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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.
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
Updates
BlockFi Rewards Visa Signature Credit Card
The BlockFi credit card pays cardholders 1.5% back in Bitcoin on every purchase and can be used globally, anywhere Visa is accepted.
Originally, the credit card came with an annual fee but it has been removed—probably in an attempt to compete with Gemini’s credit card which also has no annual fee.
There will be no foreign transaction fees.
User can enjoy 3.5% Bitcoin rewards ratefor the first 90 days.
Rebuilt Mobile App
BlockFi is relaunching their mobile apps to improve their clients’ ability to access BlockFi anywhere and anytime.
It is a product strategy to shift to a more client-centric, mobile-first model that boosts the ease and convenience of taking the platform on-the-go.
The new update added Dark Mode
They added graphs within the BlockFi Interest Account (BIA) page for people that want more tracking and visualizations of their assets.
Mobile users can now use Flex Interest Payments feature to receive monthly payments on all their interest-earning assets in a single designated cryptocurrency.
BlockFi Taps Blockstream for Mining Colocation Services
By partnering with Blockstream Mining, BlockFi seeks to complement their financial service offerings and diversify their sources of Bitcoin with Bitcoin mining.
Under Blockstream's end-to-end mining colocation services, BlockFi will eliminate the overhead costs of research, construction, and maintenance typically required when starting a large-scale Bitcoin mining operation.
By lowering these barriers to entry, Blockstream can expand institutional participation to help strengthen Bitcoin’s network security and further overall decentralization efforts.
Brink Sponsorship to Support Open Source Bitcoin Development
BlockFi recently donated 150k USD to aid in Brink’s mission of providing access to funding, education, and mentoring for the Bitcoin developer community.
By providing both financial and educational assistance to these developers, Brink is playing an important role in strengthening Bitcoin—and cryptocurrency as a whole—as an alternative to traditional financial systems.
700 BTC Error
In May 2021, some BlockFi users received 700 BTC due to a supposed error when distributing referral bonuses.
This error was the main reason why I moved a huge chunk of my funds off BlockFi and onto another platform.
Interest Earned
It has been 4 weeks since the last BlockFi report and during that time my portfolio lost roughly 2700 USD in total interest paid. I track my progress with each lending platform using a Google Spreadsheet.
Bitcoin (BTC) is currently at 35.9k USD while Ethereum (ETH) is at 2416 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 pulled back recently and they both have a strong impact on my interest earnings.
However, as a HODLer a market correction allows me to accumulate and compound my earnings so I can usually ignore market conditions.
Conclusion & Prospect
If you follow my progress reports, you should know that I consider my BlockFi portfolio as my personal retirement fund or 401k, but that is no longer the case. After the incident in May, I have lost a lot my trust in BlockFi. I still believe they can do well in the future, but I have already moved over 50% of my portfolio onto Ledn, a new platform recommended to me by C1S. Use C1S’s referral link to sign up with Ledn for a 25 USDC bonus. Ledn is backed by Coinbase but currently only accepts deposits of Bitcoin (BTC) or USD Coin (USDC).
I find it frustrating that I have to do extra verification steps on my flagged transactions because the amount being transferred is greater than 2500 USD. I have to upload a photo of my driver’s license, front and back, and then use my laptop’s camera to do a short video recording. Even though I have completed KYC (Know Your Customer), these extra steps are annoying. I understand that it is for security reasons and that is why I cannot comprehend how the platform was able to send 700 BTC “in error”.
Assuming BTC was worth 30k when the incident occurred, that would mean that BlockFi’s security system did not flag a 21 million USD transaction as suspicious and let it through. While my transaction, worth way less, was flagged as suspicious and I had to do all that extra steps in addition to a 24-48 hour withdrawal period.
I have given BlockFi plenty of chances, but I no longer feel that my funds are safe on the platform. I still have a decent amount on BlockFi because Ledn is currently limited to just BTC and USDC. If Ledn paid out interest on ETH, I would move those over as well. Also note that the interest rate on Ledn is better than BlockFi.
The announcement of the BlockFi credit card was a game changer, but Gemini is releasing its own with no annual fee and 3% cash back on any crypto of your choice. I think the main reason BlockFi removed its annual fee was because of the BTC incident in May and the announcement of the Gemini credit card. Shame on BlockFi for being reactive rather than proactive. As I have mentioned, BlockFi had first mover advantage when it came to the credit card but they did not act on it.
I will still keep a small amount on BlockFi even after I find a new home for my ETHs because I still want to spread my portfolio across several CeFi platforms. I will hold enough to get the best interest rates on my deposits. Notice that I have roughly 0.5 BTC on the platform because the rate is 5% for the first 0.5 BTC in your account and then it drops down to 2%.
I wish BlockFi the best of luck and hope that they can persuade me to move some of my deposits back in the future.
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.
You are currently reading the Free Version. If you would like more information, please consider switching to a paid subscription.
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.