everything can be traded to LTC, BTC, BCH, or ETH and sent to coinbase to be cashed out. Though coinbase needs competition. Only having one exchange to convert to USD is a danger imo.
I've removed my initial investment and payed off some of a CC already. I put more cash in this week so I'm not just playing with house money but most of my money is still house money at the moment.
BTC is more of just a storage currency for me for now. I'm not balling enough to make big cash on BTC, yet. These alt coins been feeding me so far.