Blink Wallet Charges $1 Monthly Fee for Inactive Custodial Accounts

The Bitcoin Lightning Network wallet Blink Wallet has started charging a fee for custodial accounts that have been inactive for 12 consecutive months. A fee of $1 per month will be deducted from each Bitcoin and USD balance until the balance reaches zero. Approximately 100,000 accounts are subject to this fee, with a total balance exceeding $800,000, and the first round of deductions is estimated to be around $45,000, although this data has not been independently verified. Blink stated that this move aims to cover the infrastructure and compliance costs of inactive accounts and encourage users to switch to self-custody. Users who log in again will automatically receive a full refund of the deducted fees, and self-custody accounts will not be affected.