Trending Forward: Fold’s CEO spills on the real future of everyday bitcoin
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Saying the word crypto out loud, or posting on social media sites, is almost a guaranteed road to passionate commentary. And by passionate, I mean the two extremes of the conversation — the optimist side and the vitriolic detractions. There is a big pool of leaders who still see it as the future, while others aren’t quite sold on the idea. In the latest episode of Trending Forward, I sat down with Fold CEO Will Reeves to discuss whether Bitcoin actually needs to replace the US dollar to become genuinely useful to mainstream consumers.
While I’ve long been skeptical of crypto’s wild volatility and its viability as everyday cash, our conversation explored a pragmatic alternative: continuing to live, spend, and pay bills in dollars while quietly accumulating Bitcoin in the background as a long-term savings asset.
Is Bitcoin ready for Main Street?
I have been a Bitcoin skeptic from the beginning. It seemed flaky and wildly unstable, closer to buying a lottery ticket than building a financial plan. It seemed about as likely to go to zero as to make you a millionaire.
Bitcoin has become considerably more mainstream since then. Wall Street firms offer Bitcoin ETFs, crypto ATMs show up in shopping centers and supermarkets, and major financial companies now offer ways to buy and hold it. I am still not convinced, however, that Bitcoin works particularly well as a replacement for dollars in everyday life. I don’t want to check the price of Bitcoin before deciding whether to buy dinner, and I certainly don’t want the money I need for next month’s mortgage payment swinging 15% in either direction.¯¸
A recent conversation with Fold CEO Will Reeves on our show, Trending Forward, has me reconsidering a different question. Maybe Bitcoin doesn’t have to replace the dollar to become useful to ordinary consumers.
Fold has built a hybrid financial-services model that keeps dollars at the center of everyday transactions while giving consumers several ways to accumulate Bitcoin. That may make more sense for mainstream families than the older vision of moving their financial lives into crypto.
That does not mean moving the family checking account into Bitcoin. It means continuing to earn, spend, and save primarily in dollars while gradually accumulating relatively small amounts of Bitcoin through rewards or automated purchases.
One of the more surprising moments in our conversation was that Reeves largely agreed with my skepticism about Bitcoin as an everyday payment method. Bitcoin is “extraordinarily volatile,” he acknowledged, and consequently “really isn’t a great form of payment” today. Fold increasingly views Bitcoin as a long-term savings asset rather than something that should replace the dollars you use at the grocery store.
That distinction may point toward a much more mainstream future for crypto.
Most people don’t want to live on Bitcoin
The numbers support that argument. The Federal Reserve found that 10% of U.S. adults used cryptocurrency in some form during 2025. Nine percent bought or held it as an investment, while only 2% used crypto to buy something or make a payment.
Consumers appear considerably more interested in owning crypto than spending it.
Fold originally went down the payments path too. Reeves told us the company eventually realized it was “solving for the wrong issue.” Americans already have plenty of convenient ways to pay for things. Fold concluded that the more interesting problem was helping consumers accumulate assets and build longer-term savings.
That led me to a somewhat different way of thinking about Bitcoin.
Money traditionally performs several jobs. It is something we use to price things, something we exchange for goods and services, and something in which we can store wealth. There is no reason one asset has to be equally good at all three.
The dollar remains extraordinarily good as a unit of account and means of payment. Bitcoin is terrible at those jobs when its price can change dramatically in a matter of days. But Bitcoin might have a role as a small, speculative store of value.
Fold essentially lets each currency do the job it does better.
The experience looks surprisingly conventional. Customers can receive dollars through direct deposit, use debit and credit cards and pay bills, while adding Bitcoin to those familiar financial activities. Reeves summarized the philosophy nicely: “Let’s make Bitcoin boring.”
Boring might be exactly what crypto needs.
Getting off zero
There is a large middle ground between believing Bitcoin is a speculative casino and believing it will eventually replace the U.S. dollar.
For a financially stable family already contributing to retirement accounts, maintaining emergency savings and avoiding expensive consumer debt, the relevant question may simply be whether owning zero Bitcoin remains the obvious choice.
