you want to sell. Next you would go to the “Sell” tab, and enter the amount of your local currency that you wish to sell. Verify the amount is correct, and complete the process.
Your coin sell-off amount will be sent to your bank account.

Bitcoin ATMs
Coinatmradar.com is both a website and an app that allows you to locate the nearest Bitcoin ATMs. Although the list is steadily growing, with Bitcoin fees insanely high at the time of this post, many ATMs are pulling out due to unhappy customers, rightfully so. This will likely open the ATMs to serving multiple cryptocurrencies soon like Litecoin and probably Ethereum. Just know that at the moment, you will be paying very high fees to withdraw or deposit through ATMs. We are hopeful this problem will be remedied soon. Be sure to watch a few tutorials on YouTube prior to going to the ATM so you know what to expect, where your QR code is located, etc.
Apply for a crypto debit card
There are many debit cards popping up for debit functions right from your crypto wallet with Visa. In the US Bitpay is one of the top cards used by people, but know that you must fund your wallet with $100 prior to being able to use it. With the fees, you must consider that amount when you do your first transfer. Be sure to read all of the ins and outs of whatever card you opt to use. Many cards like Wirex are far superior in rating, but they do not service the US. We are noticing a pattern that…well, to be frank, no one wants to do business with the United States.

Litecoin has a card as well, with plans for a second card in 2018 and with the speedy transactions that cost literally pennies, it seems to be a far better option at the time of this posting. With the Exodus Wallet, you can literally sell your bitcoins into Litecoins right from your wallet, and connect them to your debit card. As time progresses and more adopters of cryptos come onboard, we will see much improvement in this space, however for now, there are limited options until new companies come on board.

Sell them person-to-person
This option is slightly riskier, but we recommend going to a bitcoin meetup and transacting with other crypto-enthusiasts. Several major cities have bitcoin meet-ups now where it is a safe environment to buy/sell coins right from your phones from other people who are early adopters such as yourself. It’s a great way to learn as well.

The other way to buy/sell directly is to use a service like localbitcoins.com. It uses a “rating” for users, much like ebay or Amazon sellers. The higher the rating a seller receives, the more “good” transactions and the more likely you will have a great experience transacting. There are also other options like escrow.com, where a similar transaction takes places, and the funds are placed in escrow from USD, and released upon payment.

As the crypto space grows over the next two years, we will see it becoming easier and easier to transact. As with all new ideas and concepts, there are little bugs to work through to enhance the experience. Think of it as you did when the internet was introduced, or online banking setup. It takes a bit to grasp the concepts, but once you do them a couple times, it gets easier and easier.

A note of caution, for the newbies, start small and make small transactions first as your “tests.” Just like the first time you tried online banking, there is a bit of a learning curve. Once you begin to navigate your way around, you’ll be teaching all of your friends in no time.