Yea... i was more referring to these coins as oppose to tether.  USDC and GUSD... i mean these are pretty much as safe as you can get for a stablecoin right?  I mean unless gemini gets bankrupt... isn't having GUSD pretty safe?



Yea... so if someone has a million dollars and put it in gemini and buy Gusd for example... well they are going to earn 8.6 percent interest or 86000 usd a year right and they don't have to be concerned of fluctuations... but being custodial... isn't it still safe since well its with gemini?

Well the thing is i heard about tether for years.  People say its not safe... but right now if you have a lot of tether... well you can just sell it for fiat.  I mean... tether has always been around a dollar correct?  I think once saw it a while back at 0.98?  So wouldn't that mean there should be no concern though?

Well Im outside the US now... but im American with a Us bank account.


But these person to person ... are they almost always meetings as you meet the other in person?  Or its mainly ppl communicate via forum and then payment and trade is made like that?


Because for example if there was a way i can go on a forum and trade with someone when there is some escrow service... well that would seem nice.  But if you do that... wouldn't that mean no much profit to be made since you have to pay that escrower?  Also... do ppl who sell btc in these situations... get less than face value or more? 

Thanks for all this information.  So if i want to sell btc for bank transfer to my us bank of america account... which would you recommend from best to worst option?


Coinbase pro

gemini

kraken

bitstamp

binance.us



In terms of fees... which is the cheapest?  Example imagine i want to sell 5k usd worth of btc for fiat bank transfer to my boa account.


I heard bitstamp fees are more expensive to us bank accounts because they only do wire transfers... no ach.  Is that true?  But all the other ones does right?  So which do you use?

Anyone else?


Also if you use coinbase, always make sure you use coinbase pro right?



And thoughts on kraken and bitstamp?  I rarely hear much about these two exchanges with Americans compared to coinbase/gemini.

Yea i know if you lend btc in blockfi... interest is btc and not fiat.


But isn't it better to invest in stablecoin since when you get it... you sell it for fiat?


Example someone with l00,000 dollars and buy stablecoin or usdt of that amount would earn 8600 dollars... that is a ton.

What platforms are reliable?  Im American but im outside the US though. 


Is localbitcoins still reliable are not anymore?  The thing is what is the most common form of payment in these transactions?  Is it still cash?  Or bank transfer?  Or cash deposit in bank?


Because i heard online transfers could be reversed.  So wouldn't the most safe form of accepting payment be having the buyer deposit cash in your bank account?

Do you know how long someone can reverse a zelle payment?  But majority of these scams are actual people using their own bank account and saying zelle was fraudulent?  Or it was more they hacking someones bank account to do this?

I'm curious but are there are any sites where you could sell btc for a higher price than what is shown on coinbase/gemini/kraken/bitstamp?


Back then i recalled people said they used local bitcoins to buy/sell btc and i recall some ppl paid a premium or discount for btc. 


But are there people that are paying one percent or even two percent more for btc nowadays?  Or vice versa?  For example if you sell btc for cash or cash deposit from someone or say bank wire... typically what is the market rate for it?  Is it about even?  Or is the person paying cash paying a premium or paying less?

Im curious but since btc withdraw fee is higher than other coins... are there some of you that trade all your btc for an altcoin like nano or stellar first and withdraw that way because the fee is less?  Thus imagine you have btc on binance and want to send it to coinbase/gemini to cash out to your us bank account.  If you trade it for stellar for example, then you pay a smaller withdraw fee and then just sell stellar on coinbase/gemini?


Or do most ppl avoid this since its another transaction of selling the coin?

Unless you have a good amount of money saved for living expenses, isn't trading a must?  I mean if you invest and hold... but don't have much money in your bank account, well youstill have to pay for expenses.

Is it possible to get shift to one of the big exchanges?  Binance, coinbase etc>

Okay.  But has anyone here gotten the stablecoin and then kept it there for a year... then cashed out?  So someone with I0,000 dollars... put that there... end of year have a l0,860 in stablecoins.  Then immediately sell that l0,860 stablecoins for l0,860 usd fiat?  Then withdraw to their bank?


