Fold posts $69.6M net loss but doubles down on bitcoin credit card expansion

Fold just finished its debut year as a public company. The report card is… mixed.

The bitcoin-focused financial services firm reported a net loss of $69.6 million for the full year 2025, according to its annual filing released Tuesday. Revenue climbed 34% year-over-year to $31.8 million, but operating losses ballooned from $5.8 million to $27.7 million — nearly a fivefold increase that makes the top-line growth feel like a consolation prize.

The numbers behind the red ink

Fold’s adjusted EBITDA loss came in at $17.2 million, translating to an adjusted loss per share of $0.41. For a company trading on Nasdaq under the ticker FFLD, those are numbers that test investor patience.

The gap between the $69.6 million net loss and the $27.7 million operating loss deserves some explaining. A significant chunk — over $9.6 million — came from a one-time charge to retire two outstanding convertible bonds. Think of convertible bonds as IOUs that can morph into company stock. Killing them off costs money upfront but removes future dilution risk for shareholders.

CEO Will Reeves framed the move as strategic housekeeping.

The remaining gap likely reflects non-cash charges common to newly public companies — stock-based compensation, depreciation, and the various accounting gremlins that inflate GAAP losses beyond what the business actually burns through in cash.

On the growth side, Fold added 13,000 new customers during the year, pushing its total to 84,000 verified accounts. Transaction volume hit $960 million, a 46% increase. The company also noted a 3% year-over-year uptick in per-customer transaction volume to $215 million total, suggesting existing users aren’t just sticking around — they’re spending slightly more.

The credit card bet

Founded in 2019, Fold built its brand on a simple premise: earn Bitcoin rewards instead of airline miles. The company offers an app for buying, selling, and staking BTC alongside a bitcoin payments card that’s been its flagship product.

Now the firm is pushing into new territory with two recent launches. The Fold Credit Card extends its Bitcoin rewards model beyond debit spending, while Fold For Business targets enterprise customers — a potentially lucrative but crowded market where competitors like BitPay and Strike already operate.

Here’s the thing about the credit card play: it’s expensive. Credit cards require capital reserves, fraud infrastructure, and regulatory compliance that dwarf what a debit card demands. For a company already losing $27.7 million a year on operations, layering on a capital-intensive product line is a bold gamble.

But the logic isn’t crazy. The US credit card market processes roughly $5 trillion annually. Even capturing a sliver of that with a Bitcoin-native rewards proposition could dwarf Fold’s current $960 million transaction volume. The question is whether the company’s balance sheet can survive the scaling period.

What this means for investors

Fold sits in an awkward middle ground that’s familiar to growth-stage fintech companies. Revenue is growing at a healthy clip, but losses are growing faster. The 34% revenue increase looks solid until you notice operating losses expanded by 377%.

The convertible bond retirement is genuinely positive for existing shareholders — removing potential dilution signals management is thinking about equity value, not just top-line growth. But the core business still needs to demonstrate a path to profitability before that goodwill translates into share price appreciation.

Watch two things going forward. First, customer acquisition cost relative to lifetime value — 13,000 new accounts is fine, but not if each one costs more to acquire than it generates. Second, the credit card’s early adoption metrics. If Fold can convert its existing 84,000 debit users into credit card holders, the economics improve dramatically since the customer acquisition cost drops to nearly zero.

The competitive landscape is also shifting. With Bitcoin hovering near all-time highs and mainstream financial institutions warming to crypto products, Fold’s window of differentiation may be narrowing. A Bitcoin rewards card felt novel in 2020. In 2025, every neobank has one.

Bottom line: Fold is spending aggressively to build a Bitcoin-native financial ecosystem, and the losses reflect it. Revenue growth is real but not yet sufficient to offset the cost of ambition. The credit card expansion is the right strategic move — if the company can fund it long enough to reach scale.