Blocktrades - The Only Way To Transfer Steem?

I have been stockpiling my Steem since I first arrived at Steemit. I have transferred the majority of it to Steem Power. However, I wanted to try out the trade system to see how smooth the transition to other currencies/wallets would be. I was severely disappointed in Blocktrades.us and decided not to trade at this point.

Here is my issue. I have 20 steem dollars which are valued at 1.03 per dollar right now. That is close to 21 dollars. To transfer that into bitcoin will cost seven dollars. That is one-third of what I want to transfer. I understand that there are costs with moving digital currency, and I understand that moving small amounts is generally not advisable due to flat rate type charges. But seven dollars seems steep to me for such a small transaction. One of the advantages of digital currency is to eliminate the exorbitant costs associated with wire remitters. But this is far worse. It is confiscatory.

I am transferring all my earning to 100 percent steem power right now, so my steem dollar account is not increasing. At some point, I may switch back or transfer some steem power to steem to transfer a higher dollar amount out. That may decrease the percentage of money I will lose in the process.

So my question to those who have been around a while: Is blocktrades the only way to transfer money? If not, what suggestions are offered for alternate options. And what other advice do you have related to moving money off the platform, if and when people are ready to move some around?