It appears that the crypto space is becoming far more attractive to minority groups. Caroline Altagracia, for example, is a college student at the University of Albany. While in high school, she learned about digital currencies and became fascinated with the technology behind them.
Minorities Are Entering the Crypto Space
In an interview, she stated:
It’s definitely been an empowering journey. I feel like when I initially was intimidated, I had to kind of get past that and really understand that, you know, I can invest in this. I can learn about it throughout the entire process.
Minorities have allegedly been presented with barriers when they’ve tried to enter certain investing circles. It appears those barriers are disappearing thanks to crypto, which is designed to give people far more financial freedom and strength than traditional monetary tools and institutions. Cleve Mesidor – who leads an advocacy group known as the National Policy Network of Women of Color in Blockchain – explained:
Our communities have been locked out of the financial system. We have not been able to participate when you look at what’s happened in the banking sector and even Wall Street. So… decentralization is an opportunity for us to not have any barriers to entry and participate and be producers as well.
Carlos Acevedo was the high school teacher that got Altagracia into crypto. Acevedo initially was a crypto investor himself and ultimately became so enthralled with the space that he decided to give the information he’d learned to his students. People like Altagracia took every word he said to heart.
In an interview, Acevedo says:
During my lunch break, [students] saw me watching YouTube videos. They saw me listening to podcasts and reading and they wanted to make money on bitcoin, and so my lunch club kind of organically became a way for students to learn about it because I began teaching it. It really solidified my own understanding… Younger people, minorities, people who may have not been quote-unquote, educated, on the traditional finance system. They might see this, especially the anti-establishment in the crypto sphere as more attractive to become engaged with. Not only are people looking at this to become financial literate, but really to take advantage and build wealth that they feel they have missed out on.
Helping Artists Make Their Money
Sheika Reid – an African American woman who works in HR – mints non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the side for black artists. She says:
Specifically for Black artists… there’s this opportunity where people who’ve never made money from their art before are making, you know, six, seven figures. I knew that this was a unique opportunity to get people who are being excluded from the conversation involved, but who bring a lot of value to the crypto space.