CYBERSPACE—After a tumultuous first quarter, adult industry blockchain company SpankChain has decided to close SpankPay, its crypto payment processor.
In January 2023, SpankPay was forcibly shut down when its longtime infrastructure partner, Wyre, temporarily ceased service due to funding issues. SpankPay managed to protect user assets and continued to facilitate user withdrawals during the shutdown. Days later, Wyre received new funding that put SpankPay back online.
The period of normalcy was short-lived, when, in early February, SpankPay was once again shut down while Wyre continued to operate normally. Within 24 hours, SpankChain’s founder, Ameen Soleimani, received an email from a Wyre representative who announced that Wyre was suspending its service, citing violations of the network rules in its user agreement after previously promising to support the business.
In an effort to remain transparent with the broader SpankChain community and to highlight the clear and prejudicial mistreatment of SpankPay as a sex work company, Soleimani shared a copy of the email on SpankPay's Twitter account.
To view the email, click here.Since the second service interruption, SpankPay has been searching tirelessly for another infrastructure partner. The struggle to find one has only underscored the prejudicial nature of legacy finance culture and the ways in which legal sex workers and sex work companies are unfairly targeted and discriminated against.
For the time being, SpankChain has decided to focus its efforts on SpankMatch, its social networking platform, and shutter SpankPay for the foreseeable future. SpankChain will also be investing in the NFT subscription platform and marketplace Mintstars, which is in the process of developing a new tipping platform powered by Web3. The situation is far from ideal, but SpankChain contends that this pivot will allow the company to better serve adult professionals while continuing to make a positive impact on the adult industry as a whole.
The company will also be continuing its advocacy work with the Free Speech Coalition, challenging the status quo of banks discriminating against adult performers and businesses by engaging lobbyists and meeting with policymakers in Congress.
Users who still have remaining balances on SpankPay will be contacted via email with instructions on how to withdraw their funds. For any other inquiries, contact [email protected].
