BlockFi, the wealth management start-up for virtual currencies has declared to pay interest for any amount of BTC, ETH, and GUSD deposited on the platform. As per the announcement of 13th September, clients who have Interest account of BlockFi (BIA) will not have to meet any minimum deposit balance, to be eligible for the interest on the aforementioned cryptocurrencies.
Recently, the company has also expanded its service to India. This means that they are present all around the world now, except for the countries sanctioned by the UK, US, and EU. They are now preparing to enter the South American market.
Flori Marquez, the co-founder and Vice president of the company, has said this year they have entered few new markets. After making BIA available to all, they are focusing on Latin American clients where banking service and credit reporting have limited scope. Till now, US grade financial services were available only to the people of Argentina and Costa Rica. The platform leverages the blockchain rail to make the wealth management product available to a much wider range of clients.
The platform launched its BIA service from March this year, during that time, one Bitcoin was traded at $4000. After observing this price surge of Bitcoin and analyzing the feedback from the client, the platform decided to waive off the minimum deposit amount and transform it to an interest account for the broader range of clients.
The platform has also removed early withdrawal penalty in addition to this. Thus, making one withdrawal free for all its clients.
The expansion plans of the company have got powered by Series A funding rounds. They have secured $18 million from this funding series. Companies like Valar Ventures and PayPal invested in the funding round. This has removed the roadblocks for the business expansion. They are the first company of the United States to receive institutional funding for crypto-based loans.
However, the notable fact is that the accounts are till date following the withdrawal minimum of Gemini, which is 0.056 ETH and 0.003 BTC. For the processing of small amount, it may take a month.
BlockFi is adding a few more features to its platform. Recently, they have added Interest Payment Flex that allows the clients to receive interest in one out of the three existing currencies.
