{"id":25485,"date":"2024-05-29T14:06:38","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T14:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/2024\/05\/29\/fold-will-be-your-bitcoin-bank-with-ceo-will-reeves\/"},"modified":"2024-05-29T14:06:38","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T14:06:38","slug":"fold-will-be-your-bitcoin-bank-with-ceo-will-reeves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/2024\/05\/29\/fold-will-be-your-bitcoin-bank-with-ceo-will-reeves\/","title":{"rendered":"Fold Will Be Your Bitcoin Bank With CEO Will Reeves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Founders:<\/strong> Will Reeves and Matt Luongo<\/p>\n

Date Founded:<\/strong> 2014; Most recent iteration of company: 2019<\/p>\n

Location of Headquarters:<\/strong> Remote<\/p>\n

Amount of Bitcoin Held in Treasury:<\/strong> \u201cStacking since the founding of Fold\u201d<\/p>\n

Number of Employees:<\/strong> 22<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> https:\/\/foldapp.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Public or Private?<\/strong> Private<\/p>\n

Will Reeves wants Fold to be your bitcoin bank.<\/p>\n

This may sound counterintuitive to hardcore Bitcoiners who believe that Bitcoin was created to replace banks, but Reeves, co-founder and CEO of Fold<\/a>, an app that allows Bitcoin enthusiasts to earn bitcoin rewards on everyday purchases as well as DCA into bitcoin, sees things more pragmatically.<\/p>\n

He believes that Fold will be the ultimate app to connect Bitcoin to not only the old world of traditional banking but to the new world of Bitcoin L2s, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can think of us creating the bridge to Bitcoin for those that are used to banking with traditional banks,\u201d Reeves told Bitcoin Magazine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re going to make the case why you should ditch your old bank and come to Fold, because we’re going to privilege and respect your bitcoin and unlock features that just don’t exist anywhere else,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also see a place on Fold for Lightning<\/a> to facilitate faster and cheaper payments for our users who are using bitcoin as peer-to-peer cash. We also think that there’s a place for Liquid<\/a> on Fold. And there\u2019s [a place for] roll ups, BitVM<\/a>, Ark<\/a>, [too.]\u201d<\/p>\n

Before you start thinking that maybe this sounds too good to be true \u2014 that it\u2019s impossible for one app to do all of this \u2014 it\u2019s important to keep in mind that Reeves and his team have spent the last decade paying attention to what Bitcoin users want and need most and recalibrating Fold\u2019s mission accordingly.<\/p>\n

Fold\u2019s Phases<\/h2>\n

Founded in 2014, Fold started out as a platform that helped users sell their unwanted gift cards for bitcoin. Not long after, the company started enabling its users to purchase gift cards with their bitcoin, as well. This helped Fold\u2019s users make everyday purchases at establishments like Starbucks or at certain supermarkets.<\/p>\n

In the company\u2019s second phase, Reeves and his co-founder Matt Luongo flipped the script and started allowing users to buy gift cards with fiat, earning bitcoin rewards in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe evolved because we saw the larger problem was that not enough people had bitcoin and there weren\u2019t enough good ways to get it,\u201d explained Reeves. \u201cThat’s why we focused heavily on rewards \u2014 to give everyone a way to passively earn bitcoin without a lot of the risk, without needing much education.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this third iteration of Fold, Reeves believes that Fold users are ready to incorporate Bitcoin into their financial lives more broadly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping to bring Bitcoin to the center of people\u2019s lives,\u201d he said. \u201cThe product has grown, and it\u2019s not just about earning bitcoin rewards, but using bitcoin as your savings, regularly buying it and spending it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making Fold A Bitcoin App For Everyone<\/h2>\n

Since its inception, Fold has been a bitcoin-only company. (Well, the platform supports US dollars, too, which some Fold users regard as just another \u201caltcoin,\u201d joked Reeves.)<\/p>\n

Reeves seems to appreciate taking on the challenge of finding a balance between meeting the needs of hardcore Bitcoiners who are looking to make the most use of their bitcoin and those who are new to Bitcoin.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I’ve tried to do is bring the best possible people to create a product that is both intimately familiar with the needs of Bitcoiners, while at the same time making the features that we produce usable for people who are maybe just using Bitcoin for the first time,\u201d said Reeves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a litmus test whenever we release things: The features need to be infinitely valuable to your local Bitcoin maximalist on Twitter and also good for that person to recommend to their mom, sister, brother or friend,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Reeves drew a parallel between using Fold and using an app like Duolingo, which serves different levels of language learners.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuolingo is both an app that is able to accommodate expert level language speakers looking to go to the next level as well as people who are looking for their first couple of vocabulary words in another language,\u201d explained Reeves. \u201cThat is something our design team has heavily leaned into.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wen Fold International?<\/h2>\n

