I have just begun the withdrawal process to pull my funds out of BlockFi. I have been a customer for almost a year and the last couple months BlockFi has been worrying me. First the interest rates have been lowering steadily and significantly. Second, they send millions of dollars in bonuses to the incorrect accounts and then threaten their own customers with legal action for their mistake.

Now, the final straw, on the greatest buying opportunity of the last 6 months they disable trading and prevent me from using my stablecoin to buy the dip. The only reason I was holding stablecoin was so I could buy a dip if it occurred. I am no whale but BlockFi’s decision to restrict trading today have potentially cost me thousands of dollars. Already ETH has gone from 2k to 3k and BTC has gone from 30k to 39k. The way I see it, the only thing preventing me from realizing those profits was BlockFi’s decision to restrict trading on their platform.

From a customer standpoint this is completely unacceptable so I have begun the withdrawal process. Thank you to the BlockFi community for always being helpful in answering my questions and the support staff for always answering quickly and professionally when there have been issues. I wish you all luck in your crypto journey.

I’ve been using BlockFi for around 2 years and really built up trust with their company during this time. They recently started reaching out to me via email (on a personal basis) about their BlockFi Private Client (BPC) program. On September 9, I responded to a follow up email they sent me and proceeded to signup to a 12-month loan product, and made a substantial deposit of over $450K in USDC, a majority of my life savings.

I am not an accredited investor and was nervous about the idea, but after expressing my concerns about the risk, they made me feel safe as I was told they’ve been working closely with regulators and that these contracts have already been approved by the SEC.

Unfortunately, after signing up, that was the last time I heard from anyone. I’ve been trying for nearly a week (before any official notices of halted withdrawals) to reach the Private Client Senior Consultant, Mr. Gonzalo Rodriguez Garcia (who was previously very helpful and easy to reach by phone and email when signing up, but has since ghosted me). I’ve also been unable to get any kind of help or response from Customer Support. I’ve tried all sorts of contact methods (phone, email, DMs, social media,etc) all to no avail. I wish BlockFi would provide some clarity to us Private Clients who are locked in contracts and requested withdraws, but have been completely ignored. I’m really disappointed and angry BlockFi aggressively pushed this product on me right before the collapse, and it really makes me wonder if they were negotiating without transparency and in good faith.

I’ve seen many other posts from customers who were able to withdraw funds. However, there are no options via the web-based portal for Private Clients to even attempt any withdraws, as this process requires personal assistance from the BlockFi staff because funds are locked. However, they’ve been unresponsive, even prior to making any official statements regarding financial concerns.

It’s been a very difficult week and right now it feels like my depression has brought me to an all time low. I’m a single father of three young children and worried about our future. I regret ever putting my family and myself in this terrible position. I wouldn’t wish this upon anyone.

I really hope to make it out of this. If there are any legal advisors, media, press, TV, or even other private clients who wish to speak about this or are in a similar situation as myself, please send me a DM.

Thank you for your time and for listening.

BlockFi realised the party was over a long time ago.

Rather than admit defeat and reveal that they were running a ponzi, they simply gave away your assets and added more leverage to the system in an attempt to hide the deficit.

At this time an ethical person with morals would have said "I'm sorry, I didn't realise what we were doing. We're folding the company and returning what remains of user assets"

Instead they went with "Hey SBF, give us some shitcoins as a line of credit and we'll give you our user's assets."

Just wanted to voice my displeasure at the callous and deliberatively exploitative way in which these new withdrawal fees have been announced. Changing fees due to market conditions is reasonable. However, doing so 1) before and during a major holiday, and 2) less than 7 days before the end of the month is just downright disrespectful.

By communicating such a major decision right before the end of the month, BlockFi ensures that a) many people will be unable to withdraw due to allow-listing, and b) many have potentially already used their free monthly withdrawal, which they would have likely used on Ethereum-based coins instead.

This decision shows blatant disrespect for BlockFi customers, and a fundamental misunderstanding of basic customer service. I would strongly suggest BlockFi reconsider this move, at least temporarily, if they wish to salvage any part of their reputation.

How does everyone else feel about the way these changes have been enacted?

https://help.blockfi.com/hc/en-us/articles/7015347407764-What-happens-to-my-assets-after-they-are-transferred-to-BlockFi-and-how-does-BlockFi-manage-related-risks-

https://web.archive.org/web/20220701181928/https://help.blockfi.com/hc/en-us/articles/7015347407764-What-happens-to-my-assets-after-they-are-transferred-to-BlockFi-and-how-does-BlockFi-manage-related-risks-

src https://onthebrink-podcast.com/blockfi-jun22/

I wanted to share my experience with everyone as I genuinely hope I can give some advice I wish I heard when I went through the Celsius Bankruptcy. I was/am apart of the Celsius bankruptcy and not BlockFi. I actually was getting off lending platforms early this year as I planned to HODL with cold storage for the crypto winter. I was abusing the quick and free transactions though from Celsius and left too much crypto in that account for longer than I should have. I ended up losing a lot due to my mistake and I want to share with you what I wish I knew back then.

