Topic: BlockFi Interest? (Read 505 times)

BlockFi has entered into a partnership with the investment company Neuberger Berman to develop a line of products and strategies for managing digital assets, according to both companies, they plan to launch products for managing crypto assets, including ETFs and other traditional tools. https://blockworks.co/blockfi-to-launch-new-product-suite-with-private-firm-neuberger-berman/

check out the follow resources:

https://www.cefirates.com/
https://www.coininterestrate.com/
https://coinlenders.net/

Well good luck, i hope it works out for you, if not kindly chew it down with a glass full of water and don't come back to the forum and open a thread of being scammed
besides, i don't think if they have such review that will be of concern, so far from what i read it seems many people are satisfy with their service, or a little satisfy, but you know what they say, not your keys not your money, if whatever you will get back from lending is worth the risk, then carry on

It's still banned for you in that case. They do verification. Just look up Bitmex to understand how far your government will chase you if you bypass this restriction:)

Your only hope now is to "wrap your Bitcoins" so you can stake them in one of the defi earning pools but this still needs you to trust some defi algorithm. Which I think isn't a great move in any case judging from MakerDAO people losing all their money during extreme market crashes.

Yea im aware of this.  They do verification right... blockfi?


So what other sites can i use where there is no restriction?  Im from the US but from a restricted state... but im abroad basically almost all year though.

You can read their terms regarding this here (emphasis added):


Being abroad does not mean you are no longer resident in the US, unless you predominantly live abroad and take up residence in the country you are residing. If you haven't done this, then you are still a US resident and are banned from using their service, regardless of your physical location at the time.

Their terms are also quite clear that if you breach these rules, they can close your account and may not return any coins they are holding for you at the time.

So I cannot use blockfi because im in a restricted state in the US.  Is there a way to use blockfi though if im abroad which i am at?

The BlockFi platform has issued a Visa credit card with 1.5-2% cashback in bitcoin for customers in the United States. To date, the waiting list has exceeded 400 thousand people. BlockFi CEO Zach Prince expects that the company will have time to fulfill its obligations to them by the end of July. https://www.newswire.com/news/blockfi-announces-launch-of-the-blockfi-rewards-credit-card-to-us-21437194

That's what they offer you or me if we go to their website and apply for a loan. That's not what they offer institutions, investment trusts and funds, and other big players, who as we are particularly seeing at the moment with the GME hilarity, can get themselves tied up in bad positions and end up losing significant amounts of money.

Have a read of their Terms of Service i quoted on the first page:
Emphasis added. There is no requirement for BlockFi to hold any collateral whatsoever. They will quite happily take your coins, lend them out, and keep nothing in reserve.

Proceed at your own risk.

but Blockfi only offer collateral backed loans at a 50 loan to value rate.

You want to borrow 1BTC, you will have to deposit 2BTC

I understand they have introduced centralised services into a realm which was
designed to be decentralised and that Bitcoin offers everyone the possibility
to be independent.

There are definitely risks.

Why? Because they are a big name? Big names can scan or go bankrupt too. Mt Gox was the biggest name in the business when they lost 850,000 BTC of their customer's money. Binance lost over $40 million of customer's money in a hack. Cryptopia was a pretty big name when they were hacked. Outside of exchanges, look at BitConnect. It had a marketcap of $3 billion at its peak before everyone lost everything. Outside of crypto, look at the Lehman Brothers. $600 billion in assets when they filled for bankruptcy.

There is no such thing as "too big to fail", an there is no such thing as "risk free". I put very little trust in centralized exchanges at the best of times, and I put even less trust in centralized services who are going to hand out your money to random strangers without even telling you where it is going or who is getting it. Even if you trust Gemini and BlockFi 100%, they aren't the ones holding your money. The unknown third parties they give your money to are the ones holding your money, and if these unknown third parties don't pay up, as per their terms of service you can wave goodbye to your money and you have zero recourse available.

You have to worry about the massive ongoing inflation and devaluation of the dollar.

oeleo i get what you mean with your last paragraph...


But if you are speaking about blockfi here... and they are associated with gemini... then isn't it almost risk free?


And to that person that said if you had million dollars... buy btc at the price now... and you could possibly double it in a bull market.  I get what you mean by that... but that isn't a guarantee.  If you have it all in stablecoin as in the usdc or gemini coin... then isn't that as safe as you can get?  How much percentage were ppl getting on lending on bitfinex a while back?


But surely there are ppl that do this on blockfi?


I mean... imagine someone with a million dollars.  Put the whole thing and buy stablecoin... earn 86k a year without worrying about any fluctuation of that coin since its pegged to the dollar.


Has there been any disaster or bad stories of anyone doing this on blockfi though?  Of course you have other scam sites which can do that... but blockfi ... isn't it as legit as you can get?  I read they give this much interest because they lend to others at a even higher rate... so there is no concern etc.

