Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

CHICAGO, Feb. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --With over 1,700 locations now in the United States, RockItCoin today announced the next phase of its growth strategy with the launch of cryptocurrency ATMs in Bogot, Colombia, featuring a premiere installation at the El Retiro Shopping Center.

Our greatest impact will be our commitment to customer service and educating the Colombian crypto community.

"We have had great success in the United States and will continue expansion efforts domestically and internationally," said Michael Dalesandro, CEO and founder of RockItCoin (www.rockitcoin.com). "With the continued global acceptance and adoption of cryptocurrency, RockItCoin will expand its offerings to grow with this ecosystem".

"We've seen tremendous response to our domestic networkand are focused on providing Colombians with the same inclusion and instant access to the crypto community,"said Ben Phillips, president of RockItCoin. "But we intend to be more than a simple retail solution. Our greatest impact will be our commitment to customer service and educating the Colombian crypto community." RockItCoin offers live agent support to its customers.

The featured RockitCoin Bitcoin ATM (Calle 81 #11-95 Local 3 204, Cl. 81, Bogot, Cundinamarca, Colombia), is set in one of the highest-profile shopping centers in the South American city and is in a prime destination for retail, dining, and culture in one of the most bustling commercial areas ofBogot.

Dalesandro said much like its RockItCoin network in the United States, RockItCoin services abroad will offer users privacy, simplicity, availability, security, and choice, delivering cryptocurrency to customers' wallets as quickly as possible.

"From RockItCoin's beginnings, we have made it our commitment to bring cryptocurrency to the masses," explained Dalesandro. "Expanding internationally is just another step towards this goal. Colombia is just the beginning."

Founded by Dalesandro and Phillips in 2015, RockItCoin is a leading crypto blockchain company based in Chicago, Illinois, and operates a nationwide network of over 1,700 cryptocurrency ATMs. The company also offers digital trading services through its website or mobile app, along with large-scale crypto trading management services. More information is available by visiting http://www.rockitcoin.com and following RockItCoin on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Contact: Nick McGuire

nick@rockitcoin.com | 312-971-9476

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SOURCE RockItCoin

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ROCKITCOIN LAUCHES INTERNATIONALLY WITH THE INSTALLATION OF CRYPTOCURRENCY ATMs IN COLOMBIA - Longview News-Journal

Photo: Quinten Jacobs (Shutterstock)

Even as cryptocurrency becomes more and more mainstream, the wild ride that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are always on scares off a lot of people. Its one thing to imagine you were hip enough to buy Bitcoin when it was worth a few bucks, its something else entirely to pony up thousands of dollars only to see it magically transform into hundreds of dollars.

There are still compelling reasons to invest in crypto, of course. Bitcoin and Ether and other crypto coins have shown a tendency to gain back value after falloffs, making every dip a potential opportunity. And the potential for cryptocurrency to someday become a truly anonymous currency has vast appeal for manyplus, the list of stuff you can buy using Bitcoin and other currencies is growing.

If youre new to crypto, you might not realize that you need a place to store your coins once youve bought them. Cryptocurrency is just decentralized computer code, and yes, you can store that code in an exchange like Coinbase or Robinhoodbut storing your crypto in public exchanges puts your funds at risk, because if the exchange is compromised (or collapses), all you can do is wave sadly as your coins fly away, never to be seen again. A better bet is to put your crypto in a cryptocurrency wallet.

There are more than 17,000 cryptocurrencies in existence, which is...a lot. There arent quite as many wallet choices for storing your crypto, but you still have some decisions to make.

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A cryptocurrency wallet isnt a place where your coins go, its just a place where your public and private keys intersect. They work in essentially the same basic way, using a public and private key system. When you send money to the public key, it posts that transaction on the blockchain associated with that particular cryptocurrency. Thats the public, unalterable record that governs the cryptocurrency. Then, in order to access the crypto in the wallet, you need your private key. Its important to note that no matter where you store your crypto, if you lose your private key, you are what scientists call shit out of luck (SOL).

There are two basic kinds of crypto wallets: Hot wallets, which are software-based and connected to the Internet, and cold wallets, which are not connected and are often hardware (as in, a physical dongle or drive). Hot wallets are slightly less secure but lend themselves to daily transactions. Cold storage has that extra bit of security in that even if hackers know how to steal your crypto, theyll need physical access to the wallet to even try (and even if they actually steal the physical wallet, without your private key your money is safe). But the downside of a cold wallet is the delay and trouble involved in accessing your crypto.

In fact, the ultimate cold wallet is whats known as a paper wallet, which is just thata piece of paper with your public and private keys printed on it. Theyre not very convenient, and if you lose the paper youre screwed, but on the other hand, no one has invented a way to beam a piece of paper over the Internet. Some investors use both hot and cold walletshot to make daily moves, cold to store coins long-term.

If you decide you want a cold wallet, your best choice is probably the Ledger Nano X. It works with more than 1,800 kinds of crypto coins and is easy to use. You can connect it to your computer either via USB or Bluetooth, making it a convenient cold wallet. The Nano X balances solid security with an interface that is easy to navigate and use, so you can spend more time staring in horror as your crypto position craters and less time trying to frantically figure out how to sell it all before its too late.

