- Kraken announced a $150,000 grant diversity-focused Bitcoin group Black Bitcoin Billionaire.
- The grant was commissioned earlier this summer at a total amount of 4.5 BTC.
- Black Bitcoin Billionaire will invest the funding into empowering projects and services in the Black tech community.
Bitcoin exchange Kraken has announced a $150,000 grant to Black Bitcoin Billionaire, an organization focused on promoting inclusion and diversity in the Bitcoin space. The grant was commissioned early this summer, Bitcoin Magazine learned, for a total amount of 4.5 BTC.
“We are fundamentally about education and supporting the Black Bitcoin community,” said Lamar Wilson, co-founder of Black Bitcoin Billionaire, in the announcement. “By working with companies like Kraken, we will be able to invest in technology that will develop ideas into tangible products or services. We couldn’t be more excited.”
The group will use the received funds at their discretion, Kraken said, to fund projects from Bitcoin entrepreneurs of minority communities. The grant will support Wilson and Isaiah Jackson — also a co-founder of Black Bitcoin Billionaire — to launch a series of three Tech Demo Days, a pitch competition that aims to provide funding to Black tech companies.
“In 2020, approximately 13% of black households in the U.S. were unbanked. This is a massive failing of our legacy financial system, for which there is no public alternative of last resort,” said Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, per the announcement.
“Being unbanked is costly and it disproportionately affects our poor and minority communities. Bitcoin offers a reprieve to the estimated 1.7 billion unbanked adults in the world – a new financial system by the people, for the people. The only barrier now is education,” Powell added.
The first Demo Day will take place on October 20, 2021. The initiative will seek to support some of the most innovative products and services from the Black community with exposure and bitcoin, according to its website.
