I still have a while before I can get my $150k from the sale of my house to an exchange.
It's been a few weeks but on the day of the sale I went to my bank to deposit the check. They were able to process $5k of it in 2 days and the rest took 9 working days before it went through.
I initiated a wire transfer to ItBit while I was there in the US so I could set up a recurring transfer that I could execute from a phone call once the check cleared (since I would not be back in the US).
After filling out tons of paperwork, including my banker calling various people for help with setting it up, we finished after a couple of hours.
Then they had to mail me a PIN which I could use to do the wire transfer over the phone. I then have to mail a signed form back to them to acknowledge that I received the PIN.
Once they receive that form, then I can call to initiate the wire transfer to ItBit. I can then use their exchange to buy bitcoins which I will then send to BitFinex where I can margin fund at a very low rate to people shorting.
Fiat bank Total time: about 1.5 months
The whole time I was sitting there with the banker I was thinking in my head how it would have worked had I sold the house for bitcoins.
Guy scans my BitFinex QR code sending me the bitcoins (10 seconds). Maybe wait 30 minutes for BitFinex to be satisfied with the confirmations. Start margin loaning the funds (30 seconds).
Bitcoin Total time: 30 minutes 40 seconds
Bank confirmation times are brutal.