If the ease of transactions and being free from a physical object is important to you, a hot storage wallet is your answer. Which wallet you choose depends on what youre looking to accomplish:

There are close to a hundred crypto wallets on the market right now, so you have a lot of choices. If youre just figuring this stuff out, you can start with Coinbase Wallet and transfer everything over if and when you decide a different wallet is needed. Ultimately, choosing a wallet offered by a reputable, well-established company is the key first step.

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How to Choose the Right Cryptocurrency Wallet - Lifehacker

Vevey, Switzerland, Feb. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- What is the Purpose of this Token?

Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt

While typically it is the death of most tokens, they have chosen to embrace the darkness.

Sometimes you must flip the script.

Join them as they harness it for good and stonks. Heres their message:

We wanted to create a token with no bullshit. No over the moon promises. No weightless NFT marketplace promises, no Metaverse. Just an ERC-20 Token with a vision and a community built from the ground up. Our team has spent years in this space; watching, buying, learning. We have come to the conclusion that what this community needs is a good old fashion runner. A team that works to spread exposure of the token. Videos, Memes, Custom stickers you know, the fun stuff! Things everyone can share and laugh at or with (your choice). We have also noticed one theme above all FUD.

It is essential to us. We want to embrace this FUD. Let it carry us to the highest peaks. How do you deal with criticism? You embrace it. This token is FUD. This community is FUD. Come spread the Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt that crushes so many and watch us fly.

What is FUD? Fear Uncertainty and Doubt. FUD is generally used as a strategy to influence peoples perceptions to think negatively about a situation. Using dubious or even false information to manifest fear. Whales, media outlets, hedge funds, venture capital firms etc. commonly use FUD to gather a stronger market position or to time your buys in at lower positions.

Our purpose is to flip the entire script on the system, what happens when the FUD is embraced?

Note: This Token was launched using our signature, and new, Tochis Fair Launch approach;

Tochis Fair Launch means quite simply upon Launch, the liquidity will be locked. The roadmap is genuine, realistic, honest, and achievable. The Tochi Fair Launch stamp certifies its made by the trustable clean conscious team of artists, Team Tochi. There wont be preloaded wallets, there wont be a fake NFT marketplace, just pure, high quality good-faith meme token action. Join us on our journey in 2022.

An ERC-20 Token developed with a robust contract featuring capabilities such as Anti-bot, Anti-sniping, Blacklisting, No mint functions, etc. The use cases are both limited and infinite. How many we will apply depends on how far the FUD travels.

Summarization:

Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt is about to be tested by a community of thought provokers, artists, and crypto enthusiasts alike. Lots of artwork, a storyline, full video series, tailored with a clean safe contract to protect launch and sustainability.

What is the Function of this TokenFear Uncertainty and Doubt has been spoken of since the 1900s contrary to some people thoughts, this is not a new term the cryptocurrency industry has created. Regulators across the globe, the ones we rely on to make our laws, are not immune to the FUD.

Fear of changes within the typical grandfathered in financial system and the potential of crypto being unregulatable.

Uncertainty generally on how crypto even works, or how web3 as a whole works.

Doubt about if crypto is even beneficial to society as a whole.

Our purpose is to birth a re-think, that can travel through our community and eventually a wide and robust audience. Our mission statement is very simple, inspire leaders as to: Why the people they serve value crypto. Learn how blockchain technology works or build infrastructure and hire people who understand it. And flexibility, to take on a flexible approach achieving positive, even to the cryptocurrency industry, regulatory objectives.

Summarization:

This token aims to shift our global leaders approach within cryptocurrency using a multi-faceted approach. To bring insight within how cryptocurrency can actually benefit the legacy financial system, shed insight to a broader audience how crypto works, and the endless possibilities web3 provides, and lastly expand in depth how and why crypto benefits society.

Check out our socials below where youll find even more information including links, upcoming promotions, and announcements.

Website: http://www.TheFudToken.com

Telegram: t.me/FudTokenOfficial

Vimeo: Vimeo.com/TheFudToken

Twitter: Twitter.com/Fud_Token

Total tokens: 1 Billion

Reflections - No Presale / No Pre-Investors / No Developer Token Wallets / 100% Bullish

Media Details

Company Name: Fud TokenCompany Email: TheFudToken@GMail.comCity: VeveyCountry: Switzerland

There is no offer to sell, no solicitation of an offer to buy, and no recommendation of any security or any other product or service in this article. Moreover, nothing contained in this PR should be construed as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any investment or security, or to engage in any investment strategy or transaction. It is your responsibility to determine whether any investment, investment strategy, security, or related transaction is appropriate for you based on your investment objectives, financial circumstances, and risk tolerance. Consult your business advisor, attorney, or tax advisor regarding your specific business, legal, or tax situation.

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Newly Announced "Fud Token" Cryptocurrency - Could this be - GlobeNewswire

A sign at Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Criminals are running rampant on social media, according to a Federal Trade Commission report. Two Berkshire County residents had their accounts hacked for use in a cryptocurrency scam.

GREAT BARRINGTON Ed Domaneys friends started calling and texting him at his downtown wine and liquor store one night to tell him a hacker had hijacked his Instagram account.

Theres been so much hesitancy on the part of the companies, mainly because they abuse personal privacy and they sell information and they dont want to rein in what has been their cash cow."

