La La Anthony Has 'Laser Eyes' For Bitcoin

La La Anthony. (Photo credit: Tomas Herold)

The celebrity actor believes in investing in Bitcoin as a way to build intergenerational wealth -- and expects it to go $100k+ in 2021.

The list of celebrities getting on board with Bitcoin keeps growing, as does the tally of new retail investors. Of course, Elon Musk has by all appearances moved BTC value at least twice with his vocal support. Jack Dorsey, Richard Branson, and Mark Cuban have been cited in their support like human market indicators, but other notable entertainers and personalities have added palpably to the fervor online -- Mike Tyson, Snoop Dogg, Kanye West, Steven Seagal, and Maisie Williams among them. 

Actor, producer, New York Times best-selling author, and entrepreneur La La Anthony has teamed up with Gemini Exchange and is supporting Bitcoin, not just as a way to build her own finances, but as a way to help close the intergenerational wealth gap among Black and Latino families in the U.S.

In a recent post on her Instagram (where she has almost 12 million followers), La La said, "Helping to create generational wealth among Black and Latino families like me has always been my mission. I was recently introduced to the team @Gemini and am excited to learn more about crypto and help my friends and family plan for their financial futures."

We spoke with La La to get insight into what is driving her partnership as an influencer with Gemini and why she believes in Bitcoin.

La La Anthony

La La Anthony on Gemini. (Photo credit: La La Anthony, Instagram)

BZ: When did you first learn about Bitcoin?

La La: "I've been hearing about (Bitcoin) for a while but I didn't know if it was a fad in the industry or not. After studying the market and speaking with different investors, I decided to start investing about six months ago."

What was the lightbulb moment about Bitcoin? 

"My lightbulb moment was watching Bitcoin continue to grow in value and speed!"

What do you see as the opportunity in this long BTC bull run?

"I see it as an opportunity to invest and watch money grow. I think people should really pay attention and educate themselves on the opportunities Bitcoin can provide."

Any experience with NFTs? Any interest in making any? 

"I'm definitely interested in creating NFTs and looking for a partner to help me create and invest."

Have you converted any of your friends to Bitcoin? 

"I talk about it to my friends and family all of the time and I encourage them to invest as much as possible!"

Do you have "laser eyes" -- do you expect BTC to run to 100k this year?
"I definitely think so. I'm excited to see how far it will go. I think it'll go beyond 100K!"

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Anthony added that she believes in Ethereum as well, saying, "Bitcoin and Ethereum are my go-tos."

A good choice, considering both BTC and ETH got a boost on Monday when Visa announced it will start using a USD-backed stablecoin to resolve payments on its network.

"It's great to see celebrities like La La start to discover bitcoin as a hedge against all of the chaos and uncertainty in the world today," said Tyler Winklevoss, CEO of Gemini, "as governments continue to print money, investors are flocking to bitcoin for protection from the oncoming inflation."

As we discussed in a previous article, though Bitcoin hangs around $59,000, surveys and analysts are calling for a steep bump for Bitcoin if even a small part of the Biden Administration's $1.9 trillion U.S. COVID Relief Package pours from retail investors into cryptocurrency purchases.

Anthony remains on trend in her interest in making Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). NFTs are being used for everything from sports cards to fine art, and anyone whose image has as much value as La La's has a potential market to create something unique and attractive to NFT collectors and investors.

If La La Anthony isn't already being mobbed by NFT platforms, surely she will be after this interview. Of course, Nifty Gateway is owned by Gemini's parent company, so perhaps some new La La-related crypto collectibles will be soon to market. 

La La is best known for her role as Lakeisha Grant on the hit show, "Power," which wrapped its sixth and final season on Starz in 2020. Anthony has since joined the cast of SHOWTIME's "The Chi" and announced that she will be starring in indie drama Gypsy Moon with Lena Headey and Sam Worthington. La La has also teamed up with Issa Rae to executive produce the upcoming horror comedy for Universal Pictures, Juju. 

Conclusion

Celebrities are an X-factor in crypto, since the concept of celebrity itself is rather nebulous. Musk is a sort of celebrity and clearly has influenced prices with his tweets, but he has Tesla putting his message in action letting consumers purchase Tesla vehicles with BTC.

The trend of using influencers and celebrities continues to be popular even outside Bitcoin. YouTuber Philip DeFranco recently announced his partnership with Lolli, as well as his personal investment in the company and belief in the crypto dividends they offer shoppers making purchases. Serena Williams, Ashton Kutcher, and Michelle Phan are also famous investors who have shown support.

Most celebrities won't move markets -- but they can reach people who haven't been part of the crypto information bubble. In other words, the wider world we need to reach in order to sustain this growth crypto has been enjoying. Influencers like Anthony are introducing crypto to a new audience that may know next to nothing about Bitcoin and helping people to accept and understand the potential of digital currency.

Anthony's point about bridging the gap in intergenerational wealth is valid and a logical extension of Bitcoin's intended purpose to disrupt divides and democratize access that traditional finance has denied to the majority of people all over the world. 

Celebrity involvement is a natural extension of the mainstreaming of crypto happening in 2021. It doesn't need to have an immediately quantifiable market impact to benefit the crypto world by bringing new energy, new voices, different perspectives, and new ideas to the concept of digital currency -- a concept that runs on belief by design -- and given the past 12 months of performance, we can expect more celebrities to don laser eyes and start promoting Bitcoin and crypto as a concept.