Terms of Service

We operate and provide to Users the Hodl Hodl platform that has the functionality of the advertising board where any User may express their intention to buy or sell Bitcoin by a creation of a corresponding Offer as well as the functionality of the graphic user interface to interact with decentralized smart contracts at Bitcoin Blockchain Network.

While the Hodl Hodl platform provides the technical functionality that its Users may create and/or accept Offers and conclude Purchase Contracts, we are not a party of Purchase Contract as well as a not a party of execution and/or delivery of the Purchase Contract. Any execution of any Purchase Contract takes place outside of the Hodl Hodl platform according to the Terms of Trade determined by the Advertiser and agreed by the second party of a Purchase Contract. You acknowledge, agree, and understand that we are not a party to the relationship, transactions or any dealings between a Buyer and a Seller.

When we provide you with the functionality of interaction with smart contracts, all actual execution of your instructions and transactions happens in a complete decentralized fashion by such smart contract operated at the peer-to-contract or peer-to-peer model (depending on technical functionality of a corresponding smart contract).

You hereby acknowledge and agree that we do not execute any instructions or transactions between a Buyer and a Seller or when you interact with a smart contract, we do not accept, hold or store any of your assets or funds, we do not act as a custodian for your crypto assets or Cryptocurrencies, we do not access, control or hold any of your private keys for Wallets.

You will be able to access Hodl Hodl by using your User Account.

After each deal, every User has a right to rate his cooperation with the other User. Such ratings are used by Hodlex Ltd to define the User’s reputation. The User’s reputation is an indicator which shows the other Users and Hodlex Ltd, how honestly and responsibly this particular User has behaved during the course of his previous deals.

In order to reduce the possibility of fraud, Hodl Hodl platform includes several trading limitations (e.g. single-trade limit, number of active Offers at the same time etc.), which are determined by the limit level applied to Users who have not reached a certain number of successful deals and/or have not bought / sold a certain amount of Bitcoin. The table of these limitations shall be published on the hodlhodl.com website on the FAQ/Help page, which is in addition to further information about the current limits visible on the page Dashboard.

The administrator of Hodl Hodl has the right to, at any time, change the limits for a User without changing the limits for other Users, and to change the limits for all Users on the Hodl Hodl trading platform.

Limit levels can be found in each User’s profile.

During the course of the Bitcoin purchase/sell deal, both the Buyer and the Seller will receive instructions on how to act, in order to finalize the deal and complete the Purchase Contract. These instructions can be found on the respective contract page (additional notifications will also be sent via email and/or hodlhodl.com internal notification system and/or Telegram Bot if you have activated such).

The Purchase Contract page can be opened by clicking on the respective contract in the All contracts section of the Hodl Hodl website.

There are different status indicators, which indicate the current status of the deal, and make it easier for the User to understand what he has to do at a specific moment in order to finalize the deal.

• Pending — The very beginning of a contract workflow. The Offer is accepted, but the Seller has not yet sent the Bitcoin to the Escrow Address. At this stage, both the Seller and the Buyer can unilaterally cancel the Purchase Contract.
• Depositing — The Seller is currently in the process of sending the Bitcoin to the Escrow Address. Only the Seller can cancel the Purchase Contract at this stage.
• In progress — The Bitcoin has been transferred to the Escrow Address and locked there. The Buyer can cancel the Purchase Contract at this stage. The Seller can cancel the contract if the Buyer has failed to make a Fiat or Cryptocurrency payment within the Payment window.
• Paid — Bitcoin is still locked in the Escrow Address, but the Buyer has already sent / passed the Fiat money or Cryptocurrency, that is used as payment for the Bitcoin, to the Seller. Neither Party can cancel the Purchase Contract at this stage; the Seller can start a dispute right after the status has become “Paid” and the Buyer can start a dispute once the “Payment window” has expired.
• Completed — The Buyer has successfully received Bitcoin, and the Seller has successfully received Fiat or Cryptocurrency in accordance with the rules of the respective Purchase Agreement. A completed deal cannot be appealed, revised or reversed.
• Cancelled — Contract was cancelled by one of the Parties.
• Disputed — Dispute has been initiated by one of the Parties and has not yet been resolved.
• Resolved — Dispute is resolved. A resolved dispute cannot be revised or reversed.

