Find a reputable exchange that will exchange it, or a retailer that accepts bitcoin and buy stuff. Drinks are definately on you though...
You'll need to sign up for an exchange like GDAX, Coinbase, or CEX. You'll also need to go through extended verification under AML (anti money laundering) and KYC (know your customer) regulations, especially 'cos it's above £10K. Alternatively, you could sell it on LocalBitcoins - but be super, super careful doing that, 'cos people will try to rip you off. Whatever you do, don't accept anything reversible - i.e. PayPal or the like - 'cos people will take the irreversible Bitcoins and run.
No worries. Oh, one more tip: open a new bank account with someone like Revolut, Monzo, or Fidor, because when £17K from a cryptocurrency exchange hits it your account will be frozen until you can prove the origin of the funds, and you don't want that to happen to your main account...
Jesus, well done! I thought you had no hope! I am using Coinbase, getting fiat off it is a bit of a faff and they may limit your withdrawals because you must identify yourself (I assume this is because of financial rules and net police in case you are a criminal or terrorist, anti money laundering etc). You will need some ID and a bank account that can send and accept euros (most normal UK bank accounts do), coinbase does not send GBP sterling. Get an account on coinbase, they can verify your ID with a photo of it. Next in the Coinbase account setup a payment to them in EUR and send a payment to them from your account (not a third party like transferwise) using the details they provide, once they receive the payment they will verify the sending bank account details for withdrawals. Then you can transfer some or all of your bitcoin to coinbase, exchange them to EUR (not GBP) and then withdraw the EUR to your bank account, your bank will exchange it back to GBP. The coinbase site will tell you what your limits are and the fees, your bank will also have fees for the transfer and maybe the receipt too although the EURGBP rate should be excellent. It might take a couple of weeks to do the lot plus the fees. I have heard that the few bitcoin cash machines scattered around also will buy your bitcoin and dispense cold hard cash if you want to look into that, good luck finding one regardless of whether it has £17k in it or not! Not sure what the rates or fees are. Another option which I have not tried is to use a site called localbitcoins, its like bitcoin gumtree where individuals exchange bitcoin for fiat directly either in person or via dm rates should be preferable and low fees. I have not used it because it sounds very risky, you might just get blagged. If you do this do not send any bitcoin until you have received payment, either cash or a non-reversible bank transfer, sellers often ask the buyers for copies of their ID to protect themselves too. Having said all this, I may be keen buy some, a few of the others expressed interest in the sale forum too, the same risks would apply as localbitcoin in that case, although I like to think we are a marginally more trustworthy bunch than that lot. Bitcoin transfers are very slow at the moment too, something to watch out for.
Luckily I was already intending to use a Monzo current account (savings pots rolled out to the Android beta branch this week, so good timing too).
So i received a email a couple days ago from Coinbase saying they upped my weekly limit to 750 from 500... i wanted to put in my limit and bam, logged in and for some horrible, horrible, horrible, issue my allowance was also reset going up by £1 a minute. Absolutely furious. Joined Revolut however i have a couple issues... They don't let you hold your own private keys They aren't insured against loss They could just go 'bankrupt' and disapear you can't transfer the crypto into one of your hardware wallets/other (going completely against what Bitcoin was basically built for Every-time i deposit to the service my bank throws up a fraud warning (phoned my bank 5 times tonight just to authorise my limit -> this isn't Revoluts fault though They allow you to use your card to deposit cash but not your bank account but it works in reverse? confusing Their community forum is full of displeased customers I also have information to believe they don't have permanent offices, they rent office space (kinda sketchy considering the size and nature of the company?) Now i've listed my issues its unfair to list the positives so They supply pre-paid cards so converting BTC/ETH/LTC into GBP and withdrawing your profits/cash should be easy. It's very easy to sign up for an account and start depositing a limited amount of cash £400 withdraw a month is free if your a premium member you can also have multiple cards and set limits to different cards meaning you can give your partners/kids cash without worrying about spending. They also seem to operate in London so if everything goes sideways and you lose lots of cash, they aren't out of reach. Obviously with the Coinbase antics and not being able to buy crypto allot of people flocked to the service so if you thought the customer service was bad before, imagine it now, hopefully they do something about it with the current increase in custom. They also promise to have cards at your door within 3 business days however delays are expected with the current influx i guess. Good luck with your crypto gains
Not sure what that last bit means, but the weekly limit seems low. Coinbase recently increased my *daily* buy limit to £7,500. Which... well, I just wish I had that kind of cash! Revolut's 'crypto' investment thing seems shady. There's no evidence that they're even investing in Bitcoin, rather than just giving you something which tracks its value. I'd steer clear, but they're already making it easy for me to do that 'cos you have to be a premium member to use it (and I ain't paying a fiver a month) or recommend three friends (and I ain't spamming friends and family to sign up for an account.) So thanks, Revolut, but no thanks.
I just tried to sign up for Revolut to see what their rates were: their website makes zero mention of this, but for new accounts you need a 'premium account' before you can access the crypto section. And the 'premium account' needs a minimum 12 month signup, for £72. And once you decide to close the account in disgust at the bait&switch, you find the only way to do so is through support, and their 'support' is a chatbot who tells you someone will get back to you in 24 hours maybe.
So I bought a single Litecoin at £98, it's now worth £126. I think I'm gonna keep this as a long term thing, see where it's at this time next year - if it covers the Christmas shopping, I'd consider that a victory. Also dropped £300 on Bitcoin when it was as at £11.6k, hoping that goes on a sharp rise, then I'll take back my Litecoin investment, leave whatever is left and sit on it. Fingers crossed, lads!
I sold at €12975 and bought back at €12700 ... and wake up to find out that it hit a low of €10950 ... ****!!!!
I woke to a sea of red - everything's down 10-20% over the last 24 hours (apart from Eth, which is up 1.5% including Eth, which is down 6.39%.) Do you know what I'm doing? Holding. Every time I've tried to time the market I've lost, without fail. At least you walked away with more Bitcoin than you started with!