If you accept that risk that you are handing over a million dollars worth of crypto to a bunch of anonymous internet strangers, who are then going to take your million dollars worth of crypto and hand it out to even more anonymous internet strangers, but it is OK because they totally promise they will pay you back, although if they don't pay you back then you have already forfeited all rights to hold them accountable. Oh well.

Yes, theoretically, if you had a million dollars worth of a stablecoin then you could make $86,000 a year in interest, but the risks are huge.

Doesn't really prove anything. Scammers often lure in victims by paying out interest/winnings/profits on small deposits to entice users to deposit larger sums of bitcoin. If the company lends out $5k and doesn't get it back, they might be able to absorb that loss and you are none the wiser. It is more doubtful whether they could absorb a loss of $1 million. Or maybe the people they lent your $5k to all happened to be trustworthy and able to pay it back on time. There is no guarantee that the people they lend your $1 million to will be equally trustworthy.

I've got a better idea: put that million bucks into BTC at $30K and double your money inside a month or two off this bull market. These interest rates are pitiful compared to BTC's gains.

And the best thing? I can hold BTC in my own wallet. I don't need to trust Blockfi and Gemini.


People used to say the same thing about lending on Bitfinex in 2016. I mean yeah, if you're comparing to cash in a savings account or holding blue chip stocks, the income is pretty good.

In my view, the gains don't justify the risks.

Okay so if someone here had a million dollars  in crypto or in the bank... wouldn't it make sense for someone to put it all in blockfi and buy the stablecoin of usdc or gemini coin or paxful coin?  Then earn interest from it then?  At end of month, you going to earn more than 7000 usdc or gemini dollars... do it for the year... then you have l,086,000 usdc/gemini coin.... then sell it all for fiat... cash out to your bank account... and you make like 85000 dollars usd that way... is my math correct?  Im discounting l,000 dollars in fees because if you sell l,086,000 usdc on blockfiat to fiat... how much fees you pay?



I gotta wonder... for someone who put that much money in it... when blockfi processes the withdraw... they are extremely careful with it right?  Like imagine the entire process of when a person wire a million in cash or crypto to them... then sell it all for stable coin of usdc or gusd? 



I mean... someone could test it out by sending say smaller amount... then putting the big amount to do it right?  Thus imagine someone with million dollars worth of crypto.  Send 5k there.  Then trade it all for usdc or gusd?  Then wait a minute... earn some money for the month.  Then send the rest of the million dollars there.  Sell it for stablecoin/gusd... then wait a year... make over 86000 dollars?  I mean... thats a lot of money a year in passive income for doing nothing if you have a million dollars in crypto... or the bank... dont most of you agree?  I have to assume there are ppl that are doing this with big amounts?  Of course i dont mean like a million... but imagine some with 6 figures.  Thats a lot of money in 8.6% interest if you do it all in stablecoin since you can immediately sell it for fiat.

Well I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt.
We all did getting into crypto.
Might as well let it work for me it may not be idea for all given their situations and history.


It's a bit risky on the lending aspect your absolutely right on that. No explanation needed.

I'm a risk taker. What can I say.

That's the main issue. All you can do is hope that they are taking the necessary measures and care. You have no way of knowing, no way of verifying, regardless of what they say.

The 4 day withdrawal is because they do not have your funds to return to you, and certainly not in cold storage. Your funds are loaned out to third parties or invested in high risk vehicles. It takes them time to either cash out or collect the necessary funds from various loan payments or what have you so they can process your withdrawal.

Disagree. These nuisances are a risk to your coins. Better to hold your coins and keys in your own wallet.

The way I see it, it is a lot of trust in technically 2 parties (Gemini being one and blockfi being the other.) I could argue the risk given historical circumstances in crypto but i choose to be a little more optimistic with this and have seen results.

Given the structure of the service I think I can write out scam potential. They have pretty lucrative revenues via fees. especially if you use there dashboard swaps.

I just got to hope they are taking necessary security measures with my coin.(4 day withdrawl makes me feel like majority of funds are cold,it also gives review time for suspicious activity.
I've been around long enough to know these are nuisance's but in my best interest.
 I dont personally use the stablecoin feature much as the fees make me hodl. That's kinda why I like blockfi it forces your hands to be stronger haha.

Same here. I've consistently heard about smart contracts flaws in the news. I just can't trust one that hasn't stood the test of time. Also as far as I've seen the yield rates are significantly lower for WBTC than on centralized platforms.

Maybe if we would have a respected audit company that could certify and insure the solidity of the code, I would use it. Until then it is too big of a risk for me.

I'm a tad paranoid about smart contracts malfunctioning, or unexpected results due to network congestion. MakerDAO's "Black Thursday" comes to mind.

If you want to lend bitcoins, I don't think there are any non-custodial options. The closest thing would be lending WBTC on a decentralized platform like Fulcrum.