If thats the case, wouldn't it make sense to do this with bigger amounts?  Again someone with a million dollars could earn 86000 dollars this way a year? 

So someone told me about this site as they buy btc/eth there.  They told me you could get 6 percent as interest if you put btc there.  And around a bit less if its ETH.  But if you have the stablecoin there... you get 8.6%.
I checked the site and see that... but what is the catch here?  I see its not fdic insured by backed by gemini.



So that means if you have one btc... leave it there instead of a wallet... you going to get 0.06 btc by the end of the year?  Do they pay it weekly?  Monthly?  Daily?  And it compounds obviously right?



Now the thing im more curious about is the interest on the balance.  It says you get 8.6%.  First off... you need to convert your btc to the stable coin first?  Or you deposit usd from your bank to blockfi?  So example, let say you want to have I0,000 in the blockfi account.  Then if you keep that amount there for whole year... you get 860 dollars?  So if someone has a million dollars and put it there... you going to earn 86,000 usd in interest?  Or does that interest rate change daily/weekly?  That doesn't make sense since well banks pay you almost nothing for interest... u might one percent at almost if you are lucky.  So what is the catch here?  I read its a stable coin so USDC and GUSD always stays around a dollar right?  I see they offer usdt tether at 9.3%.  This seems ridiculous with the rates since tether is always around a dollar.  So its not like you get interest but say the coin drops down in price... sure you get interest but if the coin drops in price a lot... you actually lose money.



Can someone explain all this?



Because this seems way too good to be true?  I do see its backed by gemini.  But couldn't someone with a million dollars just have that there and make 86000 usd a year?  Like at end of year... sell all that usdc or gusd and converted it to fiat and pay that small fee and thats its?



Because couldnt someone with a decent amount of money in the bank just put their money in blockfi and buy the stablecoin and make interest since theres in fluctuations as compared with altcoins?


But what really shocks me is you getting interest on btc with more btc.  Like if you put a btc there... u get 0.06 btc a year... as oppose to keeping it in a wallet.  Imagine someone had ten btc... then they going to earn
0.6 btc a year risk free?

Is forex a lot harder or easier than crypto trading?  From what i see, it seems like when all coins in crypto goes up... any coin will go up.  The same vice versa.  Is forex similar?

Well my main question is... why aren't all altcoins traded against just fiat... thus usd? 


It doesn't make sense back then when many altcoins... you couldn't trade it directly with fiat... like if you wanted an altcoin, you needed to buy btc first, then buy the altcoin with btc.  And when you sell the altcoin, you need to sell it for btc... then sell it again for fiat in a fiat exchange.  Does that make sense what im asking?


I know binance.com doesn't allow fiat transactions... which just sounds stupid.  Like when you trade, shouldn't everything be traded against fiat?  Theres still lot of coins that could be traded only with usdt which i thought is stupid.

OP, can you tell us how it was like in the bitcointalkforums back ten years ago?  Obviously it is no where like how it is the last few years... but back then, how many btc did you have?



Also people were basically treating btc like nothing much right?  I heard lot of ppl mention how they use to buy btc to use at the online casino and i think they said btc was like a dollar or pennies.  So lot of ppl back then just had hundreds or thousands of btc and basically treated it like it was nothing right?

Hey, are you from the US by the way and located in the US?



I heard of usdc. But that usdc is for binance.com or binance.US?  I assume you mean binance.US?  But what is the purpose of them having usdc?  Is it so ppl who trade for altcoins on binance.com can easily sell it for fiat by sending it to coinbase since coinbase has usdc?  You also mention circle.  I used circle once to make a small withdraw to my bank account a long time ago with no issue.  But after a while, they no longer allowed you to sell btc for fiat anymore.  Circle allows that now or you make mistake here?



