We accept Bitcoin – but it is a gamble for beginners

ELEESA Dadiani is a cryptocurrency enthusiast – but admits that novice investors are taking a great risk.

Her Mayfair gallery, Dadiani Fine Art, was the first in the UK to accept payment in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

The company is also planning to launch its own coin soon.

She says: ‘This is a new era. It is not wrong to want to make money, but it is not easy to make money. It is gambling if you do not know what you are doing.’

She says misuse of a technology is ‘inevitable’ during a pilot phase but real opportunity is emerging. An example of this is women in Afghanistan earning crypto-currency and managing their own finances for the first time, rather than a father or brother retaining control of the purse strings.

Eleesa is Georgian by birth but came to the UK from Russia as a teenager in the mid-2000s. She says school life was a ‘complete disaster’. Being a 15-year-old runaway meant she had to ‘learn fast’. Ultimately this has led her to a successful working life in art which is as unconventional as her early education.

Through the brokerage arm of her business, Eleesa has helped facilitate the purchase of luxury items by wealthy individuals using crypto-currency. This included helping a Chinese buyer use Litecoin to pay for four Formula 1 cars worth £4 million.

She attributes crypto-currency with helping people from all over the world pay for works of art.

Eleesa says: ‘My interest is borderless trade. Sanctions against countries such as Russia make it difficult for ordinary individuals to trade overseas. So a currency or technology bypassing that changes everything for me. It is both symbolic and functional.’