Sell Bitcoin for Cash — Same Visit, Cash in Hand

Someone bought Bitcoin years ago, largely forgot about it, and now needs the money for something specific and dated: a deposit, a repair, a tax bill, a business that needs working capital this month. The coins are not the problem. Turning them into money that a landlord or a contractor will accept, by a particular Tuesday, is the problem.

On an exchange that is a chain of waits. Transfer in, wait for it to credit. Sell. Request a withdrawal, wait on the daily limit. Then wait again while the bank decides whether a five-figure crypto payment is something it wants to release. People routinely discover the last step only after they have committed to a date.

At a counter it is one visit. You send the coins, we count the cash, and you leave with it. For amounts above the daily cash limit the money goes out by wire, and because we tell your bank what is coming rather than surprising it, it tends to stay released.

Selling is where the gap between a kiosk and a counter is widest, and it is not really about price.

Most Bitcoin ATMs in California are buy-only. A machine that sells has to hold physical cash, reconcile it against a live price, and dispense it to a stranger, which is a different and far more expensive business than taking notes in. The machines that do sell make you stand there waiting for network confirmations before any cash comes out.

On top of that, state law caps a kiosk at $1,000 per customer per day, and the statute covers what the machine may dispense as well as what it may accept. So even a two-way machine cannot pay you more than $1,000 in a day. That cap does not apply to a staffed business serving you in person. There is a fuller explanation in our guide to the California kiosk rules.

• A government photo ID. Required on every trade, in both directions. We are a registered Money Services Business, not a place that can skip it.
• Access to the wallet holding the coins. You send them at the counter, so you need the device and whatever unlocks it. A wallet you cannot open is the single most common reason a sale does not happen that day.
• A rough idea of the amount. For anything approaching the daily cash limit, or any large sale, call ahead on (888) 811-2646. Cash on hand is a real constraint and an hour's notice usually solves it.
• Bank details, if you want a wire. The receiving account has to be in your own name, or in the name of the entity that owns the coins.

Cash settles at the counter, immediately, up to $50,000 per customer per day. You count it before you leave. That is the whole transaction.

Above the daily cash limit, or when you would simply rather not carry it, the sale settles by bank wire through the OTC desk. You get a quote on the whole position as one number instead of watching an order book fill in pieces, and a named person handles it. Wires sent before the daily cut-off normally arrive the same afternoon; late in the day they land the next morning. What can be executed and when depends on size and timing, so ask when you call and you will get a straight answer rather than an optimistic one.

Every sale produces a printed receipt showing the coins, the rate, the fee and the dollars. Selling Bitcoin is generally a taxable event in the United States, and the paperwork your accountant will want is exactly this. We are not tax advisers and will not pretend otherwise, but we will give you a complete record, which is more than a peer-to-peer buyer with a cash app will do.

That record cuts the other way too. A documented sale through a registered business is the version your bank accepts when it asks where the money came from. An undocumented one is the version that gets an account frozen.

A meaningful share of the people who sell with us came after a peer-to-peer trade went wrong, or nearly did. Meeting someone from an online listing in a parking lot with five figures in cash is how people get robbed, and the trade has no receipt, no counterparty you can find afterwards, and no recourse if the coins move and the cash does not.

If you are weighing that against driving to a counter, the counter is worth the drive. If someone is pressuring you to sell quickly and send the proceeds somewhere, please read the scam awareness guide before you do anything, and call us if you want a second opinion.