here is my personal experience, desktop wallet does take a while to sync the first time which is normal, however on the forum there are ways to speed up the process by downloading the "history" and changing it for your wallet.  from desktop wallet to online wallet takes about 2 seconds to transfer,  from wallet or online wallet to bitgrail exchange takes about 1-2 minutes, i have used mercatox. but i like bigrail better. i have also taken out ltc and doge since btc and eth take time, everything working great on my end.  dont listen to people bashing it bc they didnt buy it when they first learn about it.. well happy new year and happy trading.