The New York City-based centralized cryptocurrency lending platform BlockFi is soon going to launch its services across Europe while providing users an opportunity to earn interest in retail products. The crypto lending startup has already begun testing its retail products in the pilot phase of this initiative in Italy.
BlockFi’s Vice President for Europe and Asia David Olsson has said that the firm will be rolling out its services for retail products initially in Italy, Switzerland, and the Netherlands by the first quarter of the next year. Talking about these markets, he said that they are large enough for them to work out there with their resources and can gain traction out there. Moreover, he said that these markets offer a stable environment with regulatory certainty.
Once these services get rolled out at the beginning months of the next year, citizens of these countries will be able to earn an interest of up to nine percent on their cryptocurrencies. The BlockFi Interest Account (BIA) is already offering an Annual Percentage Yield (APY) of around 9.3 percent to users in interest rates.
BlockFi, however, is not going to launch its services in the United Kingdom. This might be because of the ban that the UK’s financial regulatory authority the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) imposed on the sale of digital currency derivatives in October while restricting retail customers from derivatives trading.
With the launch of retail products services, BlockFi will enter Europe. This expansion has come following the two massive funding rounds completed in the year 2020. Firstly in the month of February, it raised an amount of $30 million in a Series B funding round which was led by the United States-based venture capital fund Valar Ventures. After that, the cryptocurrency lender completed the second funding round called Series C by raising an amount of $50 million in the month of August. This round was led by investment management firm Morgan Creek Digital. In total, the crypto lending startup has raised $80 million so far in the present year.