BlockFi News

Update on ETHW Forked Tokens

Published, 20 October, 2022

BlockFi handles forks and airdrops on a case-by-case basis. We consider several factors, such as network stability, token liquidity, exchange and custodial availability, and tokens received by BlockFi.

Many of our third party vendors are not supporting the proof-of-work chain (ETHW), including those involved in account funding and withdrawals. As of October 2022, ETHW does not meet our standard criteria for a trade-only token due to its small market capitalization, limited trading liquidity, and low demand from institutional borrowers.

Given client feedback and our desire to provide funds to clients in an expedient manner, we decided to provide clients with GUSD representing the notional value of a potential ETHW distribution in-kind. The ETHW collected on behalf of clients from custodians, wallet providers, and institutional counterparties has been liquidated in an orderly manner over several days, limiting market impact. This process netted approximately 7.39 GUSD per ETH held by clients on BlockFi at the time of the Merge. As of October 20 at 9am ET, the price of ETHW was $6.33.

BlockFi is passing through proceeds from the ETHW sale to clients who held ETH in their BlockFi Interest Account*, BlockFi Wallet, or as collateral on a loan on a pro-rata basis. BlockFi has not made any profit on this distribution. At the time of The Merge on September 15, 2022 at approximately 3AM ET, a snapshot of client balances were recorded. Qualified clients will receive the value of the ETHW as GUSD in their BlockFi Wallet account on Thursday, October 20, 2022 by EOD.

GUSD received in your Wallet will be immediately available for trading to any coins available to you on BlockFi. Non-U.S. and Private Clients may also transfer GUSD to their interest-bearing account.

Note that we shared on September 6, 2022 that if BlockFi receives any forked token(s) as a result of The Merge that can be allocated to clients' BlockFi accounts, we will decide, at our sole discretion, if token(s) will be allocated at a later date after internal evaluation is completed. Any forked token allocations will be proportional to clients’ ETH balances captured in the snapshot and will be subject to our terms of service.

Accrued rewards and/or interest are not eligible for allocation of forked assets, only those assets that show as part of the current balance will be captured in the snapshot.

Is there anything else I need to know?

For more information, see our Terms of Service. We’ll keep you up-to-date with any new developments via our Twitter.

*The BIAs have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933 and, unless otherwise exempt from those registration requirements, may not be offered or sold in the United States, to U.S. persons, for the account or benefit of a U.S. person or in any jurisdiction in which such offer would be prohibited.

This is blogpost is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Information contained herein has been compiled by BlockFi from sources believed to be reliable, but no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made as to its accuracy, completeness or correctness.

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Last updated on October 20th, 2022

As of February 14, 2022, the BlockFi Interest Account (BIA) is no longer available to new clients who are US persons or persons located in the US and existing US clients with BIA accounts are unable to transfer new assets to their BIAs. Learn More.

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