Elliott Greenblott, of AARP's Fraud Watch in Vermont, on why Big Tech doesn't protect consumers

He pulled up his personal profile. Sure enough, recent photos indicated that he had, unbeknownst to him, made a bundle from bitcoin mining, and wanted his friends to reap the benefits, too.

Some of his followers tangled with the hacker. They said in direct messages on the platform that they knew Ed, and that they were onto the hacker's scheme. The hacker responded with a profane insult, and from there, a struggle ensued.

I couldnt get rid of the photos, and I tried to change my password and I couldnt because the hacker had changed it, Domaney said.

Ed Domaney, owner of Domaneys Liquors and Fine Wines in Great Barrington, did not lose money, but his ordealis just a part of the latest trend in using social media to steal.

He got help from a family friend who works for Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. It took three company technicians to gain control of the account.

At about the same time, a similar battle was underway in Pittsfield. The Instagram user, who does not want his name used, in order to protect his privacy, also appeared to be raking it in through bitcoin mining, given posts showing his new Mercedes-Benz and a house. For two weeks, he unsuccessfully tried to wrest his account back from a hacker. He finally had to create a new one.

The hacker had stolen his account and changed his profile handle. Worse, they impersonated him, posting photos to his account of him with his daughter to advertise a cryptocurrency fraud scheme. He sent screenshots to Instagram. The company has done nothing to help has not even responded.

I sent them a dozen emails, a picture of my ID, a video selfie, he said, noting that part of the problem is that he no longer has access to the email address he used to set up the account 10 years ago.

Texting with a social media hacker who is purporting to have made a bundle through bitcoin mining.

Neither Domaney nor the Pittsfield man lost money to the thieves. Theirs is just a part of the latest trend in using social media to steal. These investment scams last year made up 37 percent of the total dollars lost to fraud initiated on social media, according to a report last month by the Federal Trade Commission, which said social media platforms have grown into a hub of criminal activity. Fortune magazine said crypto-related fraud is set to swallow social media whole.

The hacker who seized the Instagram account of a Pittsfield resident tries to lure one of his followers into a scam.

The number of people who reported that their money was stolen in a social media-based scam grew eighteenfold from 2017, with a total reported loss last year of $770 million.

The agency is warning people of this crime surge and issued a number of tips to stay safe, including using privacy settings to restrict what the public can see.

Neither Domaney nor the Pittsfield user had their two-party verification system turned on, and that likely is the reason the hacker was successful. This system sends a code to the account owner on a different device to verify the owner's identity in two steps.

Domaney also thinks he accidentally might have followed a fake account masquerading as a friend he already was following.

I must have clicked something I shouldnt have, he said.

Fraud experts say Big Tech companies largely are to blame.

Social media has become the No. 1 territory for the criminals, said Elliott Greenblott, AARP Fraud Watch Coordinator in Vermont and an Eagle contributor. It's poorly monitored and managed by companies like Facebook [Meta]. Google doesnt do a very good job, nor do Twitter and Instagram.

Greenblott said Big Tech doesnt police its platforms to protect consumers for the usual reasons money.

Theres been so much hesitancy on the part of the companies, mainly because they abuse personal privacy and they sell information and they dont want to rein in what has been their cash cow," he said.

He said AARP is focusing on people ages 25 to 49, who increasingly are victimized in fraud schemes and likely are to be victimized more than once. He said people are spending more time online during the coronavirus pandemic, and that this gives criminals more targets.

Reports of these kinds of online scams havent been reported to Great Barrington Police yet, said Chief Paul Storti, who noted that the department works with Greenblott to protect people. He the public should call the station with any concerns.

The hacker who seized the Pittsfield users account tried to ensnare his followers into a fake investment. They began by sending direct messages, asking if they would vote for him to be an ambassador in an online influencers program. If yes, the hacker would send a link to place a vote a link that might be compromising their account.

The hacker also continued to refer followers to the profile page of his mentor, Oliver George, an entrepreneur who the hacker says owns a bitcoin mining company. That account shows the purported Mr. George pensively moving through a world of luxury while wearing expensive watches.

The awful part is the lack of response from Instagram, the Pittsfield resident said.

Domaney had an easier time. His son also helped secure his account and reassure customers that his father had not suddenly changed careers.

He is NOT trading crypto, his son, Joe Domaney, posted to the business Instagram account.

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These Berkshire residents appeared to get rich with cryptocurrency, and wanted their friends to invest. Turns out, it was a social media scammer -...

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January was a bad month for the crypto market, and one expert says investors should expect more nasty downturns in the future.

Thats just part of the deal, along with the massive gains many investors could also see if the crypto market soars again like it did throughout much of last year, according to Wendy O, a crypto investor and popular TikToker who recently shared her thoughts with TIME in an interview.

Anytime you have a really volatile, upward movement, you should also be prepared for a very volatile, downward movement, says O, who began teaching herself how to invest in and trade crypto in 2017.

The price of Bitcoin the first and most established cryptocurrency plunged suddenly at the end of January, sinking 50% from its November high of $69,000, amid a broad investor retreat from risky assets. Ethereum also hit a six-month low, falling below $2,200. It was the lowest both of the two biggest cryptos had been since July 2021. Bitcoin and Ethereum prices have climbed back up some since, though Bitcoin remains below $40,000 and Ethereum below $3,000.

