TL;DR:
We have delayed the relaunch of the bitcoin buying feature as we work to diversify across trading and custody partners to eliminate single points of failure. The recent Prime Trust and Fortress events reinforce the need to do things in the right way vs. the fast way. We are in the process of onboarding new trading and custody partners which will make Fold the best place to buy bitcoin again– we just need a bit more time.
In June, we outlined our bitcoin buying and custody strategy, which aims to make Fold the best place to buy bitcoin. We committed to the following principles to achieve this:
- Add new trading partners to provide diversification, and offer the lowest cost spreads possible.
- Create redundancy across qualified custodians to protect against single points of failure.
- Strengthen our foundation to ensure a unique bitcoin buying experience with rewards, fun, and unique ways to stack.
While withdrawals have remained open, we have yet to relaunch bitcoin buying as we are actively adding new trading and custody partners to remove any and all single points of failure.
In June, we announced the addition of new partners, including Bitgo and Fortress to bolster our trading and custody operations. Since then, Fortress disclosed a breach that led to a loss of funds for four customers (Fold was unaffected), and later, they announced that Ripple was acquiring them. Events like this reinforce the critical importance of our strategy to eliminate single points of failure and influence our decision to relaunch bitcoin buying only when we have sufficiently diversified across trading and custody partners.
Over the next few weeks, we will announce new trading and custody partners that will be incorporated into our offering, as well as updated timelines on when we will relaunch the feature. We’re very excited for the feature to return because it also means you will be able to:
- Optimize your financial strategy with Flexible Dollar-Cost Averaging: automated bitcoin buying for greater investment control.
- Maximize spare change with Round-Ups and effortlessly invest in bitcoin.
- Accelerate transactions and withdrawals via Lightning.
Fold will never release something that we are not confident in, so we appreciate your patience as we build the best bitcoin buying experience. As always, we value your trust and support.
Team Fold
