When I first met LaQuida Landford, I was immediately drawn to her vibrant and passionate love for her community and her unwavering commitment to uplifting Black and Brown people through AfroVillage, a regenerative cultural initiative founded to create intentional spaces for healing, creativity, and economic opportunity for people of color globally.
AfroVillage PDX, based in Portland, offers wellness, art, and educational programs. More than a physical space; it’s a movement rooted in LaQuida’s vision to address the needs of our most vulnerable populations—unhoused individuals—with a focus on racial disparities and inequalities. AfroVillage provides critical services and sparks essential conversations around fundamental needs such as hygiene, sanitation, food scarcity, and mental and physical health.
Under LaQuida’s leadership, AfroVillage recently led a successful initiative to bring wifi access to underserved communities in Portland. Her organization was awarded a grant by the city to develop a neighborhood-owned, publicly accessible, secure, high-speed wireless network, providing internet access to areas and organizations in need, such as social service providers, shelters, permanent housing providers, and local businesses. In a world where connection and information access is critical, this program has empowered residents with the tools and resources needed to thrive in today’s digital world.
Another visionary project is the AfroFuturism Oasis, which transforms retiring public transportation trains into a healing hub for the Black and African American community in Portland. Located on a beautiful hillside overlooking the water, this space integrates nature, clean energy, and AfroFuturistic design to create a sanctuary for rest, collaboration, innovation, and access to pathways for economic empowerment.
Building upon these transformative initiatives, and perfectly timed to debut at The Bitcoin Conference 2025, LaQuida has launched Wealth Protocol—a revolutionary fashion line that fuses luxury bitcoin-inspired fashion with blockchain technology. Wealth Protocol isn’t just high-end garments; it’s about creating tangible assets that embody the beauty and brilliance of the African diaspora. The debut collection features two Bitcoin inspired garments, each inscribed onto the Bitcoin blockchain as Ordinals—a specific satoshi inscribed with data—transforming them into verifiable digital assets on the blockchain.
Bitcoin Drip Kimono: Designed by Landford and crafted in collaboration with local Tulum designer Jonathan Cainzos of Cefiro, this luxurious green velvet kimono is adorned with Bitcoin-embroidered emblems that symbolize the convergence of cultural heritage and digital innovation.
Bitcoin Drip Hoodie and Tracksuit: This contemporary tracksuit makes a bold fashion statement where streetwear meets luxury and blockchain technology. The ensemble features a sleek black hoodie and matching track pants with Bitcoin emblems, reinforcing their connection to cryptocurrency culture and symbolizing innovation.
Ownership of these pieces extends beyond the physical; acquiring the corresponding Ordinal ensures a permanent, immutable record of authenticity and provenance on the Bitcoin blockchain. Each garment also ties its value to Bitcoin, offering a novel approach to fashion and asset ownership. For LaQuida and her community, these garments are more than fashion statements; they’re symbols of a new frontier where culture and technology intersect.
Both the Bitcoin Drip Kimono and Tracksuit are currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Quintana Roo (MACQ) in Cancun, allowing visitors to experience firsthand the intersection of fashion, culture, and blockchain technology.
Developed in collaboration with Unlockable Content Agency, the collection represents a bold step forward in reimagining wealth and ownership. As LaQuida shares,
Wealth Protocol is more than fashion forward luxury clothing, it’s about claiming our space in the future of wealth. We are building a regenerative ecosystem where people of color, especially those from the African diaspora, can step into beauty, abundance, and financial sovereignty. These garments are just the beginning.
This marks the soft launch of a broader movement: to reimagine luxury as a gateway to empowerment and healing, inviting individuals to partake in a future where culture, technology, and wealth converge.
LaQuida Landford’s work through AfroVillage and now Wealth Protocol exemplifies how visionary leadership can create tangible change, blending community activism with cutting-edge technology to forge new pathways for empowerment and equity.
For those ready to own a piece of this innovative fusion of fashion and blockchain, the collection is available here.
Full Disclosure: Author is cofounder of Unlockable Content Agency and working in partnership with AfroVillage and Wealth Protocol, however this is not a paid post.
Sandra Ponce de Leon is a Columnist at Grit Daily. She is the owner of NFT Boutique in Tulum. Before establishing her home base in Mexico, Sandra enjoyed a long and fruitful career in the Silicon Valley tech scene as a marketing executive, startup cofounder and advisor to companies through several successful exits. With a background that crosses consumer and business markets, Sandra writes regularly in publications such as Grit Daily, Forbes, and The StartUp. She is a tech passionista and ocean actionist that has a focus on tech for good and covers topics such as Web3, blue tech, regenerative technologies, and AI. Sandra’s long history in Silicon Valley has enabled her to forge friendships and business relationships with the industry’s top tech leaders and influencers which inform much of her extensive body of work. Sandra is also the cofounder of Unlockable Content Agency and is currently connecting the waves of the Blue Heart Economy, a heart-led ecosystem that harnesses the power of Web3 to achieve plastic neutrality.
