Sex worker-led crypto payment platform forced to close shop
Photo by: Etienne Girardet – Unsplash
Crypto payment platform SpankPay shut down operations after a breach with its key partner, payment infrastructure company Wyre. Via their official Twitter handleclaims the team behind the platform that Wyre walked out of their partnership on purpose.
As often in the past, sex workers in the US were exposed to discrimination from banking institutions. In this case, SpankPay claims that their payment processor, Checkout dot com, refuses to work with the adult industry.
SpankPay is part of the SpankChain ecosystem, a suite of blockchain-based solutions for sex workers. The crypto payment platform offers adult entertainers an option to receive money with digital assets, while also providing a way to convert them into fiat currency. The team behind the project said:
After a long and difficult review, we have decided to shut down SpankPay, our crypto payment processor that we built as a safe haven for our community. You can rest assured that your money is safe and we will send it as soon as possible. (…) This came as a shock, as our relationship with Wyre had been supportive and respectful up until this point.
Crypto A solution for sex workers?
On January 6, 2023, the crypto payment platform stopped fiat payments “indefinitely.” At this point, the project was forced to pause these transactions as the crypto winter affected Wyre; the company wound up to stay afloat.
Transactions resumed, but the company again suspended operations when Wyre “targeted” and closed the SpankChain product’s account. The troublesome relationship came to an immediate end in today’s announcement.
According to a Vice report, the SpankChain product tweeted the following in February, when Wyre decided to cut them off their payment rails:
Running SpankPay in a hostile banking environment has always been challenging, but the escalating attacks have become unsustainable for our small team and the niche market we serve.
For many in the adult entertainment industry, crypto is the only choice for receiving payment. Vice mentioned the case of Allie Eve Knox, a sex worker and SpankPay advisor, who was allegedly fired with every major payment platform in the US, including PayPal, Square, CashApp, Venmo and others.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are the only way people like Knox can pay their bills. The sex worker told Vice:
We just have to keep going. And that’s you know, that’s the usual song and dance that the whores do. “Okay, we got screwed yesterday, we’ll get up tomorrow and fix it.
