- Sex workers are moving away from the crypto space due to increasing regulatory scrutiny.
- Workers in the adult industry deal with numerous issues in receiving and storing payments in traditional finance.
- Crypto once offered them a safe space but is now offering nothing with regulatory hurdles.
According to a recent report, sex workers are moving away from crypto due to mounting difficulties. Once a solution for workers in the adult industry, crypto is becoming burdensome due to the increasing instability in regulation.
Because of the stigma around sex work, workers have stayed away from banks and other payment options. Several sex workers who spoke to Wired explained that they faced numerous hurdles in banking and real estate. Lenders often refuse mortgages, and accountants refuse services.
The issues with the banking sector, according to the report, started during the previous decade when economic policies were put into place to monitor financial activities in certain industries. Sex work was one of the numerous industries under scrutiny. Banks were warned that the adult industry posed an elevated risk of fraud.
Regarding this issue, Jessica Van Meir, a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard specializing in women’s informal labor, said, “The irony is that banks exclude sex workers largely for fear of liability for sex trafficking, but by discriminating against sex workers, they put them at higher risk of sex trafficking.”
This is how they moved toward crypto, believing the decentralized system would offer them solace from the discriminatory traditional finance. Crypto allows clients in the adult industry to pay fees for services availed discreetly and also gives them the freedom to be anonymous. Most importantly, it enabled workers in the adult industry to receive and store their money without going through the hassle of traditional banking.
Sex workers would often transfer their digital assets to an exchange, where it is then converted to fiat and withdrawn. However, now, since banks are refusing to work with crypto businesses, this option is quickly closing down. Coupled with the collapse of exchanges and regulatory witchhunt in the crypto space, sex workers will have to look to other avenues for financial control.
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