The Stripper Index Doesn’t Hold Up in Bitcoin’s Case, OnlyFans Models Say

The “stripper index” — an anecdotal measurement that connects economic health with spending on adult entertainment — appears unable to predict Bitcoin’s (BTC) price.

Kodi Rose, a self-described “dollar stripper” and adult content creator, alluded to these frontline insights in a recent viral TikTok video, saying she believes the economy is already in a recession as fewer customers are asking where they can “hit the slopes,” a social code for cocaine.

The digital equivalent of exotic dancers is adult content creators, and OnlyFans dominates the space. On the platform, users subscribe to creators and tip for extras.

Turns out the stripper index doesn’t really work for Bitcoin. A 57-month revenue analysis of one mid-tier OnlyFans creator shows a negative correlation with Bitcoin’s price, despite the two moving in the same direction more than half the time.

To understand whether creators’ income holds any predictive value for Bitcoin, Cointelegraph spoke to veterans in the adult entertainment industry who’ve weathered both its ups and downs alongside crypto’s hype cycles.

Bitcoin followed OnlyFans model’s earnings 55% of the time

The stripper index is backed by the assumption that consumers will cut down on non-essential spending during economic downturns.

“Sex work is considered a ‘non-essential’ service — it’s entertainment, a luxury. Therefore, it’s one of the first expenses people cut when their financial situation becomes uncertain or they anticipate economic instability,” Catherine De Noire, an OnlyFans creator and brothel manager, told Cointelegraph. 

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Alana Nguyen, who performs on OnlyFans under the stage name “Nerdy Dancing,” shared her monthly earnings with Cointelegraph since moving online after the 2020 pandemic shut down of the physical world, including strip clubs. So far, she hasn’t noticed any clear correlation between crypto prices and subscriber behavior.

“Even if there are global economic conditions affecting overall spending, I don’t think crypto prices correlate strongly with my earnings,” Nguyen told Cointelegraph.

A Pearson correlation coefficient of -0.335 over 57 months suggests a moderately negative linear relationship between Nguyen’s earnings and Bitcoin’s price.

A 10-month rolling Pearson correlation between Nguyen’s earnings and Bitcoin’s price showed considerable volatility over time. The highest correlation was observed in the 10-month period ending July 2021, which were the first months of Nguyen’s business. 

Out of 48 total calculations, the rolling correlation coefficient was evenly split, with 24 positive and 24 negative values, suggesting the relationship between Nguyen’s earnings and Bitcoin’s price fluctuated without a consistent pattern. The rolling correlation rarely went above 0.5 or below -0.5, indicating low correlation.

In a separate measurement, Cointelegraph analyzed whether or not Nguyen’s earnings rose when Bitcoin’s monthly average rose compared to the previous month and when her revenue dropped as Bitcoin dropped. In this measurement, the two moved toward the same direction almost half the time, with 55% accuracy over 57 months.

“I’ve always thought concepts like the stripper index are only useful in terms of aggregate spending. Even in the strip club, my earnings aren’t necessarily tied to how the club is doing overall. It’s more about my personal selling ability that day — whether regulars come in or I get lucky with a big spender,” Nguyen said.

OnlyFans is notorious for opaque financial reporting. One website, OnlyGuider, claims to have analyzed the transaction behavior of over 1 million subscribers and found that the top 0.1% of creators earn the majority of the platform’s revenue.

According to data from OnlyGuider shared with Cointelegraph, the top 0.1% of creators earned $2,035,331 in April 2025, when Bitcoin’s average price was $94,207. As Bitcoin prices continued to rise in May and June, earnings for the top 0.1% also increased, reaching $2,038,972 in May and $2,052,502 in June.

Bitcoin’s relationship with OnlyFans and adult entertainment

Crypto was once seen as an alternative tool for facilitating payments to adult content creators. Pornhub, one of the industry’s largest platforms, began accepting cryptocurrency as early as 2018. OnlyFans, however, has taken a different path and does not offer crypto as a payment method.

“Crypto payments are not very popular in our brothel. Most clients prefer cash because it leaves no trace. Only a very small number of the women working with us accept crypto payments, and even then, the total number of transactions per year is extremely low,” De Noire said. 

“We haven’t noticed any significant change in spending behavior that corresponds with crypto fluctuations. Whether Bitcoin or Ethereum is performing well or not doesn’t seem to have a direct effect on how much our clients are willing to spend,” she added.

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Erotic film star Allie Eve Knox has stronger ties to the crypto community as an advocate for integrating cryptocurrency into the adult industry and through her involvement with SpankChain, which launched initiatives like SpankPay, a crypto payment option for adult creators that has since been discontinued. 

Knox, who offers her content on several platforms, including OnlyFans, agreed that the price of Bitcoin doesn’t appear to have a meaningful impact on her earnings.

“Anytime crypto hits an all-time high, our traffic actually slows,” Knox told Cointelegraph.

“People want to see the biggest number in their account and screenshot it. It’s not typical for them to go passing out money to get their wanks.”

Knox has been in the adult entertainment industry for 11 years and says she’s experienced 36 account closures over her career — from bank accounts to Cash App and PayPal. Crypto offered an alternative way to accept payments, but ironically, she claims she was de-banked even by crypto platforms.

“I showed a Showtime documentary crew how I could display my Coinbase QR code on camera, and viewers could pay me in Bitcoin or Ether. The day after it aired, Coinbase shut my account down.”

Modern payment options — whether crypto or digital banking — make transactions easier for both consumers and businesses. However, electronic methods still draw scrutiny from banks when used by sex workers. In brothels, clients often prefer cash, sometimes even leaving mid-session to withdraw money from an ATM, De Noire said.

“As an OnlyFans creator, however, I notice something a little bit similar. My subscribers generally have no issue using credit cards and trust the platform. Yet many of them still ask if they can pay via Bitcoin or other alternative methods,” she said.

“Since OF doesn’t allow payments outside the platform, I haven’t pursued this further, but it’s clear that even online clients are looking for more privacy and control over the data they share with financial institutions.”

Bitcoin’s honeymoon with OnlyFans models has passed

Web3 and adult content had their “good old days,” according to Knox, who says the non-fungible token (NFT) boom of 2021 opened up new income streams and gave creators more options to reach fans and spend their crypto earnings.

“Now, if a customer doesn’t already hold crypto, they have to move money from their bank, wait for it to clear into a wallet, maybe convert it, send it to a model, wait for confirmation and only then do they get the content,” she said.

Creators are also facing increasing barriers worldwide. Recently, China launched a nationwide crackdown on OnlyFans, while Sweden, a nation that’s politically and culturally very different from China, has imposed restrictions on purchasing adult content.

De Noire cited sociologist Zygmunt Bauman to point out that in today’s society, consumers aren’t just trying to survive, but they prioritize enjoyment.

“When you see a lot of non-essential services like massages, fancy coffee, wellness retreats or even sex work being used regularly, it’s a sign that the society has enough money going around,” De Noire said.

While cryptocurrency was once hailed as a promising payment solution for adult content creators facing financial censorship, the reality is more complex. Despite pockets of overlap, such as simultaneous rises in Bitcoin prices and earnings among top OnlyFans creators, adult entertainers and their earnings have shown little correlation with Bitcoin’s price trends. 

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