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 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 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 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>\nFold\u2019s Phases<\/h2>\n
Making Fold A Bitcoin App For Everyone<\/h2>\n
Wen Fold International?<\/h2>\n