So bitstamp and kraken, you say you can use their usdt market but won't honor it for cashouts.  If that is the case... again what would be the purpose of them having the usdt market?  I assume its for ppl who have usdt from other exchanges and then want to convert it to fiat/usd without having to pay double the fees?  Example if you have usdt in say another exchange...u want fiat to your bank account.  Now you need to sell it for btc.  Then send it to fiat exchange and sell it again ... so two fees.  But with bitstamp and kraken allowing selling usdt for fiat... you pay only one fee correct?  So if you plan to use bitstamp/kraken for selling altcoins and also with buy sell btc... wouldn't it make sense to always trade it for usd not never bother with USDT? 



I never understood why exchanges have USDT to begin with.  Is it because they aren't allowed to accept deposits or allow cashouts in fiat?  So that is why binance and bittrex is like that?  Like even back then i thought... why is it you want to buy an altcoin like waves or lisk... you need to first sell the btc for the altcoin.  Then when you want to sell the altcoin for profit... you could only see it for btc... and not directly for usd.


You say

coinbase has USDC and gemini has GUSD. no tether though.


By stablecoins... you don't mean fiat right?  Thus usdc is different from USD on coinbase and gusd is different from usd on gemini?  But what would be the purpose of trading coins in coinbase/gemini for stablecoins since its pretty much equal to a dollar?  It always is right?  So someone who has btc on coinbase or gemini... has option to sell it for usdc/usd or gusd/usd right?  Then again... why would you use a stablecoin?  I always felt tether or usdt is just stupid.  Like why can't everything be in usd as oppose to usdt.  It has to do with the laws right?  Thus thats why binance can't allow you to deposit/cashout fiat? 



That really makes no sense.  How could the top altcoin exchange not processs deposit/withdraws in fiat? 

Hey all got a question.  So a while back when there weren't a ton of coins... main sites like coinbase/gemini etc allow you to buy sell btc/eth/ltc and it would be in FIAT... thus usd where you could cashout etc.  Then there were sites like bittrex which i used which apparently allowed you to trade altcoins... but when you did... it was either trading it for btc... or usdt.  Back then bittrex didn't allow you to cash out via fiat to your usa bank account.  I no longer can use bittrex because they banned my state... even though im abroad.



I then used binance to trade alts and they also did not allow you to cashout fiat to your bank account.  Can others confirm this?  Im talking about binance.com.  So basically for non americans... you use binance only to trade alts back to btc or usdt right?  Now for binance.US users... its only trading btc for altcoins and USDT correct?  There is not USD right as in fiat?



Now back then i recalled... other coins started being allowed to be traded for fiat in coinbase... like ripple, chainlink, dash etc.  Can someone here confirm this?  I recalled there wasn't more than max twenty coins that could be traded via fiat years ago... anyone can confirm this?




When i look at coinmarketcap... i know other exchanges that allow you to deposit/withdraw in fiat like kraken/bitstamp, i was shocked to see certain altcoins like NANO being able to be traded in USD.  Can anyone here confirm you could trade NANO in USD?



I also have waves and binance allows you to trade it in USDT.  But of course that isn't fiat.  But are there exchanges now that allow you to trade waves for fiat now?  Back then... i recall if you wanted waves... you had to trade btc for waves.  Then if you want to sell waves... you couldn't sell it for usdt.... only btc. 



I ask this because when i sell my waves, i obviously would prefer to sell it directly for usd or fiat.  Since if you sell it for btc first, well you going to pay a second fee right when converting the btc to usd?  Thus back then you had to pay two fees when going from many altcoins... to fiat?  Since it would be... sell altcoin for btc... sell btc for fiat?  The same as when you want to buy the altcoin?

Well because im outside the US now... wouldn't there be issue creating a binance.US account since i have a non us ip address?


What about kraken?  What surprised me was i was looking at some altcoins saw nano for example... kraken you could trade it... well at least from what i saw on coinmarketcap and apparently you could buy/sell in actualy USD?  Can anyone confirm this?