Fold (NASDAQ:FLD) reported a difficult first quarter of fiscal 2026, with management citing a broad pullback in Bitcoin prices and related pressure on customer activity across the industry.
On the company’s May 12 earnings call, Chairman and CEO Will Reeves said lower Bitcoin prices weighed on transaction volumes, trading activity and consumer engagement. CFO Wolfe Repass said Bitcoin had fallen nearly 50% from its October all-time high by February, prompting consumers to “risk adjust their spending and investment behaviors.”
“Neither Fold nor many of our competitors were immune to that behavioral shift,” Repass said.
Revenue and Transaction Volumes Decline
Fold said first-quarter transaction volumes declined 31% year over year, while revenue fell 21% over the same period. Repass said February marked a bottom across most of the company’s core key performance indicators over the past year, adding that management is seeing signs of a rebound as Bitcoin prices recover.
Operating expenses totaled $13.4 million, down from $16.6 million in the first quarter of 2025, a decrease of about 19%. Repass attributed the decline primarily to lower direct costs associated with revenue, lower share-based compensation expense and lower professional services fees.
The company reported a net loss of $29.2 million, compared with a net loss of $48.9 million in the prior-year period. Repass noted that net loss is affected by non-operating items, including changes in the fair value of Fold’s Bitcoin investment treasury and entries related to financing structures such as SAFE notes and convertible debt.
Adjusted EBITDA was negative $5.8 million, compared with negative $4.2 million a year earlier. Repass said the wider adjusted EBITDA loss was driven mainly by a $1 million increase in payroll expenses as headcount expanded year over year, along with higher product development and marketing costs, including branding efforts.
Fold ended the quarter with $11.5 million in cash and cash equivalents, up from $7.7 million at year-end. Net cash used in operating activities was $6.6 million, compared with $5 million in the prior-year period. The company also extinguished its two previously existing convertible notes during the quarter, which Repass said simplified the capital structure and improved financing optionality.
As of March 31, Fold held 826 Bitcoin in its investment treasury, valued at nearly $67 million as of the call. Of that total, 430 Bitcoin was held as collateral under the company’s Two Prime Credit Facility.
Credit Card Rollout Becomes Central Focus
Management repeatedly emphasized the Fold credit card as a key part of the company’s strategy. Reeves said the product is intended to help Fold become a primary financial platform for Bitcoin-focused consumers by extending the company’s reach into everyday spending, rewards, savings and exchange activity.
The Fold credit card launched in early access in March and had more than 1,000 cardholders as of the call. Reeves said the company is intentionally throttling access through a phased rollout to validate systems, economics, underwriting, servicing and risk assumptions before scaling more broadly.
The company has a waitlist of more than 80,000 potential users, in addition to its existing user base. Reeves said the early cardholder cohort includes both new customers and existing Fold users, and that early activity suggests customers are using the product across everyday purchases as well as larger categories such as travel and major transactions.
“We are also seeing strong signals that this is becoming a true primary card for users, exactly as we intended,” Reeves said.
Because the card launched late in the quarter, management said it did not materially contribute to first-quarter results. Reeves said Fold expects the card to become a more important contributor to transaction volume, customer acquisition, engagement and revenue growth as access expands.
In the question-and-answer session, Reeves said the company is already “well over” 1,000 cardholders and is now working through a full billing cycle to better assess fraud, underwriting, servicing, charge-offs, revolving balances and average spend. He said Fold is ahead of schedule, while Repass said the company has internal targets but has not issued public cardholder goals.
Repass also said scaling the credit card program will depend in part on securing a capital facility, describing it as a revolving warehouse facility used to float customer receivables rather than a dilutive equity facility. Management said it expects to provide more updates on financing in the near future.
Gift Card Strategy Shifts Toward Lower Friction
Reeves said the Bitcoin Gift Card remains an important growth strategy and has helped onboard thousands of new customers while re-engaging existing users. He described the company’s relationship with Kroger as successful and said Fold believes the model can scale nationally across additional retailers.
Fold is restructuring gift card economics with distribution partners to reduce customer friction and improve retail placement opportunities. Reeves said investors should increasingly view the gift card business as “cost neutral on the front end,” with value generated as users move into other Fold products such as credit, exchange, rewards and debit.
During the Q&A, Reeves said fees were the biggest point of friction for the gift card product. He said Fold is working with retailers to reduce built-in costs and that customer-facing fees are expected to go to zero. He added that the company believes lower friction will bring in more customers and make the product more attractive to retailers.
Bitcoin Bonus Program Targets Employers
Fold also discussed its Bitcoin Bonus Program, launched with Steak ’n Shake and other businesses. Reeves said the program allows employees to earn Bitcoin bonuses alongside normal wages and described it as a retention and savings tool rather than a payroll replacement or speculative trading product.
Reeves said early feedback from participating employees and employers has been positive, and that the company has seen interest from businesses ranging from small companies to larger employers with thousands of workers. He said the program may become a broader entry point for Fold into business services, including payroll, employee benefits, corporate treasury, corporate rewards and corporate spending tools over time.
Management said Fold’s broader strategy is to expand beyond Bitcoin rewards into a larger financial rewards platform. Reeves said the company is preparing additional product launches, platform expansions and partnership announcements, with several releases expected to occur closer together following the credit card launch.
Despite the weaker first-quarter results, Repass said all current Fold products generate positive contribution margins. He said the company’s priorities are to scale the credit card responsibly, manage fixed costs carefully and continue looking for opportunities to acquire new users and expand margins.
About Fold (NASDAQ:FLD)
Fold, trading under the ticker FLD on the NASDAQ, is a financial technology company specializing in bitcoin rewards and cryptocurrency-based consumer products. The company's core offering enables users to earn bitcoin on everyday purchases through a prepaid Visa debit card, converting traditional currency transactions into bitcoin rewards at no extra cost. By partnering with major payment networks and merchant platforms, Fold aims to bridge the gap between mainstream spending and digital asset adoption.
Beyond the debit card, Fold offers a mobile application that integrates with the Bitcoin Lightning Network to facilitate faster and more cost-efficient transactions.
This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.
Where Should You Invest $1,000 Right Now?
Before you make your next trade, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis.
Our team has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and none of the big name stocks were on the list.
They believe these five stocks are the five best companies for investors to buy now...
The article "Fold Q1 Earnings Call Highlights" first appeared on MarketBeat.
