2021 is the year of the Ox according to the Chinese calendar. That sounds about right, as the bullrun has been raging since Q4 last year. But all things come to an end, and sooner than later, the time to exit the market will come, before it takes everything back from you. To sell is the hardest thing, but once you’ve done it, then comes the moment to actually cash out to FIATs and withdraw your funds to your bank account.

Surprisingly, even now, the difference between how easy you can enter or “on-ramp” the crypto world by purchasing crypto assets, and how tedious it can be to get out or “off-ramp” is astounding. The lack of transparency regarding the on/off ramping process, can be a deterrent for potential new users, as they just won’t join the crypto party the first place if they don’t feel confident about being able to get in and out easily. But let’s not get too dramatic and start by reviewing the current off-ramp options that crypto asset owners currently have at their disposal these days.

Aside from Mooni, there are mainly 3 ways a person can either withdraw to their bank or spend their cryptos by converting them immediately to FIATs:

  • Crypto Debit Cards
  • Crypto ATMs
  • Centralized Exchange (CEX) withdrawals

Instantly convert & spend using Crypto Debit Cards

There are plenty of crypto cards around these days whether standalone, or linked to an exchange, Binance, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Wirex, Plutus, Swipe, Strike, Bankera, TenX, you name it. It appears to be the easier option for brokers wanting to offer additional services to their users. One of those cards doesn't charge fees, but you need to trust with your assets the guy who wanted to roll-back the Bitcoin blockchain... I'll give you a hint; He's Chinese.

Out of all these debit card service providers, the  closest to our philosophy would probably be our folks at Monolith, as they’re the only ones who built a non-custodial solution.

An elegant yet incomplete solution

However crypto cards aren’t suited for every situation of life, as not every "real life" merchant accepts debit cards. They’re also very limited in terms of which cryptocurrencies are supported, and eventually you’ll have to make a bank transfer, for which a card won’t help. So it’s a simple and convenient thing to have, but it won’t suffice.

Withdraw cash using Crypto ATMs

Cash may be more attractive for some people, yet ATMs aren’t really a convenient option for most people as they’re far from being mainstream to the point where you most likely have one in your neighborhood. They’re pretty rare unless you live in a metropolis, and fees can be quite high, usually above 5%, and they only support a few cryptocurrencies as well.

Would you like some Vaseline served with your 9% fees ?

Cryptos to FIATs using Centralized Exchange (CEX)

This is naturally the best option that gets you covered from all angles. Have some FIATs sent to your actual bank account so you can spend it the way you want to. Unfortunately there is a catch. You need to give the CEX you’re using to cash out, the custody of your assets, and you’re forced to go through a horrendous KYC process meaning you’re also letting them store your private data. But you may ask yourself:

So what ? I don't see the problem. Funds are SAFU ! Right ?

Wrong.

Oh and also this...

For the 50th time... but "Funds are SAFU" they said...

and this...

On the top of that, CEXs only list coins or tokens after a certain time and under certain conditions (aka, most likely not your favorite shitcoin launched on Uniswap last month). Major CEX listings are expensive so if you’re into low cap DeFi projects, you’ll probably have to convert your cryptos into a more common one before sending it on the CEX and sell it there to cash out FIATs.

Mooni's disruptive approach to the Off-Ramp problem

Not trying to blatantly self promote here, and don’t get me wrong, all these options mentioned above work, but they have their limitations and I pointed them out. Now what if there was a solution that does it all? A solution that demands from you neither the custody of your crypto assets, nor to need to store your private data, nor your credentials, while letting you immediately sell almost any cryptocurrency you own in order to receive FIATs in your existing bank account. All of this in a single step process that takes you less than a minute and that supports almost any ERC-20 token ? What if such an option existed ?

At Mooni, we wish we found such solution. But we didn’t. So instead we built it, and now, we’re sharing it.

Give it a try, and then tell us if you still prefer prefer to take selfies with your passport.

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