Xapo Bank: a pro bitcoin bank that supports lightning network \ stacker news ~bitcoin

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Xapo Bank: a pro bitcoin bank that supports lightning network

125 sats \ 36 comments \ @025b3f351f 5 Aug 2023 bitcoin

Hi,

I opened an account on https://www.xapobank.com/ and I really like their services. They pay the yield from dollar deposits in Sats, have cashback of card in Sats too. They even support lightning network. If someone would like to open an account in Xapo, you can use my referral code, we both win 30 dollars in sats. Code: URT-BSN-KF

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4 sats \ 2 replies \ @asdasd123sadasd2 5 Aug 2023

Ok so I do use this account, here is some additional information for those interested:

The company has a long story. It was funded by Wenceslao Casares in 2013 and owns a military bunker for cold storage on Switzerland (look it up).

Also the accounts are insured by Gibraltar up to 100k EUR.

Accounts are in USD, but funded in BTC, EUR, GBP, or USDT/USDC (ERC20 sadly).

You earn 4% on sats yearly paid daily for your savings in fiat.

Other perks you get is you have an unlimited international Visa debit card (1.1% cashback in sats) without limit - the limits is your deposits.

You can buy btc from the app and send to your CW, also you can pay with lightning up to 100 USD per transaction.

Keep in mind that the account costs 150 USD / year to maintain. So you will have to deposit minimum 4k USD to cover the costs (or use the debit card for travels, online purchases, etc).

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @025b3f351f OP 5 Aug 2023

Thanks for the additional information.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 5 Aug 2023

I will call it 100% a trap. Stay away. Anything linked (going back) to fiat is a trap or even worse, a scam

6 sats \ 3 replies \ @Storyteller 5 Aug 2023

I also considered this.

Because indeed you need a Bitcoin friendly bank.

If you earn fiat, online, as I do with my services, you need a way to convert part of it to sats.

In the Caribbean where I live you cannot receive any dollars via paypal, stripe etc.

So that’s why I’m considering Xapo.

If you are allowed to have a stripe and paypal account at Xapo you might use that to connect your wordpress site and receive dollars.

But don’t know if Stripe and paypal require you to have your business there.

If that is the case that is too costly.

So that is one reason I would consider opening an account there.

The conversion from dollars received into sats might also be with lower fees.

Here in the Caribbean we pay 10% on transaction fees at a Bitcoin ATM!! The only one on the island.

So every time you put 500 dollars in fiat in you get 450 dollars in bitcoin.

I’m looking for a way to reduce my buying bitcoin with dollars fee to say 1%.

That would be a reason to have that account on gibraltar.

You would earn dollars online, with paypal and stripe, get it into your account and convert part - your savings - into btc and use the rest for busimess transactions.

But the worst scenario with these Gibraltar banks is this….

I remember I wanted to send part of my savings to this online bank on Iceland. Icesave!!!

They were giving you 6% interest!! High!!

So just before I wanted to press send to send my dollars there the whole bank went belly up.

Look it up online. Here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icesave_dispute If a foreign new bank is giving you 4% interest, while your local bank is giving you 3% or 2% there is something shady going on.

The bank has to use your money/deposits to go and make a return higher than 4% to make money.

That is how banks make money.

They lend your money out to others.

So look at it this way: where can you get say 6-7% or 8% today? How is Xapo bank going to make 8% so they can pay you 4% and get 4% profit for themselves?

They could be lending out your deposits to like hedge funds, start ups whatever. Risky business.

And then when you want to take oit your deposits suddenly your money is locked in Gibraltar?

Who is the Central bank of Gibraltar?

Who is the government of Gibraltar?

Can they just nationalize all banks on Gibraltar and say from now on you got no dollars anymore but you got Gibraltar pesos?

You don’t know anything about the Gibraltar economy, who is in power, etc.

You don’t know if there are corrupt people in the Central bank, how they supervise the banks like Xapo, you don’t know any shit.