If youre invested in crypto, youre in for a wild ride. Cryptocurrencies are notoriously volatile investments, and youll need to be able to tolerate it as any new technology is going to go through growing pains, says Doug Boneparth, CFP and president of Bone Fide Wealth in New York. Here are tips on how to handle volatility in the crypto market.

The biggest problem O sees in the crypto market is investors dumping all their money into crypto without a real understanding of it. We have a lot of people that are investing very irresponsibly and only looking at the market in one direction. They think theyre going to get rich, she says.

If you catch yourself feeling anxious about the crypto market, take a step back and ask yourself why youre investing in crypto in the first place. If you cant articulate that, then chances are you probably shouldnt be investing in it, says O.

Crypto moves a little bit differently than traditional markets and thats OK. But you still have to be willing to educate yourself. Its important to understand the basics of investing, but its also important to understand what these markets are.

Many experts say investors should look at cryptocurrencies as volatile, highly speculative assets, and recommend keeping any crypto holdings to less than 5% of your total portfolio. You should also have other financial bases covered before buying into crypto, such as a solid emergency fund, conventional retirement savings, and no high-interest debt.

Its important for every single person to kind of take a step back and analyze, says O. Ask yourself, Am I comfortable with this? Does this make sense? Does it make sense if I lose everything? Are my bills paid? Do I have food on the table? Is my rent paid or my kids taken care of?

As with any investment, you should set clear goals and only put in what youre OK with losing. Experts recommend sticking to a long-term investment plan, rather than approaching crypto with hopes of getting rich quickly. That means ignoring the short-term ups and downs, focusing instead on long-term investment growth.

To avoid acting on emotion during big swings, O recommends making a game plan for different scenarios before they happen. For example, have a plan in place to either buy or sell more of a given asset based on future price points it might fall below or go above.

I think its important to look at a situation and to anticipate or plan for a positive scenario and for a negative scenario, she says. You need to be able to switch your bias if the market changes. If you think and talk in absolutes, youre probably going to end up losing money.

Dont rely on crypto investments for your retirement or overall financial strategy. Make sure the majority of your investment portfolio is made up of stable assets projected for long-term growth, like low-cost index funds. If you do incorporate crypto into your portfolio, experts recommend sticking with the two most established coins: Bitcoin and Ethereum.

There are more than 15,000 different cryptocurrencies, and it can get very noisy and confusing, according to Boneparth. It can create a very confusing environment to figure out whats what and who is who, especially when you have a lot of people really pumping it or being very zealous about it, he says.

Thats why tuning out the noise, as well as educating yourself on crypto, are both essential when investing in the space. Stay the course, and dont let the hype of certain crypto investments result in fear-of-missing-out (FOMO). Maintain a healthy dose of skepticism with anything related to crypto especially influencers advice and watch out for strangers writing to you directly about get-rich-quick crypto schemes.

If youre in it for the long haul, consider applying the cost-averaging strategy to your crypto investments. Dollar-cost averaging is when you make consistent investments over time, rather than investing lump sums all at once.

O says to stick to Bitcoin if you pursue this strategy, unless youre OK with more risk. For Bitcoin, I like the dollar cost averaging strategy because I like Bitcoin long-term. It is one of the more stable [crypto] investments that a person can make. When were talking about dollar-cost averaging with altcoin, I think that that carries a lot more risk to it, she says.

This strategy can be a good way to avoid trying to time the market, which studies have shown is very unlikely to be a winning strategy for investors. A steady dollar-cost averaging approach can also help investors stomach risk when there are big swings in the crypto market. The idea is that by building wealth over time, you can neutralize short-term volatility in the market.

Continued here:
This Popular Crypto Investor Predicts Nasty Downturns Ahead. Heres How She Says to Prepare - NextAdvisor

What is cryptocurrency market cap?

Market cap is one of the most popular metrics in the industry that is used to gauge the value of an asset. The market cap of a cryptocurrency is calculated based on the coin's total circulating supply multiplied by the current price. For detailed examples on how the market capitalization of a coin is calculated, please view our methodology page.

As a financial metric, market cap allows you to compare the total circulating value of one cryptocurrency with another. Large cap cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have a market cap of over $10 billion. They typically consist of protocols that have demonstrated track record, and have a vibrant ecosystem of developers maintaining and enhancing the protocol, as well as building new projects on top of them. From a trading perspective, large caps would typically be hosted on more exchanges, have higher liquidity, and are less volatile when compared against other mid and small cap cryptocurrencies.

While market cap is a simple and intuitive comparison metric, it is not a perfect point of comparison. Some cryptocurrency projects may appear to have inflated market cap through price swings and the tokenomics of their supply. As such, it is best to use this metric as a reference alongside other metrics such as trading volume, liquidity, fully diluted valuation, and fundamentals during your research process.

Yes, you can check crypto prices on mobile by using the CoinGecko app on iOS and Android.

Candlestick charts give an overview to traders on the price movement based on previous trends. The body of the candlestick shows where the price of a coin opened and closed for the particular period of time which the candlestick represents. If the candle is green in a crypto chart, it represents positive changes in price while red candle represents negative changes in price. The shadow indicates the high price and low price for the period.

