[Teandw]

What you said doesn't make sense. The seller requested the buyer to pull the money out of the bank into cash and then immediately deposited that cash into their bank account. What would be the reason for doing that?

Doesn't make sense unless you've worded what happened incorrectly by accident.

[matkoniecz]

Lower risk (or lower perceived risk) of money transfer not happening or being reverted.

I would be really anxious if I would be selling something worth 80% of my wealth.

Maybe the entire thing was hilariously pointless? But neither buyer nor seller was expert on this stuff.

(unless seller was hiding really well and it was some 6D chess)