Only the Buyer may send payments, the Buyer must be the sole registered account owner and the person who uses the account. The Seller’s payment details must match the account owner's name. Third parties may not be involved in making and/or receiving payments. It is a violation of this Agreement to attempt to provide and/or make payments to and/or from third parties.

If the Buyer and the Seller are in a disagreement over a trade, either party can initiate a dispute, if and when they are allowed to do so by these Terms of Service. Disputes are to be resolved by the hodlhodl.com support staff. By submitting a dispute, you create, sign and initiate a transaction of release of Bitcoin from the Escrow Address.

Hodlex Ltd support resolves disputes with due diligence by carefully inspecting and considering the Terms of Trade, evidence of payment, Users’ chat messages, Users’ reputation, other data submitted to us by Users, and data collected on our own.

Hodlex Ltd can take the Buyer’s side if any of the following criteria have been met (this list is not explicit):

• The Seller does not respond in a time prescribed by Hodlex Ltd and/or does not cooperate with Hodlex Ltd in order to resolve the dispute;
• The Buyer supplies sufficient evidence (i.e. payment account statements with the transaction etc.) proving he or she has sent and/or transferred funds to the Seller;
• The Seller uses a third party and/or payment account that is not registered in the Seller’s name to provide, and/or attempt to provide, and/or to receive funds;
• The Seller does not provide an account statement for a period, in order to trace if the payment has been received.

This will lead to the following result: Hodlex Ltd will sign Buyer’s transaction in accordance with which the locked Bitcoin shall be transferred from the Escrow Address to the Buyer. In this event, the status of the deal will be - “Resolved”.

Hodlex Ltd can take the Seller’s side, when any of the following criteria have been met (the list is not explicit):

• The Buyer does not respond in a time prescribed by Hodlex Ltd and/or does not cooperate with Hodlex Ltd in order to resolve the dispute;
• The payment made by the Buyer was not in accordance with the Terms of Trade;
• A payment provider has frozen/stopped/held the payment made by the Buyer;
• The payment was not made by the Buyer, and/or only a partial payment was made;
• The Buyer uses a third party and/or payment account that is not registered in the Buyer’s name to provide, and/or attempt to provide, and/or to send funds;
• The Buyer does not provide an account statement with the transaction in dispute, and the Seller provides an account statement for the period that the payment was not received.

This will lead to the following result: Hodlex Ltd will sign Seller’s transaction in accordance with which the locked Bitcoin shall be returned from the Escrow Address to the Seller. In this event, the status of the deal will be - “Resolved”.

In case both the Buyer and the Seller provide equally convincing evidence, Hodlex Ltd will resolve the dispute in favor of the Party that provides the strongest evidence.

Both Parties are required to provide accurate, unquestionable and complete evidence, and/or documents that confirm correctness regarding the dispute case of the User. Each User must be able to provide explicit and full information about the transaction and/or payment in question and should cooperate with Hodlex Ltd in order to resolve the dispute. If Hodlex Ltd requests any additional evidence (documents) then such should be provided by the User, otherwise the dispute can be resolved in favor of the other party.

Any payment orders, account statements and slips must be with the complete payment information.

Hodlex Ltd draws the attention of the Users, hodlhodl.com support staff does not resolve disputes with the payment method "In person". In case the Buyer and Seller are in a disagreement over a trade with this payment method, hodlhodl.com will only sign a transaction for the locked Bitcoin to be returned to the Seller if both Parties explicitly and clearly express their Agreement for the trade, and they want Hodlex Ltd to take the Seller’s side. Otherwise, the Buyer shall only receive the locked Bitcoin if the Seller signs the transaction for the locked Bitcoin to be released to the Buyer.

