Looking to sell bitcoin (BTC) without getting ripped off? While you might be able to sell quickly on sites like Coinbase, you won’t be able to sell your bitcoin at the real exchange rate (i.e., the mid-market rate). In this guide, I’m going to summarise the process of how you can easily sell bitcoin in the UK and get the best possible price.
Remember: I’m not a financial adviser. Check out my full disclaimer here.
AN OVERVIEW
In essence, the best option (for most people) is to reverse the process detailed in my ‘Buy Bitcoin Cheaply in the UK’ guide. This allows you sell your bitcoin at the best possible price, as you’ll be selling at the real bitcoin exchange rate (i.e., mid-market rate) and paying only €0.15 in fees. Here’s a summary of the process:
- Transfer your bitcoin to GDAX.
- Sell your bitcoin on the BTC/EUR market on GDAX (using a limit sell order).
- Withdraw your euros from GDAX to your Revolut EUR account.
- Exchange euros in Revolut to sterling (at the real exchange rate, instantly).
- Transfer funds from GBP Revolut account to UK bank account.
If you want a detailed walkthrough of this process, check out the end of my original post here.
REQUIREMENTS
Before you can complete the process, there are a few things you’ll need to sort out.
1. GET YOURSELF A VERIFIED REVOLUT ACCOUNT
Revolut is a mobile banking application on your smartphone. It’s free to setup and allows you to exchange between currencies at the real exchange rate (i.e., mid-market rate). This only applies to the first £5000 which is converted every month. Regardless, that’s a pretty sweet deal (the second best option would be something like TransferWise). SEPA transfers are also free of charge.You’ll need this to:
- Receive your euros from GDAX.
- Convert from euros to sterling (at the real exchange rate).
2. ACTIVATED YOUR REVOLUT EUR ACCOUNT
To receive EUR funds from GDAX, you’ll need to activate your EUR account in Revolut. This will create a EUR account in your name with a personal IBAN. Follow these steps:
- Open the Revolut app.
- On the Revolut home screen, click the small icon in the top left corner of the screen (Accounts).
- Select EUR account.
- Select ‘Activate’.
Failing that, check out this post.
3. VERIFIED GDAX ACCOUNT
GDAX is owned by Coinbase. If you already have a verified account with Coinbase, the signup process just requires you to confirm the details you already added to Coinbase. If you don’t have a Coinbase account, check out this guide. If you don’t want to use GDAX, then you could use Bitstamp or Kraken.You’ll need a verified account with a cryptocurrency exchange which offers BTC to EUR pairs so that you can sell your bitcoin. I’ve confirmed that this process works with GDAX, Bitstamp, or Kraken.
4. PREVIOUSLY TRANSFERRED EUR TO GDAX
Before most cryptocurrency exchanges allow you to withdraw funds to an account, you’ll need to send a few euros to them. If you haven’t already done this, you should check out this guide.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
ADVANTAGES
- Cheapest method to sell bitcoin.
- Get the real EUR to GBP exchange rate.
- Low exchange withdrawal fees (GDAX/Bitstamp)
- Works with GDAX, Bitstamp, and Kraken.
- Only have to verify identity through two companies (Revolut and GDAX/Bitstamp).
DISADVANTAGES
- You can send, spend, withdraw, and exchange (in a non-GBP currency) the first £5000 for free every month.
- After that, you pay a 0.5% fee on cross-currency transactions.
- By default, Revolut will probably give you a £25k transfer limit.
- Withdrawing from GDAX to Revolut is not instant (it uses SEPA).
- It’ll probably take 24-48 hours for the transfer to complete.
- Payments won’t be processed outside of working hours (Mon-Fri).
- Revolut is a smartphone app. No desktop version available.
LAST WORDS
- Share this post with those it could help (see below).
- Get a hardware wallet like the Ledger Nano S.
- Find useful resources and tools.
- How to keep your cryptocurrency funds safe.
ANYTHING TO ADD?
Did I miss something? Or did I make a mistake? Let me know in the comments below or tweet me!