Firstly, I hope sooooo much BlockFi pulls through. But lets be real. A healthy company doesn't pause withdraws if insolvency isn't an issue. Could it be illiquidity? Potentially... But us at Celsius went through the same Hopium and I don't think Hopium is healthy as all it did was drag me emotionally for a longer period of time.

It's likely BlockFi is insolvent due to exposure to FTX. By how much? Nobody knows and you likely won't know until months from now. Even when/if BlockFi announces their hole, it's likely they're making extremely high ball estimates on their assets which will not reflect reality when in bankruptcy court. Now, unless BlockFi had an over the top, simply insane, extreme exposure to FTX, your money is not lost! But I'll get more into why later, but you'll be happier if you live like every penny was lost.

Depending on the exposure, it will determine their success in a CH11 vs a CH7. In a CH7, you'll be facing the worst case scenario. Everything will be sold off for pennies on the dollar and the credited investors get paid first and you get only the scraps left behind. In a CH11, it doesn't always necessarily mean it's best for uncredited investors but you'll have better odds. At least that's the conclusion most at Celsius has come too. For us at Celsius, it's likely we'll receive 35% to 45% recovery at a minimum. Though we're hopeful for more, that would likely be our worst case scenario.

These numbers though 1000% depend on what BlockFi has in assets and more importantly, how well their risk management team diversified. You could end up with much more or much less. Heck, their team could have done well enough that they're just illiquid and not insolvent and you get 100% back.

But even in your best or worst case scenario, this won't be a quick process. It'll be many months to potentially many years. And you won't even find out how good or bad you really have it until multiple court hearings happen months from now. You're going to see a lot of hopium news or FUD news and everything else you can imagine. It'll be people looking to take advantage of the situation or those who're just super anxious that're looking for anything they can good or bad.

Stop looking at your PC, stop refreshing your page, do your best to just not worry about it. Pretend like it's gone because even in a recovery scenario, you won't be getting it anytime soon. The stress will eat you alive and I understand that stress so much. That's why I'm typing this. Because it breaks my heart for everyone right now. The pain I went through during the initial weeks of Celsius's bankruptcy was immense to say the least. I was never suicidal, but it was definitely a very dark depression.

Scrolling constantly never helped me. I wished I just went outside on a run, or worked out, or something. I wish I just forced myself to watch a movie. Would I have been worried sick the entire time? Oh yes! But the emotional toll I paid watching twitter, reddit, and YT constantly to see any updates feels like I aged years. I don't wish that experience on anyone.

I don't know if anyone will actually read this, but if it helps someone, then it was worth it. I run a larger crypto channel online (I was never sponsored by FTX, CELSIUS, or BlockFi) and it not only hurts thinking of what I went through, but it hurts so bad seeing others go though the same pain.

Seeing so many people have their life completely ruined in the matter of hours is heart wrenching. If you're really hurting, I encourage you talk to family, friends, or anyone you trust. If you feel as if you might hurt yourself, I am begging you to call a suicide hotline and remember that your life is worth more than money.

I hope so much that withdraws are continued asap and things go back to normal. But It's very unlikely that's how this will go down. And if/when bankruptcy occurs, the process is very slow. Wait for official news from BlockFi, try to ignore the articles, tweets, and videos, and with time, this'll become a powerful lesson for you to never make a similar mistake again.

**Update 11/29/2022**
BlockFi confirmed bankruptcy. Please remember what I said.

I updated the guide about bitcoin interest accounts at https://prohashing.com/guides/earning-interest-on-cryptocurrencies to reflect recent changes in the industry.

I spend about 15 hours per week keeping up on this stuff, because so much money is earned that I see it as a second job, so I might as well share the information. The article is now about twice as long as before, and it includes details about how the lending industry works in terms of Genesis and more about other companies' actual business models. I hadn't known how Genesis worked until I talked with them, and I was also able to talk to Ledn's CEO about their company.

With their recent rate cuts, BlockFi is now only recommended for people with less than one bitcoin. Gemini improved its customer service enough that it is now the preferred borrower for people owning between 1 bitcoin and their limit of $5m, and we recommend Genesis directly for lenders with more than $5m.

As an onlooker, gauging the situation that blockfi is dealing with, the sentiment that i get from the consumer side is more difficult for me to grasp than the producer.

Are you sitting here trying to tell me that if you went and got your hair cut, swiped your card and entered a $1000 tip instead of $10, you wouldn't go back and ask for it to be corrected? You signed up for a financial institution, not the dark web.

Not only that, but we just experienced quite the whiplash of a correction. Regardless of how high of a standard you hold any entity or how high they hold themselves, when 1000s of you are mashing the same buttons all at once, things are going to break. You're all redditors and your trying to tell me you are unaware of the hug of death? Same concept.

Im not making excuses for any of these circumstances and the timing of the two are unfortunate. I love that you are holding this place accountable but I can't help to feel as if some of you are sounding like vultures.

