OnlyFans Models Feel Crypto Pain as Donations Decline

Virtual sex workers say they’re feeling the pinch of bitcoin’s declining price.

“I’ve been seeing lots of girls saying just recently how REALLY bad camming is when it comes to making money as of very recent,” one member of the industry wrote in a June 17 thread on the Reddit forum “CamGirlProblems.”

The author, who went by the screen name “Mika_xo,” said she worked for one “cam” website — where users pay to watch and chat with models engaged in sexual acts — for more than half a decade.

“I can tell you that … the slowness for sex workers may be because of the stocks tanking recently,” she added. “Because I have noticed it dramatically … as well. I watch cam girls, and I used to be a cam girl myself for 6 years and can see the slowness as of recent too. The stocks plumeting [sic] recently I feel may contribute to whats going on, I even had a few of my regulars say this to me. The last 4-7 days has been a dramatic shift in what im seeing guys pay and thats around when stocks started tanking. So if its slow dont think its necessarily you.”

As of Thursday, the S&P 500 was down around 20 percent from an all-time high set in December, while the Nasdaq was down about 30 percent and bitcoin had fallen 70 percent. That was in the middle of a mostly positive week for the market that analysts believe will mark a temporary bounce before it resumes tanking next month.

Others agreed with the author’s assessment as they proffered some economic analysis. “We’re going into another recession and the stocks crashing are a byproduct of that, and the crypto-crash this week is a byproduct of stocks crashing,” a user named “Adviceforsw” replied. “It’s a domino effect. There are so many factors as to why people are tightening up budgets, and it’s only going to get worse from here.”

“What u mean stocks?” a user who went by “PQueenx” queried. “Like when everything [gets] expensive like fuel and stuff[?]”

“The stock market,” another user clarified. “If rich guys are losing money they aren’t spending extra on us; to put in the simplest terms.”

A user named “Saberwise” agreed, but said other factors were at play as well, and predicted that a tightening economy could have snowballing effects for revenue as more participants entered the industry, writing, “Over-saturation is also a factor. Over the past 3-5 years or so there has been in a boom in webcam models, especially during COVID. And if we start seeing layoffs soon throughout the economy this year, we may see even more who try to enter the industry hoping to make an extra buck in tough times. So more saturation is coming.

“More models, plus members getting tighter with their budgets, is going to obviously lead to lower income,” Saberwise added. “And this will be different than COVID. During COVID the well-established webcam models actually saw a boom in money because the economy was still doing rather well and more people had time at home to watch. But in a recession, EVERYONE is going to see a decline. And it will be interesting to see how the industry does. Because this will be the first real recession webcamming has experienced.”