Congratulations! Lucky you! You're a millionaire! Probably they were referring to an exchange site; the two most popular ones are Binance and Coinbase.
> Isn't Binance by far the most widely used exchange?
Ostensibly yes. But they're overseas, so what's your recourse if something goes wrong? If you wouldn't trust a random overseas Italian bank to handle your money, don't trust Binance either.
> I think that if you're unsure you need to study the topic so you can tell which "professionals" are professional con men.
To be clear I was referring to financial advisors from the traditional financial sector. Bitcoin is big enough now that they'll have a playbook for it. Don't hire a "crypto" professional.
I sure as fuck wouldn't trust a non-overseas bank to handle my money. Because I'm in Argentina, and although I'm stupid, I'm not that stupid. I have no idea where rel_ic is, but if they're in the US, they can't use Binance. If they're not in the US, it's quite likely that they'll want to use an overseas exchange for security reasons.
Using a cryptocurrency exchange isn't as risky as using a bank. You can fund your account with a small amount of bitcoin, exchange it to fiat, withdraw it, fund it with a 20% larger amount of bitcoin, and repeat the process a logarithmic number of times until all your money is changed. You don't have to leave your money in it for a long period of time, risking things like bank failure and getting locked out, and if the exchange decides to steal from you, it only gets a small amount of the total you're changing. It doesn't know in advance which transaction is the last, so it can't just wait until the last transaction to rip you off.
I agree with your recommendation to hire a financial advisor from the traditional financial sector, but they may not be familiar with this kind of situation, and some of them are professional con men as well, to a lesser or greater extent.
Your due diligence should be the same as for a financial advisor handling your USD. Bitcoin is big enough now that they'll have a playbook for it. Don't hire a "crypto" professional.
If that's the case, I'm afraid I don't know what you should do. I can tell you, as a random internet commenter, that the companies I mentioned are reputable and operate in many countries around the world. There is a tail risk that they, or your traditional bank account, freeze your funds for "suspicious activity," and that's the case where having someone working for you is most useful. I'm not sure how you should bootstrap trust in your particular situation, I'm sorry. Good luck.
