Intimate, an Australian startup looking to create a cryptocurrency for the adult industry, today announced a $1.1 million investment from digital currency fund Alphabit on top of its previously announced $4.5 million initial coin offering presale.

The ITM token was designed to be an open, distributed trust mechanism for all segments of the adult industry, including interactive content, delivery and services. Not surprisingly, given ongoing issues adult service providers experience in obtaining merchant services, the token is seeking to provide an alternate payment option for workers, suppliers and customers that provides “the same level of trust and security that other industries benefit from.”

“Alphabit’s support for intimate’s mission demonstrates that funds see real value in using blockchain to drive social change whilst unlocking new revenue into industries blocked by banks,” co-founder Leah Callon-Butler said in a statement. “Individuals transacting in the adult industry services deserve the same financial services that other industries take for granted.”

Intimate isn’t the first company attempting to build an adult-industry focused cryptocurrency. Okoin, claimed to be the first decentralized blockchain-based VR platform for 100 percent anonymous adult content distribution, said it has raised $33 million to date in an initial coin offering. Vicecoin, both an adult entertainment platform where viewers can watch videos and a cryptocurrency allowing anyone who participates to get paid, claims to have raised 23,806 Ethereum, worth slightly over $20 million, also via an ICO.

The company is seeking to raise a further $24 million via a public ICO in March. A copy of its white paper is available here.

Photo: intimate