How to Get Your Money From Bitcoin
After rising from less than $ 1,000 to nearly $ 20,000 last year, Bitcoin crashed impressively this morning , dropping to $ 11,000 per bitcoin, then rallying to just over $ 13,000. This news scared many cryptocurrency investors. He even temporarily shut down the popular digital currency exchange Coinbase due to increased activity.
So, if you’re sitting on a bunch of bitcoins, you might think it’s time to sell before things get worse. Here’s a quick guide to your options, depending on how you store your bitcoin.
Getting Bitcoin from Coinbase
Once you’ve saved your bitcoin on an online exchange, it should be relatively easy to get it – provided the site is up and running soon.
According to Coinbase , this is a simple process that can be done in your web browser or official app. On the Internet, log into your account and go to the Sales page. Enter the amount of money you want to remove, the wallet you are taking it from, and the account you are sending it to. Then confirm everything and click “Sell” to complete the transaction.
If you are using an app, the process is very similar. Click on the menu icon in the upper left corner and select Sell. Then fill in all the required details and confirm by clicking the “Sell” button.
It’s also worth noting that the process will be slightly different depending on where you are sending money. On a separate support page, Coinbase states that it can take 4-5 business days for money to be transferred to a bank account. However, you also have the option to instantly send money to your Paypal account for smaller amounts.
In some cases, Bitcoin may also require you to verify your Social Security number and driver’s license, as well as other information in order to prevent fraud. If you run into a problem and can’t get your money back, your best bet is to deal with customer support (they seem to be quite responsive on Reddit ).
How to get Bitcoin from a paper wallet
If you’ve decided to keep your bitcoins offline to keep them safe from hackers, you have a little more work to do. You will need to get your digital currency online before you can exchange it for cash.
If you have a paper wallet (in fact, it is just a piece of paper with a secret key to access bitcoins), then the information required to access your money is printed right on the paper. This is a longer string of numbers, usually starting with 5, called the private key.
Unfortunately, Coinbase does not allow you to import money from another Bitcoin wallet. As such, you first need to set up a separate wallet with a different service and then transfer it to Coinbase. Here’s a quick guide on how to transfer a paper wallet to Blockchain.info digital wallet:
How to get Bitcoins from a hardware wallet
Hardware wallets (mostly encrypted external storage) are designed to keep your bitcoin as secure as possible, which means withdrawing money can be quite difficult.
The easiest way to do this is through your hardware wallet service. So, for example, if you are using Trezor (one of the more popular options) to store your bitcoin, you will want to use the company’s website to transfer it back. You can follow the instructions given here , which implies downloading a browser add-on. You also need to put your bitcoin in a digital wallet like Mycelium , which is designed to work with hardware wallets, before transferring it to Coinbase and finally exchanging for cash.
As we said, this is not easy. If you already have Bitcoins stored in an offline wallet, you are probably set for a long time anyway. However, if you are confident that it is finally time to cash out, now you know how to do it. Good luck.