The indicators began showing in every single place for Will Reeves lengthy earlier than he based Fold. In Argentina, a buddy confirmed him how households preserved wealth by Bitcoin throughout runaway inflation.
In Sonoma County, the place his household labored within the wine trade, he watched migrant staff get gouged by conventional remittance suppliers who charged usurious charges for sending cash residence.
Throughout Occupy Wall Avenue in Oakland, he witnessed PayPal donations getting shut down whereas bitcoin donations flowed by unimpeded.
“I had all these contact factors with Bitcoin all representing an extremely highly effective facet of it,” famous Will. Every interplay revealed one other superpower: wealth preservation, environment friendly remittances, censorship resistance, technological innovation.
However even with all these obvious indicators, it took years earlier than he made the leap.
The Silicon Valley Disconnect
Will had spent over a decade in Silicon Valley’s company machine, bouncing between main tech corporations and launching client cost merchandise. He was good at constructing issues, it was his calling, however one thing felt off.
“Even regardless of doing this in Silicon Valley with a bunch of unbelievable alternatives and tasks I set to work on, I by no means actually felt like I used to be fully aligned with what I used to be bringing to market,” he defined.
“I believed it was cool to construct, I believed there was an awesome alternative and I believed I might make one thing the world would love, however the alignment wasn’t there.”
The breakthrough got here round 2015 when he met his co-founder, who was engaged on a Bitcoin facet challenge. For the primary time, Will noticed how he might merge his two worlds: constructing distinctive merchandise and supporting one thing he genuinely believed in.
“That was actually inspiring the place I might truly lastly say I might deliver my worlds collectively constructing issues and issues that I care about,” he mentioned. “That was an entire unlock.”
Fixing the Flawed Drawback First
Fold’s early iteration centered on spending bitcoin, changing it to present playing cards or money so folks might store at locations that didn’t settle for it instantly. The logic appeared sound: Bitcoin holders wanted methods to spend their digital cash in the actual world.
However Will rapidly realized they have been fixing the incorrect downside.
“The issue was not sufficient folks had bitcoin,” he mentioned. “We have been fixing an issue that didn’t fairly exist or wasn’t even actually prepared for it.”
The perception that modified every part got here from connecting two observations: not sufficient folks personal bitcoin as a result of it’s a superior financial savings asset, and never sufficient folks have financial savings interval, no matter the place they’re from.
“These two insights introduced collectively this concept of wait, how can we construct a product that permits folks to passively construct financial savings that can be denominated in Bitcoin?” Will defined.
That’s when Fold pivoted to rewards. As an alternative of asking folks to spend bitcoin, they might assist folks earn it by on a regular basis purchases.
Constructing the Bitcoin Monetary Stack
Right this moment’s Fold bears little resemblance to that early present card conversion service. The platform has developed right into a complete monetary providers suite designed round one core precept: serving to customers find yourself with extra bitcoin than they began with every day.
The Fold debit card rewards customers with bitcoin on each buy. Premium Fold+ members get greater cashback charges, boosted spins, and unique giveaways.
Customers can direct deposit paychecks, arrange automated bitcoin purchases by dollar-cost averaging, allow round-ups on purchases, and even receives a commission instantly in bitcoin.
“Fold is a platform the place you possibly can absolutely port your private monetary exercise to, however to a platform that’s there particularly designed to just remember to find yourself with extra bitcoin than you began with every day,” Will mentioned.
The platform serves everybody from Bitcoin newcomers incomes rewards on Uber rides and Amazon purchases to maximalists “dwelling 100% of my life in Bitcoin and dwelling in a parallel monetary actuality to the remainder of the world.”
Most significantly, Fold offers the instruments to maneuver alongside that spectrum at your individual tempo.
“Possibly it’s not 100% conversion of your paycheck proper now. Possibly it’s 10%. Okay, let’s dial up the paycheck conversion there. Let’s improve your roundups,” Will defined. “It provides you this toolkit that follows your training into Bitcoin as you develop confidence.”
Surviving Bitcoin’s Volatility Cycles
Constructing a Bitcoin firm means accepting an extra layer of problem that almost all entrepreneurs by no means face.
Will describes it as “constructing on a transferring basis” not simply responding to buyer wants, however adapting to a complete trade determining its personal product-market match.
“When you could have 50% drawdowns in extremely brief durations of time… that provides a complete new problem issue,” he mentioned, noting the “absolute path of Bitcoin firm our bodies that obtained pushed by that meat grinder and didn’t make it out.”
