BlockFi Progress Report 📈

HODLer's Den

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Disclaimer: Nothing in this report constitutes investment advice—I am just reporting on my accounts and its progress on each platform. You should not use this report to make financial decisions. I recommend you seek professional advice from someone who is authorized to provide investment advice.

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Hey everyone and welcome to the HODLer’s Den!

Here you will find information on my crypto investment portfolio straight from a HODLer’s perspective.  This section will focus on HODLing cryptos and interest-earning platforms.

BlockFi

Giving the Gift of Crypto

• BlockFi’s crypto survey showed “that while crypto is becoming a more popular topic, there are a lot more ‘crypto curious’ folks out there who could benefit from further education on how to invest in crypto and how the blockchain technology itself works.”

Topline findings from the “Real Talk: Happy HODLdays” survey include: 

• Crypto could dominate many “HODLday” dinner table conversations: One in three respondents said they are more interested in talking about crypto instead of politics or their love lives with their friends and family this holiday season.

• Crypto as a gift is taking HODL: One in 10 respondents plan to gift crypto for the 2021 HODLday.

• Knowledge on how to give crypto remains low, with less than 25% of respondents stating that they actually know how to give crypto as a present.

• Bitcoin reigns supreme (<75%) as the crypto of choice for gifting and receiving, with Dogecoin and Ethereum coming in as second and third, respectively. 

• Looking to the New Year, one in four respondents said they are likely to purchase crypto in 2022, again with Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Ethereum being the most popular. 

People Love Earning Crypto Cash Back

• As I have mentioned in previous reports, BlockFi has the first mover advantage with a credit card that earns crypto cash back.

• While I do earn more cash back in CRO (5%) with my Crypto.com debit card, the card has to be funded. I also feel that credit cards have better security so I tend to use my BlockFi credit card at lesser known establishments.

 Here are the top discoveries from BlockFi Rewards Credit Card cardholders: 

• Bitcoin rewards > cashback rewards: 66% of cardholders spend less with cashback cards because they have a crypto alternative.

• Crypto is becoming the default card: Nearly 50% of respondents use the BlockFi Rewards Credit Card for at least 75 percent of their total card purchases

• Brine, baste, and Bitcoin for the HODLdays: Grocery spend the week of Thanksgiving increased by 12% vs the typical week, while dining spend categories were down.

• Shop until you drop for the HODLdays: Category spending in shopping jumped to nearly 50% of all purchases the week of Thanksgiving, up from 40% of all-time spend. Unsurprisingly, grocery spend nearly doubled from the 8% of normal cardholder weekly spend. 

• Crypto rewards are king in California: Eureka! The Golden State accounts for over 20% of all crypto rewards earned by BlockFi Rewards cardholders. More than double the share of all spending of the next two highest earning states, Texas and Florida.

• Bullish on Bitcoin: BlockFi recently launched Rewards Flex which gives cardholders the option to earn their credit card rewards in any cryptocurrency available to them on the BlockFi platform. After the release only ~5% of cardholders opted to receive their rewards in a cryptoasset other than Bitcoin. 

• CardHODLers: Cardholders are overwhelmingly HODLers, especially when it comes to Bitcoin. 89% of cardholders retained their bitcoin and haven’t traded out of it for another cryptoasset since starting their accounts, which is 5% higher than the rest of the BlockFi clientbase.*

BlockFi Interest Account (BIA) Rates Change

• Rates and tiers starting on January 1, 2022 for Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Chainlink (LINK), and Basic Attention Token (BAT) holdings in the BlockFi Interest Account (BIA). Bitcoin (BTC), Uniswap (UNI), Pax Gold (PAXG) and all Stablecoin rates will remain the same.

  

  

Interest Earned

It has been 4 weeks since the last BlockFi report and during that time my portfolio lost over 350 USD in total interest paid. I track my progress with each lending platform using a Google Spreadsheet.

Bitcoin (BTC) is currently at 47.4k USD while Ethereum (ETH) is at 3743 USD. Both of these assets make a majority of my BlockFi portfolio and it is clearly reflected in my portfolio.

Both of these assets have taken major hits in the recent market liquidation and Omicron news.

However, as a HODLer I can usually ignore market fluctuations and continue to accumulate and compound my earnings.

You can use the Interest Rate Tracker to find the best APR rates across several platforms to fit your HODLing needs.

Conclusion & Prospect

Once again we see adjustments to the BIA, but I have no hate for BlockFi this time around because Celsius Network is doing the exact same thing. BlockFi introduced tiers and soon after we saw Celsius Network doing the same thing even though they made fun of BlockFi for doing it.

I believe most CeFi lending platforms are reaching a plateau on what they can offer because DeFi is dominating in terms of higher APRs and faster transactions. At this point the only possible things CeFi can offer are insurance and security on deposited assets. One must use caution when interacting with DeFi protocols as they are extremely risky.

I try my best to balance risk and benefits. This means spreading my assets across CeFi and DeFi. I definitely have more in CeFi because it is safer, but the gains on DeFi is way better. For DeFi, I try to find a stable platform that has auto compounding—most, if not all, platforms have this feature by now. As a HODLer I do not mind paying a performance fee to have my deposits auto compound.

I believe the BlockFi credit card is the main feature that makes it an attractive platform to many. It still remains the only crypto platform—that I am aware of—to utilize a credit card and not a debit card. I use my BlockFi through Apple Pay for all of my purchases because it allows me to dollar cost average into Bitcoin. And now with flex, users can earn cash back in other coins/tokens.

I wish everyone a Happy New Year and I hope to see Bitcoin (BTC) hit that targeted 100k USD mark in the coming months!

Each week I will report on a different interest-earning platform that I use—mainly, Celsius Network, Bitrue, Crypto.com, and BlockFi.

If you are new to crypto or have considered joining new platforms, check out the Starter Pack created by CryptoOneStop by clicking here or if you want to earn over 250 USD in referral bonuses then click here.

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What I Am Doing

This section is dedicated to paid subscribers as I will go into details of what moves I am making with my interest-earning portfolios.