Founders: Will Reeves and Matt Luongo
Foundation date: 2014; Most recent iteration of the company: 2019
Headquarters Location: Remote
Amount of bitcoin held in Treasury: “Stacking since the founding of Fold”
Number of employees: 22
Website: https://foldapp.com/
Public or Private? Private
Will Reeves wants Fold to be his bitcoin bank.
This may seem counterintuitive to hardcore Bitcoiners who believe bitcoin was created to replace banks, but Reeves, co-founder and CEO of FoldAn app that allows bitcoin enthusiasts to earn bitcoin rewards on everyday purchases as well as DCA on bitcoin, sees things more pragmatically.
He believes Fold will be the ultimate app to connect bitcoin not only to the old world of traditional banking but also to the new world of bitcoin L2.
“You can think of us creating the bridge to bitcoin for those who are used to banking at traditional banks,” Reeves told bitcoin Magazine.
“We'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 bitcoins and unlock features that simply don't exist anywhere else,” he added.
“We also see a place in Fold for Lightning to facilitate faster and cheaper payments for our users who use bitcoin as peer-to-peer cash. We also think there's a place for Liquid on Fold. And there is (a place for) roll-ups, BitVM, Ark (too).”
Before you start thinking that maybe this sounds too good to be true (that there's no way one app can do all of this), it's important to note that Reeves and his team have spent the last decade paying attention to what users want. of bitcoin and more we need it and recalibrate Fold's mission accordingly.
Fold phases
Founded in 2014, Fold started as a platform that helped users sell their unwanted gift cards for bitcoins. Not long after, the company began allowing its users to also purchase gift cards with their bitcoins. This helped Fold users make everyday purchases at establishments like Starbucks or certain supermarkets.
In the company's second phase, Reeves and his co-founder Matt Luongo flipped the script and began allowing users to purchase gift cards with fiat money, earning bitcoin rewards in the process.
“We evolved because we saw that the biggest problem was that there weren't enough people who had bitcoin and there weren't enough good ways to get it,” Reeves explained. “That's why we focus a lot on rewards: to give everyone a way to passively earn bitcoins without much risk and without needing much education.”
In this third version of Fold, Reeves believes Fold users are ready to incorporate bitcoin into their financial lives more broadly.
“We hope to bring bitcoin to the center of people's lives,” he said. “The product has grown and it's not just about earning bitcoin rewards, it's about using bitcoin as savings, buying it and spending it regularly.”
Make Fold a bitcoin app for everyone
Since its inception, Fold has been a bitcoin-only company. (Well, the platform also supports US dollars, which some Fold users consider just another “altcoin,” Reeves joked.)
Reeves seems to appreciate taking on the challenge of finding a balance between meeting the needs of hardcore Bitcoiners looking to get the most out of their bitcoin and those who are new to bitcoin.
“One thing I've tried to do is bring together the best people possible to create a product that is intimately familiar with the needs of Bitcoiners and at the same time make the features we produce usable for people who may only be using bitcoin for the first time,” said Reeves.
“We have a litmus test every time we publish things: the features must be infinitely valuable to your local bitcoin maximalist on twitter and also good for that person to recommend to their mother, sister, brother or friend,” he added.
Reeves drew a parallel between using Fold and using an app like Duolingo, which serves different levels of language learners.
“Duolingo is an app that can suit expert-level language speakers looking to move to the next level, as well as people looking for their first vocabulary words in another language,” Reeves explained. “That's something our design team has leaned into a lot.”
Wen Fold International?
Fold currently only serves US residents, and when I asked my followers on answers. (The “h” in “When” is intentionally missing for those unfamiliar with bitcoin lingo.)
Reeves shared that Fold is about to launch more products internationally, although the products may not appear under the Fold brand.
“We have currently built the infrastructure for Fold to expand to countries like Canada and the United Kingdom, and we are going to lead our rewards product first,” Reeves explained.
“When you start thinking about other countries and their unique dynamics, sometimes Fold doesn't have that experience in that local market. Therefore, we have built a platform that allows others to take advantage of our entire infrastructure,” he added.
“So, you want to build a bitcoin bank? Do you want to create custody, trading, attach to a bank account with a debit card and all that? You can leverage that technology to launch something internationally. “That will allow us to expand much faster with experts in the local area.”
Reeves shared that this is how Fold's intellectual property currently works in El Salvador, the country of bitcoin, where the company has offices, before offering more information on the value of Fold's intellectual property (IP).
Fold IP
Because Fold was one of the first to develop in the bitcoin space, it currently has a technology stack that is of great value. Reeves shared that this is the case not only for Fold, but for many bitcoin startups.
“We're so early in this that virtually every bitcoin startup out there is building an immense amount of intellectual property that doesn't exist anywhere else,” Reeves shared.
However, he highlighted that what Fold has built is quite unique.
“No one has built what Fold has, where you can have a bitcoin wallet connected to an FDIC-insured bank account that's attached to Visa and that can be converted back to bitcoin,” he explained.
He also believes that as larger institutions enter the space, they will take advantage of what Fold has built by creating their own bitcoin products and features.
“Much of the value that bitcoin companies are generating now may seem like consumer products today, but they are actually works of complete infrastructure that will power and support the products of the big brands when they want to jump to bitcoin,” Reeves said.
“All of us, as founders of bitcoin, look at what we've done and see, 'Hey, this is going to be immensely valuable to a lot of people and a lot of partners,'” he added.
The future of the fold
Fold will soon make new features public for its app. While I can't reveal what these features are yet (you'll hear about them soon), I can share with you what Fold seeks to encourage you to do, which, according to Reeves, is:
“Get rid of your bank that keeps closing your payments to buy bitcoin. Get rid of your bank that blocks your loans because you work at a bitcoin company.”
“There is no reason why Bitcoiners should use trust banks that cancel their bitcoin purchases saying they are risky payments,” Reeves added.
“Fold is creating a home that privileges people who own bitcoins. “This doesn’t really exist today.”
And beyond giving bitcoin enthusiasts a better traditional banking experience and a great place to accumulate sats, Fold will also look to the future: bitcoin L2 like Lightning, Liquid, and more.
“The vision really comes into fruition when we say, 'Hey, there's no door you can't use your bitcoin through.' There's no lane that can't be used,'” Reeves explained. “Fold needs to deliver on the concept 'I have bitcoins and can seamlessly send value over traditional fiat rails.' I can send value via Lightning. 'I can send value through Liquid and all the other broad definitions of other bitcoin layers that can give new value to Bitcoiners.'”
Download the Fold app here.
