6 sats \ 3 replies \ @Storyteller 5 Aug 2023 \ on: Xapo Bank: a pro bitcoin bank that supports lightning network bitcoin
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%
Gibraltar pesos 🤣
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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.
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