But fast forward to today and BlockFi came out with some wonderful news. They decided to finally drop the annual fee, meaning that the card will be free to use. (Aside from paying for your purchases of course). They did decide to do away the sign-up bonus that required you to spend thousands of dollars just to qualify for, but I feel this is for the best. This decision will help more people in the long run, and also make the card more viable for most people.
This is a product line that I have been wanting for quite a long time. The opportunity to earn a little extra BTC every time you make a purchase is a great way to continue to stack those Sats and work your way towards financial freedom. And who knows; in the future those BTC rewards back that you received could actually become more valuable than the cost of the item that you purchased.
But what did I think about the card back then? I thought it was below average. The reward rates weren't anything special, but the real kicker was that there was a $200 annual fee just to use the credit card. In many cases that annual fee would equal to be a larger amount than the BTC rewards an average user would receive throughout the year. BlockFi tried to downplay this by offering a sign-up bonus that would essentially erase that fee, but you had to spend a few thousand dollars just to qualify. This fact turned quite a few people off. Then other competitor cards began showing up. Gemini unveiled a Bitcoin rewards back credit card that was pretty much exactly the same as what BlockFi was going to offer, but they didn't charge an annual fee to use the card. At that moment the card had almost died.
A few months ago I wrote an article talking about the upcoming BlockFi Bitcoin credit card. And at the time I wasn't sure what to think about it. It is the first of its kind, a real credit card that gives you rewards back in bitcoin. There are other cards out there on the market, but up until this point they have all been debit cards.