Any party that knowingly submits fraudulent, false, and/or inaccurate documents and/or information, and/or forcefully tries to control the outcome of a disputed trade, and/or makes false claims, and/or obstructs the dispute resolution process in any way, including but not limited to, not responding, not providing information, files and/or documents to customer support within the established timeframe, and/or violates any rule of the dispute resolution process is deemed to be in violation of these Terms of Service which may be grounds for losing a dispute and/or the User Account to be suspended and/or terminated.

Dispute resolution rules are located at this link https://hodlhodl.com/pages/dispute_rules. Both Parties must strictly adhere to all stated rules. If there is any conflict between the Terms and the Dispute resolution rules, the Dispute resolution rules prevail.

You may request a review if you were a party of a dispute in any way, and you believe Hodl Hodl did not resolve the dispute according to these Terms of Service. To do so, you must notify us by contacting customer support and request a review within 120 days after the dispute resolution.

Each transaction performed using the Hodl Hodl platform shall be subject to a fee. Fees shall be automatically deducted by a respective smart contract from the entire amount of Bitcoin transferred to the Escrow Address within each deal/transaction.

Fees charged are calculated as a certain percentage of the amount of Bitcoin transferred to the Escrow Address. The trading fee of a particular contract is determined by the fee rate applicable to each Party.

It is deemed that the fees charged for using the hodlhodl.com platform and related performance of a transaction shall be covered by both the Buyer and the Seller. This way, both the Buyer and the Seller realize their respective fee the Hodl Hodl Platform charges in the following way:

• The full trading fee is deducted from the amount of Bitcoin the Buyer receives from the Escrow Address.

• The Seller realizes his half of the trading fee when the Buyer sends less than the stated Offer amount, by an amount exactly equivalent to half of the trading fee, as calculated from the Offer price.

All Bitcoin transaction fees related to transferring Bitcoin from the Escrow Address to the Buyer shall always be covered by the Buyer.

At the same time:

• The Buyer acknowledges and agrees that he or she shall, on his or her own and at his or her expense, cover all expenses whatsoever of any nature related to transferring Fiat money or Cryptocurrency to the Seller.

• The Seller acknowledges and agrees that he or she shall, on his or her own and at his or her own expense, cover all Bitcoin transaction fees related to transferring Bitcoin to Escrow Address.

Taking into account the fact that the Bitcoin transaction fee in the Bitcoin Blockchain Network may vary from time to time and cannot be predicted, the total and final fee (both the Platform fee and the Bitcoin transaction fee) will be visible to both Parties only after the Seller transfers Bitcoin to the Escrow Address. At the same time, estimated (but not final) fees are visible to the User when creating a Purchase Contract on the Offer page. We are not and will never be responsible for transaction fee of the Bitcoin Blockchain Network.

The fee for using the hodlhodl.com platform are subject to change and may be updated at any point without a prior notice. Users can find the current fees listed on the Dashboard page.

If the trading contract is performed through an intermediary, e.g., the Trezor Suite application, or the user is an intermediary referred user, the intermediary fee applies.

The intermediary fee of Trezor is 1%, fully paid by the Trezor referred user, or equally divided between parties if both contract parties have been referred by the intermediary.

Hereinafter, the Hodl Hodl Referral Program is called “Program” for short, and you, the referrer, will be called “Referrer” and any User you refer will be called “Referred User” and/or “Referree”. Once you begin using the “Program”, you must be fully compliant with the Terms of Service to remain eligible for the Program.

You can begin using the “Program” immediately - your link and referral code are active and ready to use.

Once a User has registered with your referral code and logged in, he is considered your “Referred User”.

If a “Referred User” and/or “Referree” has achieved the status “Active Trader”, then for every trade this “Active Trader” successfully completes, you may be eligible to receive the “Reward(s)” described below.

