Topic: Blockfi - Any reviews or pointers ? (Read 658 times)

Hello,
BlockFi.com locked my account with $25,000 inside, around 80 days ago, and they are not willing to process a refund. They are asking for a court order just for them to process a refund.

After seeing a bunch of info about the products BlockFi offers that seemed attractive at first glance, I decided to open an account. Within minutes the account was ready to take the money out from my bank. No photo identification required, by the way.
I started depositing money, and seemed easy compared to other services of this kind.

After a while, I thought it would be a good idea to secure some funds by processing two Crypto withdrawal requests.
I've been waiting for two days (the minimum waiting time offered for a Crypto withdrawal), but instead of processing my requests they asked me for verification via ID/Passport, photos/video using my phone..(a regular request of any CEX), but what's strange, it's that they will ask for Verification after they allow you to deposit large amounts of money, and not before, as any other service does. I wonder what would happen with your money in a strange scenario where (for some reason) you can't successfully pass the Verification.

But... that was Ok. I successfully processed the verification within minutes.
Then, surprise..... Because I had two pending withdrawal requests for two different Crypto coins, even if one of them was for a very small amount being executed just for me to understand their withdrawal process, BlockFi asked me to get Verified once again. Not a different Verification process. Just the same one I had successfully executed minutes ago.

No problem! I did it again "You're all set !".
Within minutes, I got an email notifying that my BlockFi account was locked. No explanation other than asking to read their TOS, and the following notice..... "Should you be unable to retrieve funds through your bank, you must wait 60 days from receipt of this email before requesting a manual wire withdrawal to the source bank account. Please note that we may require identity verification to process the withdrawal. Note: Any requests made to BlockFi about your account funds will be ignored until we can process a return of funds which will only be eligible after 60 days. Do not reach out to BlockFi until after this date. "

The 60 days have passed and even though I used every possible method to contact BlockFi, it doesn't seem like anyone's going to reply. (Several support tickets or by sending any kind of message using any possible form on their Help/Support pages, trying to call them using the phone number listed over their Help page, sending message via some of the previous support tickets that were used around two months ago to communicate with them..and more..

Let's not forget that a considerable amount of money is still with BlockFi, and my account is still blocked.

If that can't be called an extremely frustrating situation, I'm curious to hear another .

--------- UPDATE
Finally I've been contacted, being informed that they will return my money...soon.

This is definitely good news, but ... I still find myself in a "strange" situation.

Let me explain: When BlockFi locked my account they said: "At this time, we are not able to return any funds to you directly. We’d recommend that you contact your bank and request that any ACH transfers you made to your BlockFi account be canceled and reversed. Should you be unable to retrieve funds through your bank, you must wait 60 days from receipt of this email before requesting a manual wire withdrawal to the source bank account. "

I thought it would be faster to follow BlockFi's advice by asking the bank to proceed as per their instructions,but a nightmare was about to start.
Shortly after asking the bank to return transfers made by me (no scam or hack involved), they decided that something is not right, ending by closing my bank accounts. PERMANENTLY.
So BlockFi will not be able to send a Wire Transfer as it will be automatically returned.
But when they blocked my account, part of the money was in Crypto balances. I wonder what are the terms used to close my positions. Crypto coins rates have changed in the past 70 days. Maybe they will process my original withdrawal requests via crypto? Or will they accept my request to send my money to another bank account in my name? Also I wonder how they could have sent a Wire Transfer to an account that does not accept wires (if they were sent to BlockFi from a NeoBank). Not the case here, but just wonder...

--- UPDATE

BlockFi's final word is: "Any funds on the account will remain locked until BlockFi receives a court order to refund the funds"
$25,000 of my money are locked and they also refuse a refund to the source bank account

That's what I don't quite get about this whole thing. Humongous liquidations must've happened countless times since this was launched. That's what happens to traders. I can't see how Blockfi's selection of traders would be any better than any other ones.

They must either have massive collateral or tiny positions or Blockfi dictate how much they can risk. It's all a bit murky.

You can definitely make money off it, but take note that making money off it is definitely NOT guaranteed.

The biggest risks in my opinion, is black swan events(sudden huge BTC price crashes, hence your funds potentially being liquidated through a margin call), and, hacking events. Let's not forget that your entrusting your coins through a custodial, which can possibly get hacked regardless how good they are with their security.

Does not mean that they are trusted is it? You cannot trust any big names in the crypto ecosystem. They are all out there to make money and when they see the bears incoming they will be the first to flip.

Nah, my suggested would be the stay away from passive income platforms like this one and Celsius. If you want, set up your own lending platform system in this forum and give out collateral backed loans though it is tough to get good number of customers initially. Also put some money into buying bitcoin and investing in casino bankrolls in a trusted casino. Thats all that is need for allocating capital to the crypto sector, leaving out active trading. Do that if you have experience in it already and if not,  just buy bitcoin at low price and hold it.

Rest of your capital can be put in other sectors and by that I do no mean altcoins, stay away from them. The other sectors are stocks, commodities, bonds, precious gems metals, real estate and other securities which are under legal jurisdiction.

If your investment plan is based on taking advantage of a 5% interest rate on your BTC deposits, then you will most likely lose your money because of the following:

 - High fees.
 - A lot of identification documents.
 - The possibility of adjusting interest rates.
 - Nothing guaranteed, so be careful: no deposit insurance, as if it were in a bank account.
 - withdrawals can take up to several days


According to their statement, the clients ’money is safe ------> BlockFi’s Data Breach May Allow Criminals to Extort Rich Clients.

There was a data breach this week.

Wondering if any one has any experience/ reviews / pointers on blockfi ( blockfi.com  )

They claim to give 5% interest rate on your BTC deposits ( https://blockfi.com/rates/ ) .
They are backed by the Winklevoss brothers (https://winklevosscapital.com/portfolio/)

Just wanted to check with the experienced folks here before I make an investment here .
Any pointers will be good .