Company: FLDDW
Filing Date: 2025-03-28
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001013762-25-004107
Chunk: 227

Company: Fold Holdings, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-28
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 227
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atives which may affect our business. On September 17, 2024, the FDIC, citing certain alleged recordkeeping issues attendant to Synapse’s
comingling of customer funds in custodial accounts, published a notice of proposed rulemaking which would require certain heightened standards
for reconciliation and recordkeeping associated with certain custodial accounts containing comingled customer funds. These and other regulatory
initiatives by U.S. federal or state prudential banking regulators, if enacted, may increase compliance costs associated with our business
or impact our relationships with current or prospective partner banks (see above risk factor: Our relationships with bank partners
in the United States may subject us and our partners to additional regulatory scrutiny.).

18

Changes in card network rules or standards could adversely affect
our business.

We are registered as a service provider with Visa
network. As such, we are subject to card network rules that could subject us to a variety of fines or penalties that may be assessed on
us. The termination of our membership or any changes in card network rules or standards, including interpretation and implementation of
existing rules or standards, could increase the cost of operating our business or limit our ability to provide our services to our customers,
and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We operate in a highly competitive industry and we compete against
companies with greater financial and other resources, and our business, operating results, and financial condition may be adversely affected
if we are unable to respond to our competitors effectively.

The digital assets industry is highly innovative,
rapidly evolving, and characterized by healthy competition, experimentation, changing customer needs, frequent introductions of new products
and services, and subject to uncertain and evolving industry and regulatory requirements. We expect competition to further intensify in
the future as existing and new competitors introduce new products or enhance existing products. We compete against a number of companies
operating both within the United States and abroad, and both those that focus on traditional financial services and those that focus
on Bitcoin-based services. Our main competition falls into the following categories:

●traditional financial firms that have entered the Bitcoin
market in recent years and offer overlapping features targeted at our customers;

●financial technology providers that do not focus on Bitcoin
and may attempt to position themselves as a safer alternative to our products and services;

●mobile payment companies; and

●companies focused on the Bitcoin market, some of whom choose
to operate outside of local rules and regulations or in jurisdictions with less stringent local