Interview with BitIRA’s Jay Blaskey: Buy Bitcoin with a 401(k) Rollover

In December 2010, the (now defunct) website UndergroundEconomist.com was one of the first to declare "bitcoin can't be a currency." In the decade since, , 99Bitcoins has tracked almost 400 articles from naysayers proclaiming Bitcoin as a scam, worthless, or dead...

During this time, the "dead" king of crypto has risen in value from a humble $0.23 cents in 2010, to what is today over $15,500 for one Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency is growing in acceptance with everyone from millennial first-time buyers to institutional investors buying the digital currency. In the past few years, some Americans have even began rolling over a portion of retirement funds into self-directed IRAs, or what is often referred to as the "Bitcoin IRA."

What is the Bitcoin IRA? Why buy crypto with your 401(k) or other qualifying retirement account? We sat down with the head of sales at BitIRA, Jay Blaskey to talk Bitcoin, Crypto IRAs, and more. Let's get started!

Thank you for joining us! Can you share with us your backstory? How did you get involved with cryptocurrencies?

Happy to speak with you! My background is that I was born and grew up in the North of England, my undergraduate degree was in computer science and I worked for IBM as part of the graduate program after college.

It was an incredibly exciting time, the internet was still in its infancy and IBM was being brought in to many companies, taking this emerging technology and developing tools with which companies could capitalize on the opportunity.

After many years I decided to broaden my skills and I came to the USA to complete an MBA. After my graduate program I got involved with alternative assets for retirement accounts through our sister company the Birch Gold group. 

I am incredibly lucky to have such strong guidance from the management and owner of the company, they saw cryptocurrency emerging and thought that we could leverage our experience in alternative assets and apply it to this technology. This was the genesis of BitIRA.

The growth of bitcoin is getting difficult to ignore. Where is bitcoin right now as far as gaining mainstream adoption? What are your predictions for the next decade?

I possibly went into too much detail regarding my background but this was done deliberately because it is important to see the parallels. At the genesis of the internet revolution we knew that we had a groundbreaking technology but the tools to maximize this opportunity developed over multiple years. 

This is where I see cryptocurrency right now, in the 3 years we have been operating in the space it has been incredible to see new tools be developed and greater mainstream adoption.

We are still years away from full integration but it is clear to anyone watching the space that the trajectory is in one direction.

Your company BitIRA specializes in bitcoin IRAs. What are the benefits to buying bitcoin with an IRA versus through an exchange like Coinbase? 

The wonderful opportunity is that we are still so early in terms of mass adoption if you look at total integration with the broader community.

Using your retirement account you have the option to get into an asset class that is still unavailable for so many people in a turn-key manner that does not require you to learn anything about the mechanics of cryptocurrency trading.

Coinbase is a great exchange but it will not allow you to take advantage of retirement funds which is where a lot of investment capital is found for many people.

Besides Bitcoin, what other cryptocurrencies does BitIRA offer? 

We offer Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, XRP aka Ripple, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Z Cash and Stellar Lumens.

What should an investor look for when vetting a crypto IRA company? Why choose BitIRA over one of your competitors?

BitIRA is market leading in regulatory compliance, insurance and customer service. 

Some other custodians will use a 3rd party administrator instead of a full custodian which can result in lower regulatory oversight.

I also believe we are the only company in the country with full dollar for dollar insurance where we see some competitors asking their customers if they want to pay more money or risk losing a large % of their cryptocurrency.

We manage to deliver all this incredible value at a lower price than many of our competitors.

Where can our readers learn more about BitIRA and crypto IRA investing?

Please come to our website at www.bitira.com.