Trying to sell bitcoin at a bar in NYC

I wanted to explore exchanging bitcoin for cash in the real world for an upcoming blog post. So I tried to find ways to sell ₿0.001 for about $100 USD during a trip to new york city in 2025.

I made a bounty post on stacker.news, a pro-bitcoin forum, asking the best way to do this exchange in NYC. I responded to the person suggesting the pubkey bar, and they recommended I do a writeup. Here it is.

I am taking the role of a hypothetical person for this experiment

As I try to sell bitcoin, I'm going to pretend to be somebody else. Someone a little more typical and a little less technical.

My spirit is now embodied in a 23 year old lowlife that has bitcoin in metamask after buying some illegal substances, or maybe some weird leftover sats from the residuals of fartcoin trading.

Besides this I'm not tech savvy. I have a 5-year-old low-tier moto android that doesn't hold a charge. I don't know what an operating system is, and have no clue what the difference is between wifi and 5G.

This morning, I had a few too many "Where's The Party" margarittas as Margaritaville time square, walked outside and started a fight with Elmo, got rocked by the entire sesame street, and they stole my pants with the cash cards and wallet in my pockets. All I have is a shitty phone with ~$100 of bitcoin (0.001 BTC) and my government-issued ID.

I need to convert this bitcoin in my metamask wallet to cash TODAY to buy a bus ticket out of the city. Otherwise night falls and I'm sleeping on the Q train using a reusable bag filled with rats as a pillow.

Searching

When I asked on stackernews, a bitcoin discussion forum, nobody had a non-techy answer for how to sell my bitcoin in the city. So I go to google and search "sell bitcoin for cash nyc", and look at google maps.

Most sites don't get me anywhere, even after signing up. "symlix.com" and other physical exchange sites don't have active sellers in new york, and other search entries are for ATMs. I'm looking for a business with a human I can talk to and a building I can go into, not clicking around on sketchy-looking websites.

The only "service-oriented" place I'm finding on google maps is "coincafe" in brooklyn. At least they have a phone number, even if their last google maps review was 2 years ago.

I call, and... it rings a few times and immediately hangs up. Calling other times doesn't help. But at least I can use the website.

A lot of these links are leading to bitcoin ATMs, and the majority don't even allow you to sell. But there is a link for "Sell Bitcoins for Cash!"

Going through the "Sell Bitcoins for Cash" link brings me to a page that has me choose from a few check cashing places in Jersey, and pay 15% commission.

It routes me through "coincafe" to "exitbtc.com" to something powered by "kashhero.com." I'm entering my phone number, getting SMS codes, entering SMS codes, putting in my full name and city, and finally...

OK. 15% commission and I would need to go to New Jersey. Not bad.

This is where I stopped – without talking to a human I'm not going to send bitcoin to some address.

I would have to go somewhere like "CFSC Checks Cashed Bergen Ave Jersey City" to get this money order. So maybe it's possible, assuming it's not a very clever scam. But no full-service.

I called the check cashing place and they didn't know what this was, but said they had a bitcoin ATM, and it would take bitcoin for cash. I asked if people used it and he said people come in and use it, but he doesn't know anything about it.

So from what I can tell, in the more physical "phone-call" economy, it's either using sketchy sites to turn BTC into money orders to pick up in Jersey, or bitcoin ATMs. But most of them don't even allow you to sell, just buy.

I want to talk to a human please

If I can buy and sell gold at close to spot in nyc, easily getting in contact with them on the phone, why not bitcoin?

I called a few gold sellers in manhattan asking to sell them a 2014 american gold eagle. They mostly quoted me prices around 99% of spot – the first person I texted offered me $2750, when spot is $2758.76. So 99.68%. Not bad, assuming there's not ''fees'' when I get there.

Now these gold buyers are blowing up my phone asking when I'm coming in with my 2014 american gold eagle. When I answer, they're chatting, friendly, giving me their names and explaining differences between if I were to bring in bars or coins. I hear sounds of a busy shop in the background, and most are talking on speaker phone, walking quickly, out of breath. Professional, hard working, customer service in the diamond district.

Bitcoin? I can't find a single human to talk to.

why not bisq/robosats/Lnp2pbot/etc?

