The actual costs of converting currencies on the normal money markets using an account like interactive brokers are almost zero - maybe 0.05% or you can even make a profit on it if you put in a limit order near the current price. The costs are mostly in getting money in to the system at one end and out at the other. I'm not sure how going via crypto will be any cheaper - it's usually more expensive in my experience.

I agree. Ripple is a rip off. Converting to intermediary is not going to help. The costs I was takking about are the exchange rate that local banks charge.