{"article":"/posts/why-a-lingerie-brand-founder-started-paying-attention-to-crypto/","blocks":[{"id":"block-0","needsReview":false,"text":"I first heard about Bitcoin in 2015, when a friend told me he was mining it. Out of curiosity, I spent some time reading about it, but that was as far as it went. I didn't buy any, I didn't follow the market, and I certainly didn't imagine it would ever become relevant to my life.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-1","needsReview":false,"text":"The first time Bitcoin really caught my attention was in 2021, when it climbed to around $70,000 for the first time. Suddenly, crypto seemed to be everywhere. News outlets were covering it, social media was talking about it, and everyone appeared to have an opinion.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-2","needsReview":false,"text":"Even then, if someone had told me that Bitcoin, stablecoins, and blockchain technology would eventually become part of my daily learning process, I probably would have laughed.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-3","needsReview":false,"text":"My world revolved around products, customers, websites, content, and orders — not trading charts or market strategies.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-4","needsReview":false,"text":"For a long time, my view of crypto was probably similar to that of many other people. It felt complicated, risky, and difficult to understand. I was curious, but not curious enough to jump in.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-5","needsReview":false,"text":"What eventually pulled me closer wasn't investing.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-6","needsReview":false,"text":"It was business.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-7","needsReview":false,"text":"As I started building an international e-commerce brand, I found myself dealing with things I had never paid much attention to before: payment systems, exchange rates, transfer fees, settlement times, and the countless small frictions involved in moving money across borders.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-8","needsReview":true,"text":"I still remember noticing a Bitcoin payment option while setting up my [LaceMoods](www.lacemoods.com) website. At the time, I thought it was interesting, but I didn't think much about it. Who was actually paying for products with Bitcoin? Why would a platform even bother offering that option?","translate":false,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-9","needsReview":false,"text":"The question stayed in the back of my mind.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-10","needsReview":false,"text":"Then came the moment that changed things.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-11","needsReview":false,"text":"When I was registering an Etsy store, I needed to complete a verification process that cost a little over twenty dollars. The fee itself wasn't a problem. What surprised me was the transfer cost.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-12","needsReview":false,"text":"By the time everything was processed, I had paid more than $35 in fees just to send that payment.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-13","needsReview":false,"text":"I remember staring at the numbers and laughing.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-14","needsReview":false,"text":"Paying more in fees than the verification itself felt absurd.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-15","needsReview":false,"text":"It wasn't a life-changing sum, but it forced me to ask a question I had never seriously considered before: in a world where information travels across the globe instantly, why is moving money still so expensive?","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-16","needsReview":false,"text":"That moment didn't turn me into a crypto believer overnight.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-17","needsReview":false,"text":"But it made me pay attention.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-18","needsReview":false,"text":"It was around that time that I started learning about stablecoins.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-19","needsReview":false,"text":"Why were so many entrepreneurs talking about USDT and USDC? Why were stablecoins becoming part of conversations about payments and international business?","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-20","needsReview":false,"text":"I didn't have the answers.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-21","needsReview":false,"text":"So I started reading.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-22","needsReview":false,"text":"I signed up for exchanges, downloaded wallets, and spent a lot of time confused. The first time I saw a seed phrase, I had no idea what I was looking at. I couldn't tell the difference between BTC, ETH, and SOL. Most crypto terms sounded like a foreign language, and I often found myself searching the same concept multiple times before it finally started to make sense.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-23","needsReview":false,"text":"But as I kept going, I realized the most interesting part of crypto wasn't the price charts or the overnight success stories.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-24","needsReview":false,"text":"It was the problems crypto was trying to solve.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-25","needsReview":false,"text":"How money moves.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-26","needsReview":false,"text":"How global payments could become more efficient.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-27","needsReview":false,"text":"How value could travel across the internet as easily as information does today.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-28","needsReview":false,"text":"Those questions felt surprisingly relevant to someone running an online business.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-29","needsReview":false,"text":"Over time, I began following crypto news more closely — regulations, stablecoin adoption, exchange competition, and eventually the growing overlap between AI and Web3.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-30","needsReview":false,"text":"What I've come to understand is that crypto is about much more than speculation.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-31","needsReview":false,"text":"At its core, it feels like a new kind of infrastructure — an ongoing experiment in how value might move through the internet in the future.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-32","needsReview":false,"text":"Many things that feel ordinary today once seemed strange and unnecessary.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-33","needsReview":false,"text":"Perhaps some of the ideas we dismiss today will eventually become part of everyday life as well.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-34","needsReview":false,"text":"What fascinates me most right now is how often AI and crypto appear in the same conversation.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-35","needsReview":false,"text":"Maybe a few years from now, we'll look back and realize these technologies had already quietly blended into daily life — and we stopped calling them \"AI\" or \"crypto\" altogether.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"},{"id":"block-36","needsReview":false,"text":"They'll simply become part of how the world works.","translate":true,"type":"paragraph"}],"count":37,"date":"2026-06-06","description":"How running an e-commerce brand taught me to take crypto seriously — and why a $35 transfer fee was the moment everything changed.","tags":["crypto","journal"],"title":"Why a Lingerie Brand Founder Started Paying Attention to Crypto"}