BitcoinIRA Review – An In-Depth Look

About BitcoinIRA

BitcoinIRA is a cryptocurrency retirement investment platform offering tax advantages just like traditional IRAs. The platform was first launched in 2015 and remains the leading crypto retirement platform for US residents, offering 24/7 access to their services. Though the name might suggest they only offer IRA services for Bitcoin, they support investments in a number of crypto assets and even offer coin swapping and earning opportunities through asset lending.

BitcoinIRA Account Opening

Opening an account with BitcoinIRA is very straightforward and should only take a few minutes. Like most investment platforms, you will be required to verify certain information such as your name, address, social security number, and identity via driver’s license. Once you’ve submitted all the necessary information, an IRA specialist will reach out to you in 3-5 business days to begin transferring funds. You’ll have the option to fund your account through a bank transfer or a transfer from an existing retirement account, both of which require standard IRA paperwork and add an additional delay to fully completing/funding your account. The whole process can take about a week. An important disclaimer to keep in mind, you cannot transfer any cryptocurrency you already own into an IRA as the IRS requires that buying into a cryptocurrency-based IRA be done with US dollars.

BitcoinIRA Supported Assets

BitcoinIRA’s website has a few sections outlining the assets they support and all of them differ slightly, so it’s actually not fully clear which ones are and aren’t supported. After reaching out to a representative, I was told they currently support investments in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Zcash (ZEC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Cardano (ADA), and Chainlink (LINK), but another representative emailed me a different list excluding XRP and including Digital Gold (DG), so it’s hard to say with confidence whose list is accurate. Both the BitcoinIRA representatives did, however, mention the company’s plans to add 60+ more cryptos around Labor Day through a partnership with Coinbase, so most of the coins you will be interested in should be supported within the next month.

Lending

In addition to their retirement accounts, BitcoinIRA allows users in all 50 states to earn interest through crypto and USD lending. At the moment, the only supported lendable assets are USD, BTC, and ETH, offering a 6%, 2.0%, and 2.7% APY respectively. Interest payments are made monthly and there is no lockup period for your funds, but there is a $10,000 minimum commitment.

Swapping

The final service BitcoinIRA offers is coin swapping. Users interested in exchanging any of the nine supported assets (BTC, ETH, ADA, LINK, PG, ZEC, LTC, BCH, or XLM) can do so quite easily through the ‘SWAP’ tab of the ‘Self Trading’ section of their homepage.

BitcoinIRA Desktop

While BitcoinIRA’s desktop interface isn’t the most user friendly out there, it is still very easy to use. Given the platform only offers a few services, there really isn’t too much to learn, so users should catch on pretty quickly. Just about everything you need can be seen or accessed from the dashboard (homepage).

BitcoinIRA Mobile App

BitcoinIRA’s mobile app is as elegant as it is user friendly and will likely draw most users away from the desktop version. The layout is very clean and allows access to all the same features and capabilities as the desktop. The app has also included the option for 2-step verification for added security. It’s absolutely worth checking out if you plan to open an account with BitcoinIRA.

Minimum/Maximum Deposits

There is a $3,000 minimum deposit for retirement accounts with BitcoinIRA, but no investment cap. And, as mentioned, there is a $10,000 minimum commitment for their interest-earning program, which could box out a fair amount of customers.

BitcoinIRA Fees

BitcoinIRA charges an initial one-time service fee that will vary depending on your investment amount. For monthly contributions under $3,000, the fee is 15%; for investments of $3,000 – $50,000, the fee is 12.5%; for $50,000 – $100,000, the fee is 9%; and from $100,000 up, the fee is 7.5%. There is also an annual custodian fee of $240 and a monthly wallet fee of 0.0005%.

For their lending services, BitcoinIRA will charge $100 to start and $100 to stop your earning program. This may seem minor to some, but most competitors charge nothing for lending services so it’s certainly a high fee.

BitcoinIRA Security

All assets held with BitcoinIRA are stored offline in multi-signature wallets with US-based custodians and insured for $100 million with BitGo Trust and their insurance provider Lloyd’s of London, so customers can rest assured their investments are safe. Customers cannot, however, custodian their own private keys.

Customer Support

BitcoinIRA has a wide variety of customer support tools including a useful FAQ section, a help center full of articles, links to crypto and coin 101s, as well as more traditional support services like direct messaging, email, and phone contacts. They also have the option to schedule a consultation with a representative. However, the dates and times you can choose to have one of these consultations are very limited. Yet, despite all these support options, it was still difficult to find all the information about their services, fees, etc. I was looking for, so there is definitely room for improvement.

BitcoinIRA Referral Reward

A final offering worth mentioning is BitcoinIRA’s friend referral reward. Invite your friends to start an account with BitcoinIRA and both of you will receive $100 as soon as their account is funded and they make their first trade.

Conclusion: Is BitcoinIRA Worth Using?

If you’re interested in the tax advantages of a crypto IRA, the truth is it’s gonna be hard to beat a platform like BitcoinIRA, especially because there just aren’t too many options out there. However, if you’re looking for a good lending or trading platform, there are certainly better places to put your money. Though their APY on USD lending is very competitive at 6%, BitcoinIRA’s limited selection of supported assets and lower than average APYs of 2.0% and 2.7% for BTC and ETH lending just aren’t worth it when you can easily get 4.0% through competitors. That said, the tax advantages associated with trading assets as volatile and accretive as cryptocurrencies through BitcoinIRA is more than enough reason to create an account if you’re an avid crypto trader. And even if you’re just a buy and hold kind of person, you can rest assured you’ll still enjoy substantial tax savings come retirement. Bottom line, BitcoinIRA is great for exactly that: a bitcoin IRA. The fees are certainly high and the minimum investments could pose challenges for some, and I would strongly consider other options if you’re interested in just trading or lending, but as far as investing in crypto for retirement, BitcoinIRA is an excellent choice and worth exploring.