Most recommendations on the bounty post said to use some alphabet soup of online distributed services which probably require sending cash or money orders and using escrow.

I am pretending to be a normie, ok? Wha's TOR? Tails? Sonic's sidekick? No idea what you're talking about.

My normie spirit goes to bisq.network and sees this:

Each trader must lock bitcoin in a multisignature escrow until the trade is complete—this is part of what makes trading on Bisq highly secure.

What is "multisignature escrow" and why do I need to do this? I need cash now. I cannot run an .exe on my android phone. I have a wallet that tells me I have ~$100 in bitcoin on my phone and I need cash for a bus ticket.

I want to operate in the physical world, like most people, and look a human in the eye as I do this trade.

Going to the bitcoin bar

Luckily in the heart of manhattan, tucked away in the beautiful townhomes of grennich village, is an establishment that might help me. Pubkey.

Trump did a bitcoin transaction here, so surely I can find some people to help set up a simple sell.

Walking down the stairs into the bar, I buy their cheapest $7 lager using bitcoin and settle in.

I started scoping my surroundings for a shady man in a corner willing to give me cash for a lightning transaction. But it was almost exclusively young professional corpo/finance types, or the new-rightish ("Yes we Fry Everything in Tallow!"), succession wannabe-old-money serif-font david protein bar aesthetic.

The bartender and I started chatting. He was a swole latino living in queens (he said the key to gains is eating a lot of rice) and told me he only got a bitcoin wallet recently because people wanted to tip him. The terminal doesn't prompt for tips.

When I asked him "what percentage of people pay in bitcoin" he got weaselly until admitting nobody really did except on thursdays, which were when most of the bitcoin enthusiast types came in.

As people came to the bar or sat next to me, I made small talk and asked if they knew much about crypto, but most didn't even know they were in a "bitcoin bar."

There was a gathering of people in the back room and I asked someone if that was a meetup, but I was told it was a birthday party.

A man walked through playing bagpipes because it was "Robert Burns Night" which pissed off some of the girls with more sensitive ears who asked me and others to tell him to stop. But the bartender served free shortbread for the occasion.

Some of the people I talked to had no idea this was a 'bitcoin bar'. I pointed to the price on the wall, and they said they didn't trust it or had a small position. Most said it was too volatile. A person said he was pissed for selling all his at $80k since he would have made more selling at $100k. Someone recommended I invest in VOO instead.

Conclusion

Since I couldn't find a single bitcoin fan, I left the pubkey bar. Maybe I didn't ask enough people, maybe it's a different place on a saturday night, not sure. But it felt more like a spot for young professionals looking for a taste of the "new right" to hang out with cheapish drinks.

Next time I'll come on a thursday.

On the way back, walking down 6th ave, a panicked teenish guy was slurring and talking at his phone that he was lost. He stumbled. I felt helpful and asked where he was trying to go. He immediately handed me his phone and said he was trying to find his uber.

A woman chimed in from the smartphone speaker – Jean from New Jersey. The drunk man, Thomas, was her brother. She was worried about him and I told her I would help.

Like a shepherd to a little lost lamb, I let him past the comedy cellar line towards an intersection in the thick of drunk Saturday crowds. On the way I asked him how many drinks he had (six) what he was drinking (mostly liquor) and where he was going (his friend's house). To lighten the mood, I told Jean that nothing is stopping me from running away with Thomas' phone, and they both told me please not to do that.

I finally got him into his uber (which was going maybe 10 blocks north) and told him to tip his driver well since he was waiting for so long.

Trying to transact in bitcoin lead me to only to bridge-and-tunnel lowest-common-denominator money services buildings in new jersey strip malls which bury "cryptocurrency" on their homepage "services" list, giving it less priority than money orders, prepaid debit cards, and metrocards. It's placed right next to "Lottery Services".

For the humble low-level transaction, I can't find humans to talk to. There's nobody on the phone that wants to sell me bitcoin. The only option is really using bitcoin ATMs. Even places saying they "sell bitcoin" just have a bitcoin atm.

So it might not be useful for trying to get cash quick in new york, but it sure is cool to be able to upvote using sats on stackernews. If you might need quick cash, bring gold.