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Cryptocurrency Prices, Charts, and Crypto Market Cap | CoinGecko

New Delhi: The cryptocurrency market was trading higher on Monday, with tokens associated with gaming witnessing a strong rise. That said, the recent rebound in prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum have turned investors cautious.

Barring Terra, all other nine out of the top-10 digital tokens were trading with decent gains. Meme tokens like Dogecoin jumped more than 7 per cent while its peer Shiba Inu rallied 26 per cent.

The global crypto market cap dropped almost 2 per cent to $1.94 trillion. However, the total crypto market volume dropped more than 9 per cent to $65.01 billion.

The budget for FY23 announced last week proposes to tax any income from the transfer of any virtual digital asset at a flat 30 per cent rate. The provision will be applicable from April 1, 2022.

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Top cryptocurrency prices today: Bitcoin hits $42,000; Dogecoin, Shiba Inu zoom up to 26% - Economic Times

Allie Eve Knox creates adult content.

She makes sexually provocative videos, sells subscription services on platforms like OnlyFans, performs live via webcam, and works as a findomme short for financial dominatrix, a fetish involving dominance-submission dynamics and cash.

The Texas native is also a major advocate of cryptocurrency.

Knox describes herself as "one of the most outspoken sex workers, particularly for crypto." Her interest kicked off in 2014, which is when she says several vendors, including PayPal, Square Cash, and Venmo, shut down her accounts because of red flags related to sex work.

So Knox started accepting cryptocurrencies instead. Her first exchange of bitcoin for content was pretty casual.

It started on a Skype call with a client. "I had a Coinbase account at the time, and he said, 'Hold your QR code right to this camera here,' and he sent it through the camera. And I got it," she explained.

It took 15 minutes, and there were no chargebacks, no website commission fees, and no bank intermediaries to turn down the transaction all major pluses in her industry. But the biggest attraction was having total and irreversible ownership over the money she had earned.

"I could cash it out. I could hold it. I could watch it go up and down," said Knox.

"It was mine."

Knox is one of many adult workers who say that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin give them a sense of security and independence as banks, credit card companies, and payment processors tighten regulations around adult content. With crypto, there is no middleman making a judgment call on which transactions are acceptable.

Sex work is an umbrella term that includes anyone who engages in some form of erotic labor, whether virtual or in person.

"The majority of sex work in the U.S. is legal. It's not dealt with fairly, but it's still legal," explained Kristen DiAngelo, an activist and Sacramento-based sex worker who has spent over four decades in the industry. "Stripping is legalmassage is legalescorting is legal. The only thing that's really illegal in the U.S. is the honest exchange of sexual activity for remuneration, for money."

Some escorts who charge anywhere from $1,700 an hour to $11,000 for a full 24 hours now explicitly say in their ads that they prefer to be paid in bitcoin or ethereum.

The sex work industry also includes performers on the popular subscription video site OnlyFans, many of whom work exclusively online and have never seen their subscribers or fans in person.

Allie Rae is a 37-year-old mother of three boys who says she went from making about $84,000 a year as an ICU nurse in Boston to $1.3 million, thanks to her work on OnlyFans, which has more than 130 million users.

Last August, Rae didn't know a lot about cryptocurrency, nor did she accept it for her work, but she was convinced that bitcoin and other altcoins were "100% the future," because they seemed like a far more secure method of payment.

At the time, OnlyFans was navigating a publicity nightmare. After banks started flagging and rejecting transactions on the site, OnlyFans announced plans to ban sexually explicit content, its core product. The decision was met with such blowback that OnlyFans reversed course within days.

The whole episode gave whiplash to OnlyFans performers, some of whom realized that they were just one company policy change away from financial ruin.

Rae, a star of the OnlyFans ecosystem, was spooked, telling CNBC that she felt "kicked to the curb," and never wanted to be put in that position again.

So she took action.

She started with the basics, teaching herself the fundamentals of crypto, then decided to put real skin in the game by assembling a team of developers to build WetSpace, a cryptocurrency-powered adult entertainment platform, into which she has vowed to invest $1 million of her own money. As Rae describes it, WetSpace will be a place where creators don't have to worry about "big banking restrictions and payouts."

By December, Rae had gone from bitcoin novice and OnlyFans ingnue to an adult content entrepreneur speaking fluent crypto, with terms like "smart contracts" and "ERC-20 tokens" rolling right off her tongue.

Adult content creators have also jumped on the non-fungible token, or NFT, bandwagon. Knox tells CNBC she's sold photos of herself as NFTs on OpenSea and through SpankChain's custom NFT marketplace. Thus far, the most she's gotten from a single sale is $1,200 worth of ethereum.

DiAngelo tells CNBC she will never forget the first time her bank account was closed without warning.

It happened when she was on a trip to Washington, D.C.over a decade ago.

"I had just gone into the bank, made a deposit, and I went to buy lunch in Dupont Circle," said DiAngelo. "I gave him my card, and it was declined. I gave him my card, and it was declined again. And I gave my card again, and it was declined again. And I was like, 'No, no, no, no, that can't be right. There's something wrong.'"

DiAngelo called Citibank and learned that her account had been frozen and she should tear up her credit card. DiAngelo says the customer service rep told her that they weren't "at liberty" to tell her why it had happened, and she would have to write a formal letter to request additional details.

