NFTs and DeFi overturn a banker's generational curse of poverty in 2 years

Published at: Jan. 22, 2022

Brenda Gentry, a former USAA mortgage underwriter from Texas, believes that the cryptocurrency ecosystem offers a fighting chance to overcome the generational curse of poverty.

Gentry, a.k.a. MsCryptoMom, left her decade-long job as a banker to pursue a full-time crypto career as her initial investments from early 2020 confirmed the “unprecedented opportunities offered by crypto.” She currently runs Gentry Media Productions, a firm that advises decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible token (NFT) projects — generating up to 20 ether (ETH) each month, nearly $50,000 at the time of writing.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Gentry recollected the moment she first bought crypto:

“It was early 2020 during the lockdown. I bought Bitcoin, Ethereum and Link on Coinbase. When I started, I almost gave up multiple times. I just want to help others have a more streamlined way to get into crypto.”

With this early investment, Gentry also dedicated her time to learning about DeFi, which eventually led her to invest in altcoins. Acknowledging the big learning curve into crypto, the entrepreneur provides educational content through her website, adding:

“I’m also hosting seminars to educate the general public about navigating in this space and things to look out for when searching for good NFT projects or DeFi tokens, and also how to quickly detect scams or rug pulls.”

Gentry’s younger daughter and business partner Imani told Cointelegraph about the rising interest in crypto within her friend circle. She said:

“A trend that was interesting for me to watch was people following trends — every one making their own projects & 10k collections because they saw the outcome.”

What may come as a surprise to many, Gentry did not have a Plan B, but only the moral support of her family, before committing to restart her career as the new owner of Bundlesbets, a DeFi platform dedicated to sports betting. “My husband and daughters encouraged me to pursue my dreams full time and I’m happy I did,” she added.

“I don’t want anyone to be left behind.” Giving back to the community, Gentry intends to help accelerate breaking down the generational curses of poverty around the world. This year, she plans to visit her home country Kenya and equip her nonprofit organization Educate a Child “with knowledge about this new asset class and the opportunities that blockchain technology affords.”

For people wanting to follow suit, Gentry advises researching this space first before jumping in. According to her, one must understand the bad side of crypto to avoid getting scammed, a concern most relevant for new investors:

“When it comes to investing in crypto, the opportunity to gain financial freedom is well worth the cost to watch a few educational crypto YouTube videos or read a book on this topic.”

The 19-year-old Imani believes that crypto will be the future reality. Addressing the younger generation, she concluded:

“Take time to learn and get involved in the space, and even teach your parents, siblings and others, as blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are disruptive technologies that will require a major paradigm shift in the way we currently think about centralized finance and fiat money.”

Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali, an Indonesian college student, reportedly made a million dollars by selling NFT versions of his selfies on the OpenSea NFT marketplace.

Uploading my photo into nft lolhttps://t.co/E3Q4sBmN26#NFT #opensea pic.twitter.com/rD51rdcpzp

— Ghozali_Ghozalu (@Ghozali_Ghozalu) January 10, 2022

As Cointelegraph reported, some of Ghozali’s selfie NFTs sold for 0.9 ETH, worth roughly $3,000. Ghozali’s collection subsequently reached a total trade volume of 317 ETH, equivalent to more than $1 million.