Customers of cryptocurrency lender BlockFi will be paid interest on their Bitcoin (BTC), Gemini Dollar (GUSD) and Ether (ETH) holdings.
The New York-based startup has stated that no action is required on the part of clients who have a BlockFi Interest Account (BIA) to earn interest as their current holdings will be sufficient to be initiated into the program.
BlockFi’s founder and CEO, Zac Prince, has expressed optimism about the platform and the increase in trading activity by crypto speculators who leverage their wealth management products.
BlockFi team has also stated that the decision to remove the minimum deposit criteria will promote the BIA account to crypto enthusiasts.
Notably, earlier this year, the US based crypto lender established operations in India and is currently planning to setup shop in Latin America.
Co-founder and VP of operations, Flori Marquez said:
“Earlier this year, we expanded into new markets such as India. By making BIA open to all, we plan to target clients in Latin America, where banking services and credit reporting are limited. U.S.-grade financial products have typically only been available to high net worth individuals in countries like Argentina and Costa Rica. BlockFi’s platform leverages blockchain rails to make wealth management products available on a much broader scale.”
Recently, BlockFi raised $18.3 million through a financing round headed by Valar Ventures, one of three venture capital funds co-founded by Peter Thiel, who is also PayPal co-founder. BlockFi was the initial firm to raise funding in the US dollars from the US based institutions for its crypto based lending business.
Specifically, the company received $50 million lending facility from Galaxy Digital, In April 2019, BlockFi had more than $53 million in client crypto assets under administration.
