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.

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.

Red flags include making cash deposits frequently – a hallmark of the sex work profession.

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.

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.”)

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

One industry vet says typical ads [in escort directories] cost $480 worth of bitcoin for two weeks.

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.

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.