How to Sell Crypto and Obtain Fiat on a Credit Card

There are fundamentally two methods by which you can sell crypto and obtain fiat on your credit card. 

The first is much simpler, but less advantageous, while the second is more beneficial if approached carefully, though slightly more challenging. 

Furthermore, this second method in turn includes two slightly different types of withdrawal. 

Before thoroughly explaining the two modes, however, some clarifications are necessary. 

Cryptocurrencies and Fiat

The use of cryptocurrencies is anonymous and does not require identity verification. 

In contrast, the use of fiat currencies, such as euros or dollars, in electronic format almost always requires identity verification and is practically never anonymous. 

This means that there are tools to operate in crypto without identity verification, but in fact, there are no tools that allow for operating in fiat currencies electronically in an anonymous manner. 

That said, virtually any method you choose to use for selling crypto into fiat will require identity verification. 

Moreover, technically the operations described in this article do not actually concern credit cards, but debit cards, meaning cards that do not allow spending fiat that one does not have (i.e., on credit), but only fiat that must have already been deposited onto the card. 

Technically, credit cards and debit cards function in an extremely similar way, with the only difference being that debit cards allow you to spend only the money you already have (and they are the only ones usable for cashing in fiat proceeds from crypto sales). 

First Method: Crypto Cards

Absolutely the simplest and fastest way to sell crypto and obtain fiat on a card is to use crypto-powered debit cards. 

These are debit cards that allow payments in fiat currency, but do not necessarily need to be funded with fiat currency. 

In other words, it is sufficient to deposit crypto onto those cards to spend them in fiat currency thanks to an automatic conversion at the time of purchase. 

In this way, the user pays in crypto, but the recipient receives fiat, as the card itself automatically converts at the time of payment. 

In reality, from a strictly technical standpoint, it is not the card that performs the conversion, but the platform on which the card is based. In fact, not all debit cards allow operations in this manner. 

To utilize this methodology, it is necessary to obtain debit cards powered by cryptocurrencies from specific crypto platforms. 

Unfortunately, there aren’t many platforms that allow this, although they have increased significantly in recent years. Moreover, fully decentralized platforms, which cannot support fiat currencies, do not offer this possibility unless they rely on external platforms that support fiat currencies and require identity verification. 

How to Operate with Crypto Cards

To use a crypto card for payments in fiat currency, it is often sufficient to deposit cryptocurrencies on the platform to which it is linked. At that point, you can pay in fiat with the card, as the conversion will be automatically handled by the platform. 

However, two important clarifications must be made. 

The first point is that not all crypto platforms offer this possibility, and even those that do never support every crypto. 

Therefore, before depositing your cryptocurrencies on a platform that also offers a crypto card for fiat payments, it is necessary to verify which cryptocurrencies it supports. Moreover, these platforms often support many cryptos, but only some of them can be used to fund crypto debit cards (usually the main stablecoins like USDT and USDC). 

The second point is that the sale of crypto, to facilitate fiat payments, is executed automatically at the time of payment and thus at the current market price. 

For this reason, it is not advisable to fund these cards with actual cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, but rather with stablecoins, by manually converting crypto into stablecoins before making payments in fiat currency. 

Unfortunately, often there are few stablecoins supported by crypto cards, so those who do not make fiat payments in US dollars, but perhaps in euros or other fiat currencies, must also consider that the exchange rate will be determined by the platform at the time of payment. 

That said, once this method is refined, it becomes extremely simple and quick to use, accessible to everyone. 

Second Method: Selling in Fiat

The second method is slightly less straightforward, but it allows for a fundamental resolution of the automatic exchange rate issue. 

It indeed plans to conduct the sale of crypto into fiat manually, at the moment deemed most advantageous, and thus at an exchange rate determined by the user themselves rather than the platform. 

It is nonetheless true that the user cannot arbitrarily decide the exchange rate, but only the timing of the sale. However, this is often sufficient to avoid unpleasant surprises. 

Technically, it involves depositing and selling cryptocurrencies on a crypto platform that also supports fiat currencies. 

This is practically never possible on decentralized platforms, unless they use connected centralized tools, because decentralized platforms do not support fiat currencies. 

But generally, by now, on practically all centralized platforms, fiat currencies are supported, provided that you can pass the identity verification. 

Although this second method is less immediate than the first, it actually only involves two additional steps. 

The first method involves a single step before the fiat payment, which is the deposit of crypto. The second method, however, involves three steps. 

How to Operate with Fiat Sales 

The first step is the same as the other method: depositing crypto. However, this should not be done directly into the card account, but rather generally into the platform account. 

The second step is the one mentioned earlier, which is the direct sale of deposited crypto into fiat to receive fiat currency directly into your account on the platform itself. 

To be honest, this second step is not as straightforward as it might seem upon a superficial analysis, because if not done carefully, it risks encountering the same issues as the automatic exchange at the time of payment in the first method. 

It’s best to ensure you know exactly how to proceed. 

After selling the crypto and cashing in fiat on the platform, there remains only one final step before you can spend the fiat currency on a debit card: the withdrawal. 

The Two Types of Withdrawal

Withdrawing crypto is very easy, but withdrawing fiat can sometimes be a bit more complicated. 

First of all, it is important to remember that there are specific legal procedures to follow, which means there are limitations and sometimes even issues. 

Moreover, on crypto platforms, there are often very few withdrawal options available in fiat currency. 

In particular, there are two: the bank transfer and the direct withdrawal to debit cards or fiat platforms that offer spending via debit card (such as Paypal).

Generally, bank transfers are offered by all platforms that support fiat currencies, and it is the recommended withdrawal method because it usually incurs the lowest fees. Nowadays, it has also become faster.

Once the withdrawal via bank transfer is completed, the withdrawn fiat currency should be immediately available in your bank account, and if this is linked to a debit card, it should also be immediately available for spending with the card itself. 

The second withdrawal method is faster, but it is often unavailable. 

This involves a direct withdrawal to the debit card, or on a platform that offers the ability to spend with a debit card. Unfortunately, each crypto platform has its own policy on this matter, so it is necessary to check platform by platform which ones offer this possibility, and if so, on which cards or fiat platforms they allow withdrawals. 

Conclusions

Before performing any of these operations, it is advisable to check the costs on each platform individually. 

In particular, the first method, that of the crypto card, always incurs additional costs, often in the form of a spread on the exchange rate. 

Additionally, there are centralized platforms that do not apply any additional costs on the second method, except for the usual selling fee. 

It should be noted, however, that for limited amounts, the differences generally do not tend to be particularly significant. 

It is always crucial to pay close attention to security issues, and it is advisable not to underestimate potential compliance-related problems.