They did, however, say that she was still responsible for any money owed.

"That put fear in my heart, like I thought my world was collapsing. My bank account was frozen. I couldn't access my money," she said.(Citibank did not respond to a request for comment.)

There was particular irony in her situation, as DiAngelo did a stint as a stockbroker at Citibank in the 1980's, always pays her taxes, and has a credit score over 800.

Allie Eve Knox

Allie Eve Knox

So DiAngelo did what other sex workers do: She "platform hopped," meaning that she brought her money to another bank. When they also flagged and closed her account, she moved on to the next. After being shut out of a third bank, DiAngelo says she turned exclusively to bitcoin for her online banking needs.

Nearly every sex worker interviewed for this story mentioned platform hopping. The government has a set of anti-traffickingguidelines drawn up by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, and the banks and big payment apps keep an eye out for activity deemed suspicious by those guidelines. Those red flags include making cash deposits frequently a hallmark of the sex work profession.

"We will change, we will pivot, we'll go to other platforms," Knox said. "This is just a constant like jumping through hoops cycle."

In 2014, for example, PayPal booted her because of a payment for her used socks that was large enough to get red-flagged. Knox says neither she nor the buyer were refunded. (PayPal tells CNBC that her account was "closed due to policy violations.")

Later, in 2016, Coinbase closed her account and blocked her from making others. (Coinbase acknowledged to CNBC that its terms of service prohibit the use of its "commerce or retail services connected to adult content.")

"We're the ones being punished not the traffickers, not those that are actually abusing workers," said Alana Evans, who has been an adult performer since the late 90's. Evans is currently president of the Adult Performance Artists Guild, or APAG, a federally recognized union within the adult industry that represents all workers from adult film set actors, to content creators.

"They've attacked our banking; our ability to operate like the rest of the world," explained DiAngelo."You don't exist if you can't use the banking system."

Evans says that once you've been in the industry and labeled as an adult performer, it is virtually impossible to get a job outside the industry even at a fast food restaurant.

"We are stigmatized. We are discriminated against," said Evans, who is actively looking to foment change in her role as the head of APAG. She says she has met directly with Mastercard and other companies to address the issue, and she is advocating with members of Congress to add occupation to the list of protected title practices, which currently includes race, age, and religion.

Mastercard confirmed the meeting with Evans, saying that the company "welcomes dialogue and different perspectives" about its policies and programs.

For many sex workers, bitcoin is more than a way to reclaim financial independence it's an industry standard.

In 2018, the U.S. passed a federal law designed to eliminate online sex trafficking. The Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act and Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, or FOSTA-SESTA, meant that owners of web sites could face criminal charges for content that promoted trafficking.

"It meant any site online, or any venue that does business online, that could possibly receive profits for prostitution in any way could be indicted and do 25 years in prison," explained DiAngelo, who is currently a researcher and lecturer at the University of California, Davis.

FOSTA-SESTA spelled an end for Backpage once the bastion of online advertisements for sex workers and persuaded Craigslist to discontinue its personal ads.

But critics say the net effect of this law was to drive the trade further underground. Workers lost the ability to pre-screen clients, and many in the industry tell CNBC it led to a spike in street work and violence.

It also turned bitcoin into a necessity for many escorts. Advertising is essential to attract new business, and workers using popular escort directories like Slixa and Eros tell CNBC that these platforms encourage payment in cryptocurrencies within the U.S. One industry vet says typical ads cost $480 worth of bitcoin for two weeks.

Eros did not respond to a request for comment, while Slixa shared in a written statement that it "does not advertise or have as advertisers 'sex workers' as that term is traditionally defined," and that it takes multiple forms of payment.

"I think that in some ways crypto offers a way forward," said Mike Stabile, a spokesman for the Free Speech Coalition, which is an adult video trade group that advocates for the rights of sex workers.

"It means that you can move away from these handful of payment processors, the handful of credit cards that seem to control what content can be sold," continued Stabile.

Mastercard disputes the assertion that it's biased against sex workers. "Let us be clear allegations of bias against adult content creators are demonstrably untrue. Our actions and business practices against trafficking and exploitation clearly show this."

It's just an up-and-down kind of roller coaster. That's the beauty and the pain of crypto.

One hazard of the trade are chargebacks, in which a transaction is reversed when a consumer claims they have been fraudulently charged for a good or service they did not receive. It is a tool designed to protect consumers, but many sex workers say it is a tool that is abused in their industry by clients who dispute a transaction for a product or service they have already received.

Take OnlyFans. There are some customers who will dispute a transaction once they've already received custom video clips, or photos. OnlyFans' official policy on its website says the creator, not the company, foots the bill for a chargeback. (OnlyFans did not respond to requests for comment.)

Many models have taken to forums like Reddit to share their experiences, in which they say these alleged scammers will sometimes put in for a chargeback six months after receiving pictures or videos.

Transactions in cryptocurrencies are final, rendering chargebacks impossible.

Online, the adult industry often leads technology shifts, and that's certainly been the case with crypto.

UK-based escort agency VIP Passion started to accept bitcoin in 2013. Two years later, Backpage made a similar move into bitcoin, litecoin, and dogecoin after Visa and Mastercard refused to process payments for its "adult" section.

