What It Really Costs to Turn Crypto Into Cash

People compare providers by the sale fee and then pay most of the cost somewhere else. Here is where it actually sits.

Charge one: the spread

The provider buys your crypto slightly below the market price. That difference is the spread, and it is not shown as a fee because it is built into the price. If you want to see what this looks like in practice, a regulated crypto to fiat gateway sets it out without the jargon.

On a major cryptocurrency through a serious provider it is a few tenths of a percent. Through a consumer app it can be one or two percent.

To measure it, note the market price when you request a quote, then compare against what you are offered. The gap is the spread.

Charge two: the withdrawal fee

What it costs to send the money to your bank. Within Europe, a small flat amount, usually between one and five euros. Internationally, twenty to fifty, because the payment passes through several banks and each takes something.

This one is small and predictable.

Charge three: currency conversion

This is the big one and it only applies if the currency of the sale differs from the currency of your bank account.

The margin on that conversion is usually between half a percent and two percent. On a large sale it dwarfs the other two charges combined. The version of this for larger amounts runs through Collect & Exchange.

The same sale, two ways

Selling the equivalent of fifty thousand euros.

Into a euro account, within Europe: spread of about a hundred and fifty euros, a two euro transfer fee, no conversion. Total around a hundred and fifty-two euros.

Into a dollar account, internationally: the same hundred and fifty euro spread, a thirty-five euro transfer fee, and a conversion margin of maybe six hundred euros. Total around seven hundred and eighty-five.

Identical sale. Five times the cost, entirely because of choices made after the crypto was sold.

The rule that follows

Match the currency. If you are selling through a European provider, have a euro account to receive into. The one-off effort of opening one is repaid on the first meaningful sale.

What to ask before you sell

Which currencies can you pay out in. To which countries. What is the conversion rate if one is needed, and how does it compare with the market rate right now. And what is the transfer fee.

A provider that answers all four immediately is being straightforward with you. One that will not quote the conversion rate before you commit is usually charging more than it wants to say.

Keeping records

Write down, for every sale: the date, the amount of crypto, the price you got, the fees, and the amount that landed in the bank.

In most countries selling crypto is a taxable event and you will need these numbers. Collecting them at the time takes a minute. Reconstructing them a year later takes an afternoon. Compare what you are being offered against a crypto exchange with published fees before deciding anything.