When you live in a country like Venezuela with a lot of controls, barriers, and restrictions, taking out your cryptos and converting them to fiat might seem to be a difficult task. Fortunately, it is not. This task is easy but it needs several steps in order to be done properly in the most efficient way. This process is thought to obtain the maximum gain so that you don’t lose a lot of money in the process. It also serves as a huge crypto use case that is helping many people within economically struggling countries like Venezuela.
FROM WALLET TO EXCHANGE
If you have your cryptos stored in a wallet, whether it is a cold, a hardware, or a hot wallet, you must transfer the funds to your favorite exchange for the corresponding cryptocurrency. I personally use Binance and Bittrex and have had a great experience overall with deposits and withdrawals. Remember, it doesn’t matter what cryptocurrency you have as long as your exchange accepts deposits from it.
A SMALL COIN SWAP – THOUGHT TO REDUCE FEES
Before you proceed you must check if your cryptocurrency is tradeable with BTC (in most of the cases, it will be). Then you must sell your cryptos in exchange for Bitcoin and finally buy XRP (Ripple) with those Bitcoins.
In my case, I do the following:
- Move TRX to Binance/Bittrex
- Exchange TRX for BTC
- Buy XRP
So, why buy Ripple? Firstly, because it’s a fast and secure coin with small transaction fees. But the main reason is because it is supported by Uphold, a platform that I will use later on as I will soon show you. Maybe Tron can get added to Uphold one day. That will make it much easier for us using TRX.
MOVING ON TO UPHOLD
Uphold is a platform to buy and sell currencies easily, so it works like an exchange as well. Uphold offers instant swaps from 23 fiat currencies, 9 digital currencies, 4 commodities, and 7 cryptocurrencies. Another positive thing is that transfers between Uphold users are totally free.
One of the options presented on Uphold is to add your favorite cryptocurrency. In this case, you are going to use Ripple as the coin swap costs less. Once added, you can then choose Add Funds with Cryptocurrency and select XRP. Finally, you can complete the withdrawal process from your particular exchange to Uphold.
After receiving your funds, you then choose Use Funds and transfer between your cards. Because my currency (Bolívares) is not available, I choose USD card and the swap is done real-time. You can see your funds reflected on the other card instantly. You now have more investment options, more traditional currencies to choose from, and you can withdraw to your bank according to the following information:
Where does Uphold offer bank account funding and withdrawals?
Direct bank account funding and withdrawals are currently offered to Uphold members in the following countries:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States and United Kingdom*.
This process is fairly simple and has taken no longer than 5 minutes. Nonetheless, it mostly depends on how fast the deposit and withdrawal process is made.
AN EXTRA STEP TO WIN AGAINST THE SYSTEM
I will introduce you to the last platform called AirTM which works similar to Localbitcoins. AirTM is a peer to peer transaction network where you can deposit your funds from more than 200 payment methods. After depositing your funds, they can be withdrawn using these 200 payment methods. The only requirement is that your Uphold email, or your email from any other platform you use, must match with AirTM’s email. Some transaction fees are quite high but it depends on the payment method. Uphold has one of the lowest fees.
The last option is to sell your cryptocurrencies using Localbitcoins even though AirTM offers you a more automated system.
These options have taken me out of hurries as my national currency called the Bolívar devaluates in drastic percentages each day. In the end, this will take about 10-30 minutes overall, even faster than my national transfers. Cryptocurrencies and platforms like Uphold have helped me develop a savings system and beat all restrictions while protecting myself from the crazy devaluation. For those that say cryptocurrencies do not have a real use case yet, I invite you to come to Venezuela for a few weeks. You will have a drastic change of opinion.
DISCLAIMER: Use the platforms mentioned in this article at your own risk. Tron Spark is not responsible for any lost funds. The information provided is based on my own personal use under the extreme conditions that we are facing and the options available here in Venezuela.
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