Currently, Fold only serves US residents, and when I asked my followers on X what they\u2019d like me to ask Reeves before interviewing him for this piece, I received a number of \u201cWen International?\u201d responses. (The \u201ch\u201d in \u201cWhen\u201d is intentionally missing for those who aren\u2019t hip to Bitcoin slang.)<\/p>\n

Reeves shared that Fold is on the verge of launching more products internationally, though the products might not appear under the Fold brand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have currently built the infrastructure for Fold to expand into the likes of Canada and the UK, and we are going to lead with our rewards product first,\u201d explained Reeves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you start to think of other countries and their unique dynamics, sometimes Fold doesn\u2019t have that expertise in that local market. So, we have built a platform that allows others to leverage our entire infrastructure,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, you want to build a Bitcoin bank? You want to build custody, trading, attached to a bank account with a debit card and all of that? You can leverage that technology to launch something internationally. That is going to allow us to expand much faster with experts in the local area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reeves shared that this is how Fold\u2019s intellectual property is currently at work in El Salvador \u2014 Bitcoin country \u2014 where the company has offices<\/a>, before offering further insights into the value of Fold\u2019s intellectual property (IP).<\/p>\n

Fold\u2019s IP<\/h2>\n

Because Fold was early to developing in the Bitcoin space, it currently has a tech stack that is of great value. Reeves shared that this is the case not only with Fold, but with many Bitcoin startups.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re so early in this that essentially every Bitcoin startup that’s out there is building an immense amount of IP that doesn’t exist anywhere else,\u201d shared Reeves.<\/p>\n

He highlighted that what Fold has built is quite unique, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody has built what Fold has where you can have a Bitcoin wallet speaking to an FDIC-insured bank account that is attached to Visa that can flip back into bitcoin,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

He also believes that as bigger institutions enter the space, they\u2019ll leverage what Fold has built as they create their own Bitcoin products and features.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the value that Bitcoin companies are building now may look like consumer products today, but are actually full infrastructure plays that will be powering and underpinning products from the big logos when they want to jump into Bitcoin,\u201d said Reeves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all, as Bitcoin founders, look under the hood of what we’ve done and see, \u2018Hey, this is going to be immensely valuable to a lot of people and a lot of partners,\u2019\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Future Of Fold<\/h2>\n

Fold will soon make public new features for its app. While I can\u2019t yet disclose what these features are (you\u2019ll hear about them soon enough), I can share with you what Fold is looking to incentivize you to do, which, according to Reeves is the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cDitch your bank that keeps shutting down your payments to buy Bitcoin. Ditch your bank that is blocking you from loans because you work at a Bitcoin company.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s no reason why Bitcoiners should be using fiat banks that cancel their bitcoin buys saying they’re risky payments,\u201d Reeves added.<\/p>\n

\u201cFold is creating a home that privileges people that hold bitcoin. This doesn’t really exist today.\u201d<\/p>\n

And beyond giving Bitcoin enthusiasts a better traditional banking experience and a great place to stack sats, Fold will is also looking to the future \u2014 to Bitcoin L2s like Lightning, Liquid and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vision really comes together when we say, \u2018Hey, there\u2019s no door that you cannot use your Bitcoin through. There’s no rail on which you cannot use it,\u2019\u201d explained Reeves. \u201cFold needs to deliver on \u2018I hold bitcoin and I can seamlessly send value across traditional fiat rails. I can send value across Lightning. I can send value across Liquid and all expansive other definitions of other Bitcoin layers that can give new value to Bitcoiners.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Download the Fold app <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Founders: Will Reeves and Matt Luongo Date Founded: 2014; Most recent iteration of company: 2019 Location of Headquarters: Remote Amount of Bitcoin Held in Treasury: \u201cStacking since the founding of Fold\u201d Number of Employees: 22 Website: https:\/\/foldapp.com\/ Public or Private? Private Will Reeves wants Fold to be your bitcoin bank. This may sound counterintuitive to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crypto-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25485"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}