The problem this page solves
You hold an amount in one currency and need it delivered in another country and another currency. There are two routes: a SWIFT bank wire, or a stablecoin path — buy USDT with your currency on P2P, send it, sell it for the destination currency. The page prices both and shows the difference.
What is being compared
A bank wire has two costs, and the second is usually larger than the first. The first is fees: the sender's flat charge, intermediary bank fees, the recipient's fee. The second is the conversion rate: the bank exchanges at its own rate rather than the market one, and a 2–4% difference is routine. That is what eats most of the money, and it is the part people notice least.
The USDT route has its own costs: the P2P premium over the official rate when buying, the network fee for the transfer, the premium when selling in the recipient's currency, and the venue fees.
Where the premium figures come from
The P2P premium is the gap between the real price of USDT in your currency and the official rate. In Ukraine it is usually small; in countries with capital controls it can run into tens of percent. We compute it from medians weighted by ad count, with a floor of twenty ads per exchange — otherwise one thin venue would distort the whole calculation.
So the number on the page is not the best price of a single ad but the typical price at which a deal can actually be done.
When crypto genuinely wins
- When one of the countries has capital controls. The official rate and the real price of the currency diverge, and the USDT route steps around the gap.
- At mid-sized amounts. Very small ones do not repay the network fee and the time; very large ones run into P2P ad limits and bank attention.
- When speed matters. SWIFT takes one to five business days; a network transfer takes minutes.
When the bank wins
- When both currencies are freely convertible and the P2P premium is near zero — then a bank with a reasonable tariff is simpler and safer.
- When you need an officially documented payment: tuition, a contract, a visa application. A P2P route produces no such paperwork.
- When you are not prepared to deal with networks and addresses. A mistyped address is irreversible.
What the calculation does not know
It does not know your particular bank's tariffs — you enter those yourself, and they differ everywhere. It does not know your jurisdiction's limits and requirements. And it does not price the risk on the P2P side: a frozen bank account and fraud, covered separately in the article on scam patterns.
Most importantly: in a number of countries crypto transactions are regulated or restricted. This page shows arithmetic, not legal advice — check the legality in your own country separately.