Blink Wallet Adds $1 Monthly Fee to Dormant Custodial Balances

Blink Wallet has begun charging $1 a month on each eligible custodial balance left without user-initiated activity for 12 consecutive months, adding a recurring cost to unused Bitcoin and dollar accounts.

The fee applies separately to the Bitcoin Balance and Dollar Balance, where permitted by applicable law. An account with more than $1 in both would pay $2 a month. If either balance has less than $1, the charge is capped at the amount remaining and stops when that balance reaches zero.

Logging in, opening the app on a device where the user is logged in, authenticating through the API, sending or receiving a payment, and transferring funds between balances count as activity. Blink’s first notices went to inactive custodial accounts Sept. 3, 2026, followed by another batch Oct. 1. About one in 10 accounts in the first batch received a mistaken notice after Blink used an obsolete login field; the notices were corrected the next day, and none of those accounts was charged.

Dormant custodial accounts incur ongoing costs for ledger and infrastructure, verification-record retention, compliance monitoring and reporting, customer support, and claims. “Every one of them costs money to carry, every month,” the Blink Team wrote.

The first fee was charged Oct. 6, although monthly assessments are scheduled for the last day of each month; the reason for the difference is unclear. Returning to the app triggers an automatic refund, and customers can request a full refund through support.

Blink launched non-custodial accounts June 24, 2026. In custodial accounts, Blink holds users’ Bitcoin and controls the keys; in non-custodial accounts, users control their funds with their own keys and recovery phrase. Non-custodial accounts are exempt from the inactivity fee, and customers can migrate to one without a Blink migration fee.