"Active Trader" - this is a User who's had at least one Purchase Contract end successfully in the last 3 months, and whose User Account is not suspended and/or terminated.

In order to be compensated, in your “Settings” you must enter the Bitcoin address, where you’ll receive “Reward(s)”.

You will receive 5 to 10 percent of the platform commission the Hodl Hodl platform from each Purchase Contract your “Referree” completes.

After registering, your “Referree” will permanently receive the discounted fee of 0.45%, instead of 0.5%.

Once at least one “Referree” of yours becomes an “Active trader” you get the discounted platform fee of 0.45% forever.

You are eligible to use the “Referral Program” for life.

If the “Referree” is considered an “Active Trader”, you earn a “Reward” from every trade your “Referree” completes successfully.

• You earn 5% of the Hodl Hodl platform commission from all successfully completed Purchase Contracts the “Referree” participates in, if the total number of “Active Traders” you invited is less than 50.
• You earn 8% of the Hodl Hodl platform commission from all successfully completed Purchase Contracts the “Referree” participates in, if the total number of “Active Traders” you invited is greater than or equal to 50, but less than 100.
• You earn 10% of the Hodl Hodl platform commission from all successfully completed Purchase Contracts the “Referree” participates in, if the total number of “Active Traders” you invited is greater than or equal to 100.

For technical reasons related to “dust limit” you will only receive “Rewards” from contracts, where your “Reward” is greater than or equal to 0.00000546 BTC.

In the event of two of your “Referrees” successfully completing a contract between themselves, then the referral commission you can earn is capped at 10% of the Hodl Hodl Platform commission.

In the event of two "Referrees" being invited by different "Referrers", and they successfully complete a contract between themselves, each "Referrer" earns a "Reward".

In the event of the Hodl Hodl platform not receiving a platform fee from a completed trade, where your “Referree(s)” participated, you won’t be compensated (it’s possible when one of the counterparties has a trading fee rate of 0%).

“Reward” is paid immediately and automatically, once any “Referree” of yours successfully completes a contract.

“Rewards” are paid to the Bitcoin Wallet Address(es), mentioned in your “Settings”.

In case Bitcoin Wallet Address(es) were not provided in your “Settings” at the moment a contract successfully completes, that your “Referree(s)” participated in, you will not receive your “Reward”.

Spamming your referral link/code is strictly forbidden. You may not send unsolicited electronic messages in bulk. Spamming includes:

• Unsubscribed mass e-mail campaign.

• Unsubscribed and/or mass sending of private and/or public messages through any social media, reddit, forums, etc.

• Deceptive advertisements of the Hodl Hodl platform with a hidden referral link inside.

We reserve the right to disqualify any User, at any time, from participation in the Program, if he or she does not comply with any of the Terms of Service. Also, we reserve the right to terminate the Program or any User’s participation in the Program at any time without warning at our sole discretion.

Upon termination of the Program and/or any portion thereof, for any reason, and/or upon disqualification, termination, and/or suspension of a “Referrer's” account for any reason, the “Referrer” ceases to receive “Rewards” from any contract(s) that his or her “Referree(s)” complete(s) hereinafter.

You agree to indemnify and hold Hodl Hodl and its directors, employees, representatives, agents, subsidiaries and affiliates harmless, from and against, any and all claims, demands, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including legal fees), arising out of or in connection with: (i) your use and access to the Hodl Hodl Platform, including your interactions with decentralised smart contracts; (ii) your violation of any term of these Terms, including without limitation any actual or alleged breach of your representations, warranties, or obligations set forth in these Terms; (iii) your violation of any third-party right, including without limitation any right of privacy, publicity rights or intellectual property rights; (iv) your violation of any applicable law, rule or regulation; (v) your negligent or wilful misconduct; or (vi) any other party’s access and use of other appropriate security code.