Since FTX went down, I have been looking for another exchange to do fee-free on-chain withdrawals. This was something that you could do with FTX if you had FTT staked, and I would use FTX as a bouncing of point for doing cross chain transfers of tokens instead of using on-chain bridges which could sometimes be a touch expensive if Ethereum gas fees were high... or if you were doing an Optimistic bridge, you would have to wait a week for the tokens to become claimable.

Thankfully, I didn't have much on FTX when it went down... mostly just the staked FTT that was there to get the free withdrawals.

However, in the last couple of weeks or so, I have really been feeling the loss of a bounce off point for transactions that touch the Ethereum main-net. Ethereum gas fees have been higher with noticeable spikes to 50-70 gwei and generally I am expecting to have to put transactions in at around 15-20 gwei to make sure that they are included in decent time. Now, most of my transactions aren't time-critical, so I can put in lower bids... but when interacting with more complex contracts (like bridges) with higher amounts of gas required, that increase can start to sting a little bit. However, I don't like sending a transaction that will just wait around for the next hour or five hundred... I like to finish things so that they are out of our mind and I don't need to think any more about it.

Of course, I can use exchanges like Binance to bounce tokens in and out and do the chain-change there... but I've actually found that the bigger problem is that not all the Ethereum Layer 2 chains are available for withdrawals... which means that I need to market sell the tokens to ETH and then exit Binance on the Layer 2 chain with ETH, and then do an on-chain re-purchase of the tokens. Often still cheaper than an on-chain bridge... but annoyingly complicated, and time consuming.

This morning I saw a tweet from the DEX/CEX hybrid, WooX.... WooX is the CEX version, and WooFi is the multi-chain DEX version. Anyway, It appears that they were winding up their WooVentures arm and airdropping tokens to people who had WOO staked on either CEX or DEX. And I did have WOO staked on both of the CEX and DEX versions so that I could take advantage of fee-free trades. I had done that quite a long time ago, so I had actually forgotten about it! As I've mentioned many times before, I'm not a trader and so the occasional fee chomp on my trades isn't really that big a deal. I prefer to just do it direct on the Binance app and then withdraw out rather than firing up the computer to hit up a DEX (or WooX). Laziness I know... but sometimes there is something to be said for convenience... especially when you aren't always around a laptop or desktop computer!

Well... I had just noticed that I had qualified for the airdrop, and that there was already a USDT distribution that had already fallen into my account... and that there were ongoing drops for WOO stakers (snapshot is finished though) as they cleaned out and wound up their WOO Ventures project. The rest of the drops will take place on chain, and so I needed to connect a wallet to the WooX CEX.

... but while I was there, I wanted to withdraw the USDT... and to my surprise, it was a fee-free withdrawal! So, I quickly looked up the WOO staking benefits... and yes, in addition to the staking rewards, fee-free trades... there were FEE FREE WITHDRAWALS! YES! So, now I have an bounce off point to easily route transfer through a low cost chain, and then withdraw onto a higher fee chain. I don't do it that often, but when I do... it is great to now have the option to do it much more cheaply!

I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x

Handy Crypto Tools

Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
WooX: The centralised version of WooFi. Stake WOO for fee-free trades and free withdrawals!
GMX.io: Decentralised perpetual futures trading on Arbitrum!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.