It's been one of those weeks.

You know the ones. Where everything's out of synch and nothing works quite how it should?

Yeah, one of those.

But there's a good crypto story here, and I'm gonna tell it.

A couple of weeks ago, I uninvested some money from a TradFi thing because I knew I'd need it before the end of the month. Like, this week.

Being TradFi, this process normally takes 7-10 days.

Because even though TradFi is 100% computerised and they can trade shares every second or send your money to the other side of the world in three minutes when it can earn them another dollar, they like to pretend that everything is still held in dusty ledgers and requires three different verification checks that can only be performed by particular people wearing particular clothes at particular times on particular days when the planets align and the money gods approve.

It's not like all they have to do is press "OK" or anything, right?

Anyway, I put in this request with plenty of time, and at least they didn't charge me for the privilege of making them do their job.

But then TradFi did what TradFi does best.

It fucked up.

"Oh, yes, your request. Well, you see, it's not as simple as you think it is..."

Despite the fact that I have done exactly the same thing several times before - which is how I know the time involved, duh - they meandered. They hemmed and hawed. They dithered. They emailed me to verify things already verified by the online process.

So on Monday morning, I was stuck.

I knew the money was coming, but I didn't know when. And I needed it.

Urgently.

Bills waiting. Gotta send the money to the company for the thing. You know how it is.

So I did what every self-respecting, crypto-holding, TradFi-loathing person with two brain cells to rub together and the knowledge that the establishment is shit does.

I broke my crypto bank.

Off I went to Kraken, where I do my fiat-to-crypto (and nothing else because their fees are appallingly high). Grabbed my BTC address.

Opened Exodus. Popped my Banked BTC over to Kraken.

Waited for arrival.

Sold it to GBP, withdrew it to the bank, paid the bill.

It took about 30 minutes.

That's how money should work. Not 7-10 days, not even hours, no phone calls or emails required, no dealing with a wunch of bankers.

And when the TradFi people finally pulled their fingers out and sent the money, I put it straight back into BTC and shipped it back to the wallet.

Total cost? Thanks to BTC dropping a little in the interim, almost nothing.

Easy as pie.

Crypto to the rescue!