Visa said at the time that the company's rules prohibited the network from "being used for illegal activity" and that Visa had a "long history of working with law enforcement to safeguard the integrity of the payment system." Mastercard issued a similar statement, saying that the card company has rules prohibiting its cards from "being used for illegal or brand-damaging activities."

Pornhub one of the world's most highly trafficked websites began accepting a crypto token called verge in 2018. As litecoin creator Charlie Lee noted at the time, the porn industry is often a "leading indicator of technology adoption," so he was "glad to see them opening up to cryptocurrency."

When PayPal decided to stop payouts to over a hundred thousand Pornhub performers, the site added tether (a stablecoin pegged to the price of the U.S. dollar) as an alternative option. In Dec. 2020, Pornhub went full crypto in some countries after Mastercard and Visa cut ties with the platform over claims of illegal content running rampant on the porn site.

In a statement to CNBC, Mastercard said its decision was "based on an internal investigation that confirmed violations of our standards prohibiting unlawful content on their site." Visa did not respond.

Allie Eve Knox

Allie Eve Knox

Nowadays, it's par for the course to see adult websites accept cryptocurrency, and some deal in it exclusively.

Chaturbate and FanCentro accept digital tokens, and live-streaming webcam platform Stripchat tells CNBC that 23% of its active models are now paid in a mix of cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, ethereum, and USDC, which is a stablecoin pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar. Customers can also leave tips, and the company says its largest tip yet was $100,000 deposited in tether.

It helps that recent advancements in payment technology have made it easier than ever to transact in cryptocurrency. The Lightning Network, for example, is a payments platform built on bitcoin's base layer that enables virtually instantaneous transactions.

"An OnlyFans that is Lightning based could easily survive the sort of censorship they faced in August," explained Boaz Sobrado, a London-based fintech data analyst. "Political pressure and stigma can be applied to card companies, which can then make it very difficult for otherwise legal businesses like OnlyFans to operate."

"This entire vector is removed if you have a payment system which doesn't suffer from political pressures. And that's the case with the Lightning Network, which has inexpensive payments, easy transactions, and is not easily censorable," continued Sobrado.

Some adult media companies have even turned to blockchain technology to develop their own digital currencies and platforms.

SpankChain is a cam-site built on ethereum's blockchain that, among other things, tries to make it easier for adult performers to safely get paid online. LiveStars, also built on ethereum, is an adult streaming platform and social network that promises greater privacy and security to users, plus similar payment solutions that intend to make transactions faster and more profitable for the performer which is significant to workers who are accustomed to paying 40% to 50% commission fees on traditional platforms that run on fiat payment rails.

CumRocket which Elon Musk appeared to back in two cryptic tweets last June has its own NFT marketplace and token, which can be used to tip and message content creators.

Stabile warns there are still barriers to mass crypto adoption among sex workers.

For one, there's a steep learning curve for both workers and customers. Sex workers have written and circulated guides online on how to use crypto, but a sizable knowledge gap remains.

It is also difficult to get some customers to spend their bitcoin on adult content.

"They generally use it as a store of value," says Stabile. "It's a speculative currency."

Knox says often clients choose not to pay her in crypto.

"That's the hurdle that we're at right now. We can take it all day long, but until people start using it and start paying us with it, it's not going to really take off for adoption," said Knox.

Sex workers who do accept crypto also have to contend with volatile prices, which can cut into their earnings. For instance, bitcoin is down more than 40% from its November all-time high.

Evans tells CNBC she stuck it out through the multi-year crypto winter that began in late 2017, when prices plunged.

"I literally had a paycheck that was worth one-tenth of what it was, because I held on to it," explained Knox. "It's just an up-and-down kind of roller coaster. That's the beauty and the pain of crypto."

That volatility can create upside, too.

When Knox began accepting cryptocurrency in 2014, it was mainly for convenience, rather than any sense of crypto as a long-term investment. In her early days, Knox tells CNBC she would get two bitcoin in exchange for an hour-long Skype session.A single bitcoin is now worth around $40,000, and has been as high as $69,000.

Kristen DiAngelo

Kristen DiAngelo

"I just kind of left it on the backburner and would collect it whenever people would pay me in it," said Knox, who tells CNBC she still holds a good portion of her crypto stake. "I collected till about 2017 and then crypto went crazy. It was one of those things where I was like, 'Oh, wow, this was an accidental great investment for me.'"

Beyond price volatility, trading in crypto often incurs extra fees.

"Buying the crypto to pay for [ads] was always fraught with all these hidden fees that these trading sites would be charging," said San Francisco-based Maxine Doogan, who has been working as a prostitute for more than thirty years.

Instead of using a traditional exchange like Coinbase, Doogan instead goes through a convoluted process that involves finding an intermediary via a trading site, and then depositing cash into that person's bank account, trusting that they will then electronically transfer bitcoin into her crypto wallet. Some of these intermediaries will accept gift cards. Others ask sex workers to buy a regular "vanilla" credit card and send them the numbers, in hopes that they'll follow through on the trade.

DiAngelo says that in the early days of crypto, she would use bitcoin ATMs at liquor stores and gas stations to deposit cash to buy bitcoin. These machines charge commissions above and beyond the cost of the transaction.