Look at what happened with Sam Bankman in the Caribbean. Was it Cayman islands or Bahamas. Who supervised them?

So that is the risk. That might be why they pay you a 4% interest while on other places you get 2.5%

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @franzap 5 Aug 2023

Gibraltar pesos 🤣

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @asdasd123sadasd2 5 Aug 2023

https://nomadcapitalist.com/finance/banking-in-gibraltar/

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @025b3f351f OP 5 Aug 2023

Hi, thanks for the comment.

1- The Xapo Bank do not lend the dollars to other people. They have 4.1% interest because they invest the dollars on US treasuries bonds of 3 months. They pay like 80% of the interest to Xapo user and take 20% to them.

2- I read in many parts that Gibraltar is considered a stable place to banks.

3- I think everything that envolve fiat money has risks. But I consider Xapo a serious company.

1 sat \ 18 replies \ @DarthCoin 5 Aug 2023

I used xapo in 2015-2016 as they launched their wallet and visa card. Was ok for a while and in emergency cases. But NOT as a regular service. Really expensive and also deceiveing. In the end is NOT bitcoin adoption, just a prolonging life for using fiat.
Don't fall for these banks that only want to fool you to keep using fiat, aka "give me your sats and will give you a nice visa card to keep paying merchants in fiat". It's a fucking trap.
In the end is a fucking custodial bank. Fuck them.

https://imgprxy.stacker.news/dzIF215lq7u8y7_TLRZkXZ55-k9fxGct1BGUeG5ZhfY/rs:fit:600:500:0/g:no/aHR0cHM6Ly9pLnBvc3RpbWcuY2MvWllDMlFTRkMvYnRjLXZpc2EucG5n

0 sats \ 17 replies \ @025b3f351f OP 5 Aug 2023

1- Not bitcoin adoption? Do you use any bank? If yes, do you prefer a bank that is pro bitcoin or one that is not? How is not bitcoin adoption for people that still need dollar but can gain yield in sats on dollar deposits and when using the card?

2- You don't need to deposit sats, I don't recommend it. It's a bank account for people that are pro bitcoin but still need dollars.

3- Yes, it's a bank and I'm sure many bitcoiners still have a bank account. The question is: A bitcoiner should use a pro bitcoin bank or a bank that dislike bitcoin?

1 sat \ 16 replies \ @DarthCoin 5 Aug 2023

No. I closed all my bank accounts in 2018. Living on bitcoin standard. Earn, spend, hold only BTC.

I stopped using fiat. Bitcoin or death.

"Earning yeld" is such a shitcoining mindset...

0 sats \ 15 replies \ @025b3f351f OP 5 Aug 2023

Congratulations, how do you pay in places that do not support bitcoin? And you should know that not all people can still yet live without dollars.

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 5 Aug 2023

Did you read my guides?

https://imgprxy.stacker.news/ue669gSRph6Q2go_Aaaf3WvjW4DQqqzrqm98xU_KsLE/rs:fit:600:500:0/g:no/aHR0cHM6Ly9pLnBvc3RpbWcuY2MvZDBOR2JmWnkvZGFydGgtY2FsbC1oZWxwLnBuZw

0 sats \ 10 replies \ @asdasd123sadasd2 5 Aug 2023

You can buy prepaid visa cards, amazon giftcards and a bunch of others with BTC in "The Bitcoin Company" app, for example.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @025b3f351f OP 5 Aug 2023

I used the services of this The Bitcoin Company and I had very bad experience. But as I said, I still can't live with only bitcoin yet. So Xapo it's for these kind of bitcoiners.

0 sats \ 8 replies \ @DarthCoin 5 Aug 2023

That bitcoin compamy should be renamed the visa company or fiat company. A company that push you back to using fiat is NOT a bitcoin company. It's a shame.

