Visit Website SUMMARY
BitIRA has been founded by the team from Birch Gold Group, one of America's leading precious metals companies. The staff comes with over 100 years of investing experience and handles the heavy lifting for customers. BitIRA's custodian providers include large household names like Fidelity, Edward Jones and Merrill Lynch. BitIRA allows customers to invest in digital assets quickly and safely.
DETAILED RATING
INFO
- Minimum investment $15,000
- Coins offered Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Stellar.
- Storage Type Multi-signature offline cold storage
- Custodian Used Yes. Preferred Trust Company.
- Insurance offered Yes. End-to-end.
- Year Founded 2017
- Location Burbank, California, United States of America
- BBB Ratings A
- Google Ratings 4 out of 5 stars
- Business Consumer Alliance Rating AAA
POSITIVES
- No fees for selling assets.
- Can rollover IRA and 401k.
- 8 different cryptocurrencies to choose from.
- Combines custodian service with cold wallet, offline storage.
- Compliant with IRA and CryptoCurrency Security Standards.
NEGATIVES
- High minimum investment.
- Long rollover processing times.
BitIRA promises that in most cases, you can rollover an existing IRA and not pay any fees for the switch. The company tabs itself as “The World’s Most Secure Digital IRA”. Obviously that’s a bit braggadocios, but other IRA’s in the space have seen clients be victims of hacks, and with the Bitcoin IRA segment of the investment industry being just a few years old, the need to promise clients security can’t be understated.
BITIRA’s Main Value Proposition
BitIRA talks a lot about security and investing in its sales copy, but the main sales video actually speaks mostly to keeping track of investments for the purposes of reporting taxes properly. If paying taxes is a big headache for you (the way it is for most cryptocurrency investors), this is indeed a huge selling point. However, any retirement investment account registered in the United States is tax sheltered until funds are withdrawn (though some IRAs do charge you taxes on deposits, rather than withdrawals depending on the provider’s set up).
Connecting Wallets and Exchanges
BITIRA accurately points out that wallets and exchanges have to be connected to an investor’s account in order to make trading easy. They promise to do this using what they call the first and only maximum security multi-signature, and the first and only fully-insured cold storage solution for cryptocurrency IRA’s. Given BITIRA is the early adopter in the IRA game, now serving clients for four years, they are indeed the first. But the good news is, they’re most certainly not the only game in town now.
Offering offline storage for an IRA is pretty much the industry standard today. The average consumer investing in Bitcoin now understands that connecting a retirement fund to an only crypto account is simply a honeypot for criminal hackers looking to steel the proceeds of a nest egg.
As far as facilitating actual trades is concerned, the company promises to connect your account to several exchanges they’re partnered up with, but they don’t specify which exchanges. However, BITIRA does say it has mediated over $1 billion dollars in transactions since the company’s inception. That’s an impressive figure considering Bitcoin’s overall market cap sits at just under $180 billion as of August, 2019. The company boasts that it is maintaining good relationships with exchanges like it has been since 2013. That’s a long time in the crypto world.
Still using exchanges to facilitate large orders means paying lots of fees, which is why most IRA companies charge substantial fees for initial setup.
Other Benefits of Working with BITIRA
BITIRA has something to brag about when it comes to positive reviews from customers. The company’s rating is perfect in the eyes of Google and the Business Consumer Alliance Association, with only a slight smidge on its record with the Better Business Bureau, leaving it short of an A+. Still, most IRA companies should have a positive rating. After all, people are entrusting these companies with their life savings. BITIRA meets industry standards and customers are happy. It’s certainly a leading IRA provider.
Some of the other benefits of working with BITIRA include the fact they don’t charge fees for selling assets in the IRA account. You can also trade eight different cryptocurrencies and count on the fact they are compliant with both the IRA and CryptoCurrency Security Standards.
The Cons of BITIRA
BITIRA highlights the fact they don’t charge fees on the sale of assets, but they do have to collect fees somehow. The fact they highlight no selling fees means they probably embed their fees on the Bitcoin exchange rate when you buy, or they charge a high initial set up fee.
To some extent, IRA companies are at the mercy of exchanges when it comes to the exchange rate, because they’re ultimately paying for access to large volumes of liquidity, so BITIRA likely makes their money off of the setup fees and any penalties for early withdrawals.
BitIRA Vs Other IRAs (BitIRA, Regal Assets, Bitcoin IRA Coin IRA, BitIRA, etc)
| Criteria | BitIRA | Other Bitcoin IRA Companies |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Investment | $15,000 | Several other IRAs have lower minimums. |
| Coins Offered | Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Stellar. | Several other IRAs offer more cryptocurrencies |
| Customer Ratings | A on Better Business Bureau. Perfect on Google Reviews | Other IRAs rank similarly. |
| Insurance Offered | End to end insurance. No amount specified. | $100 million is the maximum offered by several providers. |
Should You Invest in Bitcoin with BITIRA?
BITIRA has great customers reviews, so if you’re someone who makes long-term investing decisions based on crowd sourced feedback, it’s not a bad play to choose this provider. However, BITIRA is not the top provider on CryptoRadar’s list. You can find other suitable options, like Regal Assets where all of the reviews are five star, and there are a plethora of crypto options to choose from.
Still, BITIRA’s 100$ million insurance coverage is pretty good and not every IRA company offering Bitcoin can match that level of coverage in the event something goes wrong. Coverage isn’t something to be taken lightly in an industry where hacks still happen all the time.
As cryptocurrencies mature and the industry involves, all the Bitcoin IRA companies will get better. But at the present moment as far as choosing BITIRA goes, you could certainly do worse.