The important thing to survival? Conservative progress and what Will calls “cockroach mode.”
“Development in any respect prices will destroy you in Bitcoin,” he warned. “You want to be terribly resilient, very conservative in the way you’re constructing your organization… and be ready to enter cockroach mode for years on finish.”
However those that survive the volatility cycles emerge stronger. Fold now holds over 1,000 BTC in its treasury and went public on NASDAQ in February 2025.
The Present Card Revolution
Fold’s latest innovation may be its most important: Bitcoin present playing cards showing in bodily retail places throughout America. Whereas most individuals uncover Bitcoin by brokerage accounts or cellular apps, Will sees a a lot bigger distribution alternative.
“Whenever you consider the place monetary providers are distributed immediately, it isn’t simply an app retailer. It’s not only a brokerage account. It’s actually in each retailer you store in,” he defined.
Present playing cards signify the proper Malicious program. They’re acquainted to customers “present playing cards are the primary present in America” and retailers have already got devoted sections for them. Extra importantly, retailers need Bitcoin prospects.
“These retailers know that Bitcoin is in a position to attract very worthwhile prospects who’re excessive earners… A lot of them have households. They need these prospects,” Will mentioned, pointing to Costco’s $200 million month-to-month gold gross sales as proof that Individuals need various belongings.
“You’re going to see this in 2025 get rolled out. Huge orange Bitcoin B’s are going to be gracing the checkout strains of the biggest retailers in America the place tens of millions of individuals store and belief already.”
Constructing Partnerships Past Conventional Finance
One among Fold’s most attention-grabbing developments is its integration with completely different corporations, comparable to Crowd Well being, a peer-to-peer healthcare funding firm that helps folks keep away from conventional insurance coverage. Will sees these partnerships as consultant of a broader shift.
“We’re speaking with life insurance coverage corporations, lending corporations, mortgage corporations,” he mentioned. “I feel this can be a imaginative and prescient that’s going to duplicate throughout Crowd Well being right into a bunch of different adjoining providers I feel Bitcoiners are going to like.”
These integrations matter as a result of they make Bitcoin a part of on a regular basis monetary life reasonably than a separate funding class.
When somebody can contribute to their well being protection with bitcoin or earn bitcoin rewards on insurance coverage funds, it turns into actually built-in into their monetary routine.
The Human Impression
Past the enterprise metrics and technical improvements, one of many issues Will likes to see is his prospects doing higher financially than their friends.
“Our prospects are extra assured, extra steady and extra optimistic about their monetary future,” he mentioned. “A part of it’s they’re genuinely doing higher than their friends. They’re outpacing their friends.”
Will sees this success in opposition to a troubling backdrop. “Everybody else resides in a world the place the instruments that they depend on are literally counterproductive to their finish monetary targets, that’s a very f****** massive story,” he mentioned.
It’s a significant achievement when lots of of 1000’s of individuals have earned bitcoin by Fold, with 1000’s now dwelling totally on bitcoin, particularly in a monetary system the place conventional instruments usually work in opposition to folks’s long-term pursuits.
Wanting Ahead
After I requested Will what he’d need to ask Satoshi Nakamoto if given the possibility, his reply revealed his perspective on Bitcoin’s evolution.
“I’d ask him what surprises him most about the place Bitcoin is immediately versus what he envisioned,” he mentioned. “Bitcoin has been unleashed into the world. It’s a virus that’s taking on folks to attain its ends at this level.”
Will sees Bitcoin as having “taken a lifetime of its personal” far past what any single particular person, even Satoshi, might have predicted. The technical developments, social adoption, and monetary integration have all exceeded early expectations.
Fold’s position in that evolution is obvious: making Bitcoin accessible to anybody keen to begin small. Whether or not you’re incomes your first satoshis on espresso purchases or changing your complete paycheck, Fold offers the infrastructure.
“Are we attaining a greater world for these which can be adopting Bitcoin and may we be device to assist that transition?” Will requested. For 1000’s of Fold customers stacking sats with each swipe, the reply seems to be sure.
As Bitcoin continues its march towards mass adoption, corporations like Fold are constructing the bridges that make that transition potential.
Not by complicated expertise or monetary jargon, however by easy instruments that meet folks the place they’re. Typically essentially the most revolutionary concepts are those that really feel fully regular.