Using bitcoin means PAYING the merchant with btc not shitcoin fiat or gift cards

1 sat \ 7 replies \ @asdasd123sadasd2 5 Aug 2023

I see them as transitional companies, It help people to transition.

What's your proposed solution to interacting by fiat merchants?

Also "did you read my guides?" blog-spam to doesn't help the conversation.

0 sats \ 6 replies \ @DarthCoin 5 Aug 2023

Is not a random bullshit blog. My substack is bitcoin only guides. You don't want to read them? So be it... My guides are for those who want to learn not for ignorants.

https://imgprxy.stacker.news/2YCX76oLFCZ-nRlBJGK9xM8yeQxTLZ1mGgZQRf3fgIc/rs:fit:600:500:0/g:no/aHR0cHM6Ly9pLnBvc3RpbWcuY2MvYzRmenljWVEvZGFydGgtbWF4aXNjbHViLmpwZw

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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @asdasd123sadasd2 5 Aug 2023

So I went to this magical blog of this guy.

In one of his guides he actually recommend TBC as a valid option (!).

But the the main solution proposed there is to ship yourself inside a Cargo Shipping Container to El Salvador to live there. Yeah for real.

Be careful who you take advice from.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @DarthCoin 5 Aug 2023

Yeah taking out of context what you want. Listing is not recommending. Also in thd article it sats clearly the warning that I do not rrvommend these crsp cards. So stfu troll.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @asdasd123sadasd2 5 Aug 2023

You recommended some material, I went and read it.

Still blog-spam.

No quality content there.

You call me troll I call you a self-promoting narcissist that has nothing to add to the conversation.

Your blog is a mix of bad advice and topics explored by twitter bitcoiners for years.

1 sat \ 1 reply \ @03365d6a53 5 Aug 2023

do yourself a favour and minimise the funds you keep there.

5 sats \ 0 replies \ @025b3f351f OP 5 Aug 2023

I do not keep bitcoins there. I keep dollars and receive yield in sats. The dollar deposits have insurance from Gibraltar country. I live with bitcoin and dollar. So make sense to me.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Storyteller 5 Aug 2023

How does Xapo bank make 8%-10% consistently so they can give you 4% on your deposits and keep their 4-6% profit?

I’m telling you, it is very hard to make 8-10% with a stock portfolio consistently so they are not investing your deposits in stocks.

Who are they lending your money to? Which company needs capital that badly that they are going to pay 8%-10% back on a loan to Xapo?

Those are questions to ask yourself about the business model of Xapo bank before you deposit your fiat there.

What are they doing with your bitcoin?

Are they lending that out? To whom?

Because the moment you put your bitcoin and your fiat in a bank, your deposits are not there anymore. The money and bitcoin can be lend out!! That is called fractional reserve.

What percentage of your deposits need to be in a bank in Gibraltar? How many X is Xapo leveraged? 10 x? So they can lend out 1000 usd of they got only 100 usd? 15x? I don’t know. Do you?

Banks can create money out of thin air by creating loans.

They can lend your bitcoin out to whatever crypto company who needs bitcoin for trading.

You are only going to find out if this happened when you visit a website of Xapo and you see: due to some technical difficulties we are temporarily closed.

Rest assured your funds are safe…..

Then you want to book a flight to Gibraltar to get your 99 k. And if you have more than 100 K you know you will not get any of it back.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @02e2c9e0da 5 Aug 2023

No US residents

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @025b3f351f OP 5 Aug 2023

Yes, no US residents.

1 sat \ 4 replies \ @nemo 5 Aug 2023

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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @025b3f351f OP 5 Aug 2023

Needs passaport.

1 sat \ 2 replies \ @nemo 5 Aug 2023

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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @025b3f351f OP 5 Aug 2023

1- Verification process was fast with me. 2- You can choose to receive or not receive the physical card. You can create virtual card too. 3- I think they request yes proof of residence. 4- I don't think proof of residence needs to match passport issuance.

Thanks.

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @nemo 5 Aug 2023

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