A Texas mother says cryptocurrency became a financial lifeline during a bitter divorce, allowing her to regain independence after finding herself effectively “unbanked” amid allegations of financial abuse.
Karin, who lives in Fort Worth and asked that her surname be withheld due to ongoing legal proceedings, said she was refused a large cash mortgage payment deposit after learning she had not been listed as a bank account holder for a decade.
“I was unbanked, which is kind of scary because I'm a middle-class housewife in America,”
Karin told Decrypt, adding:
“It's kind of like you're this invisible person.”
As her decades-long marriage unravelled, Karin said holding assets in a self-custodial wallet gave her confidence that only she controlled the private keys, shielding funds from being frozen or restricted during court disputes.
Court documents show she later secured judicial approval to use profits from trading Bitcoin and Ethereum to cover her children’s tuition, after initially resisting an order to liquidate digital assets held on a centralised exchange.
Her story has since been highlighted by the National Cryptocurrency Association, a nonprofit founded and funded through a $50 million grant from Ripple, which aims to showcase practical crypto use cases beyond speculative trading.
“The thing that really makes my skin crawl is any jargon that suggests that this is an industry and a technology only for crypto bros,”
Said Stu Alderoty, president of the association, as Karin prepares to begin law school this autumn after years navigating the legal system.
At the time of reporting, Bitcoin price was $68,520.26.