Another major problem relates to the rules that govern cryptocurrency exchanges. Many platforms like Coinbase require know-your-customer, or KYC compliance. In practice, that means having to connect an ID and bank account to the platform a non-starter for many working in the industry.

Because of this, some workers later find they can't cash out the crypto they have earned for products or services rendered.

While there are tokens designed with privacy and anonymity in mind (zcash and monero, for example), the blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrencies like bitcoin is transparent by design, leading some in the industry to worry that with the right tools and crypto know-how, friends, family, or the government technically have the ability to track their steps.

But Rae remains convinced that cryptocurrency is the future for the sex work industry.

"Cryptocurrency is our only option. I don't feel like we're going to survive under stricter and stricter rules from the banking industry," said Rae.

"For people like me making millions of dollars, a thirty day notice from OnlyFans would be the end of us. Crypto really feels like it's kinda it, otherwise we're going to be controlled forever and who knows the kind of content they're going to continue to ban. They can turn you off tomorrow."

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Bitcoin has become a lifeline for sex workers, like this former nurse who made $1.3 million last year - CNBC

What happened

Axie Infinity (CRYPTO:AXS) is a wildly popular metaverse-style blockchain game. One of its primary cryptocurrencies, the AXS token, is soaring higher on Saturday afternoon, up 12.7% over the last 24 hours as of 2:00 p.m. ET.

Image source: Getty Images.

Volatility is a hallmark of the crypto market, and prices can swing wildly without any real provocation. But in this case, many cryptocurrencies appear to be building on the stock market's momentum. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both finished last week in the green, marking their best weekly performance so far in 2022. And Axie Infinity appears to be riding that wave higher.

Additionally, some of Axie's momentum may be due to certain changes in gameplay announced on Thursday. Specifically, the daily quest and adventure mode will be retired, meaning gamers can only earn the Ethereum-based Smooth Love Potion (CRYPTO:SLP) tokens through arena combat in the Axie Infinity game.

Axie Infinity gamers can collect, train, and battle digital creatures known as Axies, each of which have different attributes that make them more or less valuable. To that end, each Axie -- along with other in-game items like land -- are represented as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum blockchain, and gamers can buy and sell those NFTs through the Axie Infinity Marketplace, which itself ranks as the thirdmost popular NFT marketplace in the blockchain industry, according to DappRadar.

By eliminating daily quests and adventures from gameplay, the developer team has effectively reduced the creation of SLP tokens by 56%. That's important because SLP tokens are used to breed Axies, a feature that allows players to combine traits from existing Axies to create new (and potentially more valuable) digital creatures. Put another way, SLP tokens will now be harder to come by, which should make Axies more valuable.

The metaverse is a popular buzzword among investors, both in the stock market and the crypto market. And Axie has been a beneficiary of that trend. While the AXS token is still down 66% from its all-time high, it is up 45,000% since hitting a low in November 2020.

Looking ahead, assuming Axie Infinity continues to gain traction with gamers and crypto enthusiasts, demand for the AXS token -- which is used not only for breeding, but also in staking, governance, and (eventually) marketplacepayments -- could continue to rise, pushing its price higher.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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Why Metaverse Cryptocurrency Axie Infinity Is Soaring Today - The Motley Fool

What happened

Cryptocurrencies TFuel (CRYPTO:TFUEL) and its related Theta (CRYPTO:THETA) are up 14.3% and 8.8%, respectively, as of 3:48 p.m. ET Saturday, mostly in response to this morning's news that Bullit Technology will be making its encryption technology available at the Theta Network.

By blockchain standards, it's one of the more practical and easier-to-understand uses of the idea.

Bullit Technology allows users to upload, encrypt, and then deliver a digital file of any sort and size. The tool also allows authorized users to decrypt that file in a variety of ways, including pay-to-open decryption. The service, however, still requires each of these transmissions to be recorded using a blockchain ledger.

Enter Theta Network.

In simplest terms, Theta Network is a content delivery network with a focus on digital video, and built from the ground up for content creators looking to monetize their work. It relies on two distinct but related components, the first of which is the Theta token, which validates transactions completed via the network. The other half of the solution is provided by the cryptocurrency TFuel, which serves as a means of making and taking payments.

Image source: Getty Images.

Bullit Technology and Theta Network should work particularly well together going forward. As Bullit's CTO Anas Madi commented of the partnership "Connecting to a significant blockchain like Theta is an important step for us as we begin to bring online our forthcoming products related to (blockchain-based) NFT utility functions and compliance solutions."

At least some of today's strength from TFuel and Theta has to be chalked up to how primed it already was for a rebound before Bullit's announcement was made this morning; TFuel was down by more than three-fourths of last June's peak as recently as last month. Would-be buyers should expect plenty of volatility going forward, both bearish and bullish.

As a whole, though, the partnership with Bullit is encouraging. Not only does it demonstrate confidence in the Theta token, but also expands usage of TFuel. It's certainly more bullish than bearish.

Of the two tokens, TFuel's role in collecting transaction fees makes it the more appropriate pick for interested price speculators. The Theta Network token is more of a tool to govern the content delivery system.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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Why Cryptocurrency TFuel Is Up More Than 14% On Saturday - Motley Fool