Even BlackRock has explored that question. Its portfolio research concluded that a roughly 1% to 2% Bitcoin allocation represents a reasonable range for an investor who believes adoption will continue and can tolerate the risk. The company also warns that going much higher quickly increases Bitcoin’s contribution to overall portfolio risk.
I first heard a version of that idea years ago from venture capitalist Jeremy Liew, one of the smartest investors I know. Liew was making essentially the same argument publicly as far back as 2014: put a very small percentage of savings into Bitcoin. If it disappears, the loss doesn’t materially alter your life. If Bitcoin appreciates dramatically, even the small position can become meaningful.
That sounds very different from betting the retirement fund on crypto.
There is also a macroeconomic reason the question deserves consideration. The Congressional Budget Office projects a $1.9 trillion federal deficit for fiscal 2026 and expects federal debt held by the public to rise from about 101% of GDP this year to 120% in 2036. Meanwhile, consumer prices in August were 3.4% higher than a year earlier.
That does not mean Bitcoin is a reliable inflation hedge. It isn’t. Bitcoin has fallen sharply during periods of high inflation, and nobody knows what it will be worth five or ten years from now.
I also don’t think the dollar is about to decline from one of the world’s dominant currencies into Weimar wallpaper. The more interesting possibility is less dramatic. Persistent deficits, periodic inflation and continued growth in government debt could make some families interested in holding a small amount of an asset whose supply is deliberately constrained.
Think of it less as protection against an inevitable dollar collapse and more as inexpensive exposure to the possibility that scarce digital assets become more valuable over time.
The mortgage payment is where Fold gets really interesting
The Fold feature that caught my attention most has little to do with crypto ideology.
Qualifying Fold users can earn Bitcoin rewards on ACH bill payments, including rent and mortgages. These aren’t mortgage payments charged to a credit card. The payment moves through the banking system using an account and routing number, but Fold adds a Bitcoin reward. Reeves emphasized the significance of earning rewards on some of the largest transactions in a family’s budget rather than merely earning a few cents back on coffee.
Under Fold’s current program, Fold+ members can earn up to 1.5% on qualifying ACH bill payments, although eligibility and reward rates depend on prior Fold spending and other program rules.
That qualification matters. Someone with a $3,000 monthly mortgage should not simply multiply $36,000 by 1.5% and assume that’s what will arrive in Bitcoin. Consumers also need to consider Fold+’s membership cost and compare the total economics with conventional rewards programs.
But the larger idea is compelling. Take an expense a family already has and turn part of it into an accumulating asset.
The same logic applies to Fold’s credit card, whose current rewards terms provide a 1.5% base Bitcoin reward on qualifying purchases. Could a disciplined consumer instead use a 2% cash-back card and periodically invest the proceeds in Bitcoin? Absolutely. It might even be financially superior.
But human beings are not spreadsheets. Cash-back rewards have a habit of disappearing into a checking account and getting spent. Bitcoin rewards remain visibly Bitcoin. Receiving $20 or $30 at a time can effectively turn ordinary spending into a very modest form of dollar-cost averaging.
That may be Fold’s most interesting innovation. It reduces the psychological barrier between owning no Bitcoin and making a large, deliberate crypto investment.
There is an important caveat. Fold itself is not an FDIC-insured bank. Dollar funds associated with its prepaid debit card are held by Sutton Bank and may qualify for pass-through FDIC insurance under applicable conditions. Bitcoin purchases and rewards do not receive FDIC or SIPC protection.
I am still not ready to receive my entire paycheck in Bitcoin, and I have no desire to calculate Bitcoin exchange rates when I buy groceries. Fold doesn’t require either one.
Instead, it offers an intriguing compromise: live your financial life in dollars while gradually accumulating a small amount of Bitcoin in the background.
That feels considerably less like joining the crypto revolution and more like dipping a toe into a new asset class.
Our conversation with Reeves went much deeper into Bitcoin’s volatility, inflation, federal debt, banking and why Fold believes dollars and Bitcoin can complement rather than replace each other. Even if you remain skeptical about Bitcoin, it is an interesting argument to hear in full. You can watch the complete conversation with Will Reeves on this episode of Trending Forward.
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