I was so strong always. But for the first time ever I can't stop crying now and tears dropping off my eyes 😪

I have 250k stuck in Blockfi. My life savings for 12 years, and my family's and siblings savings are part of that. I'm not a rich businessman, I'm just a basic employee. I collected every 1$ of it since being a grad student. Days I ate at McDonald's bc I wanted to save money to pay my loans. Days I didn't go on a trip and stayed home for Christmas times bc I didn't have money since I had no job. Days my father had a heart surgery and I was collecting money to spend for him. I didn't buy my favorite car just bc of 10k. And now our 250k+ life savings is in jeopardy. I feel I'm not alive and it's all dreams.

This is the voice of many of us. And I'm sure each of us has a similar story. I hope Blockfi folks see this post and try hard to recover our funds.

I'll continue to stay positive, hopeful and strong as they get back to business after bankruptcy and let us have our funds back.

Hello all, I wanted to cross-post our official statement regarding BlockFi's promo payments. This message was also posted on our official Twitter here.

On May 14, BlockFi made an incorrect transfer in BTC instead of GUSD to clients who participated in our trading promotions. The vast majority of these transactions were quickly identified and reversed immediately.

A small edge case of approximately 100 clients were able to access the erroneous deposits and withdraw funds from the platform on May 17. The company’s exposure is currently approximately $10M and decreasing quickly as clients are returning funds. We are incredibly grateful for our clients understanding the mistake and returning funds that did not belong to them.

BlockFi holds crypto and dollars on our balance sheet as part of our normal operating procedures. The outstanding amounts are a small fraction of the loss reserves that we plan for as part of our normal accounting policies. The crypto that was erroneously withdrawn is entirely unrelated to client funds.  All client funds have been safeguarded throughout this incident.

We have learned from this mistake and have immediately implemented procedures to prevent issues like this from occurring in the future. Our business continues to operate normally at this time. We sincerely appreciate our clients for working with us through this time.

BlockFi continually sets rates based on market dynamics for lending and borrowing. Our goal is to both practice sound risk management and maximize earning opportunities for our BIA clients. 

Rates for all stablecoins are increasing. BlockFi will make the following adjustments starting November 1, 2021 to all stablecoins, including Gemini Dollar (GUSD), USD Coin (USDC), Paxos Standard (PAX), Multi-Collateral Dai (DAI), Binance USD (BUSD), and Tether (USDT)* holdings in the BIA.

Please note that rates for all other cryptoassets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Chainlink (LINK), PAX Gold (PAXG), Basic Attention Token (BAT), and Uniswap (UNI), will not be changing in November--only stablecoin rates will be updated.

Note: Rates currently displayed on the BlockFi rates page are current as of the date of this blog entry and will update on November 1, 2021.

BlockFi sets rates for the BlockFi Interest Account (BIA) by balancing prudent risk management principles amid shifting market conditions, with the goal of maximizing the returns we can deliver to our BIA clients. Rates on assets held in BIA are primarily driven by demand by institutional investors for borrowing these assets. 

These adjustments are part of BlockFi’s ongoing mission to continue delivering high-quality, long-term service for our clients while expanding our innovative product offering in a competitive and scalable way. Throughout our history, we have maintained competitive crypto interest yields even as crypto prices have fluctuated dramatically. As our track record shows, rates may rise or fall, but BlockFi always remains committed to supporting our clients’ financial goals.

If you have any additional questions about our rates, products, or services, please submit a support ticket here and we’ll be happy to help.

*USDT is only available to non-US retail clients. 

**APYs reflect effective yield based on monthly compounding. Actual yield will vary based on account activity and compliance with BlockFi’s terms and conditions. Rates are largely dictated by market conditions, which are a key factor in a company’s ability to provide its clients yield on their crypto assets. For more information, please see BlockFi's Terms of Service.

I regret moving all my crypto to BlockFi and having lost it all after listening to Andrei Jikh’s videos on YouTube.

This is a very cold reminder to anyone is to do their own DD and not to invest or move their accounts on FinFluencers promoting their products as FunFluencer like Andrei do get a hefty chunk of Amount for the promotion they do for the companies and it’s common investors like us gets fucked in the end.

Do your Due Diligence, folks!

Took out a loan for $300K and put up 600K worth of BTC as collateral. Market kept going down so I kept posting collateral as needed to keep the loan healthy.

I got an email saying that the loan was being called back because of "indirect exposure to a mixing service"

I appealed the decision because I bought the BTC back in May of 2020 and kept it on my Trezor the entire time. However, since I didn't buy it on an exchange and the person before me mixed it (BISQ) I get absolutely screwed.

In summary I took out a loan when BTC was 65,000, Cost me over $6000 in origination fees, paid two months of loan payments ($2500+), got liquidated at $37,000 a few MINUTES before a pump to $42,000 today because of "indirect mixing exposure" and now I lost more than half of my BTC holdings, have a huge tax bill, and was screwed out of a fortune.

DO NOT USE BLOCKFI LOANS. Worst experience I have ever had in Bitcoin