After years of being skeptical about bitcoin, Black Americans are leading the cryptocurrency revolution in 2021.
A recent Harris poll found that 23 percent of African-Americans own cryptocurrency, compared to 11 percent of white Americans and 17 percent for Hispanics.
A 2021 University of Chicago survey of 1,004 young adults 18-29 found that 34 percent of traders were people of color who bought crypto over the past 12 months.
Many African-Americans are using bitcoin after being left out of traditional banking and wealth building, according to Ramona Ortega, founder of My Money, My Future.
Even unbanked Black Americans can create a bitcoin wallet and transfer their funds online or through bitcoin debit cards. Unbanked people can also use bitcoin low-fee debit cards like Bitpay or Paxful.
“When we look back at how wealth is built in this country, so many of those opportunities were not even available or were taken away through regulation and or redlining,” said Ortega.
What Is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is the first and most well-known cryptocurrency – a decentralized digital currency. Unlike the Federal Reserve-printed dollars, bitcoin and other kinds of crypto aren’t tied to any federal bank.
Bitcoin runs on a blockchain, the digital ledger that tracks each bitcoin transaction, and a network of miners records the transactions on the blockchain.
Bitcoin has a high value to some investors because there will be a finite quantity of the currency of 21 million bitcoin. While bitcoin’s value has been volatile, its current value has more than doubled since June to $65,000.
Where Can You Buy Crypto?
Crypto is purchased on finance apps like Robinhood, CashApp, and PayPal. To buy crypto on PayPal, investors need a linked debit card or bank account. The fees to buy crypto on PayPal vary depending on how much an investor buys. The fee is 2.50 percent if the sale amount is $25-100. If an investor is purchasing $1,000 and up worth of crypto, the fees go down to 1.50 percent.
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