Cody McGrath 
After more than a decade as a mortgage underwriter with USAA, Brenda Gentry resigned in October 2021. Instead of continuing in traditional finance, she turned to cryptocurrency full-time. Today, Gentry is the CEO of BundlesBets.com, a web3 Sports betting platform and Gentry Media, a marketing firm also run by her daughters, Cynthia and Imani.
Before Brenda went all in and left her steady 9-5 job, she started investing in cryptocurrencies during the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020.
She started small then invested more.
In early 2021, she made significant returns. “My investment portfolio surpassed my 401(k) — what would have taken me 11 years to make, I made in six months”, Brenda explains.
She recognizes that cryptocurrency is a risky investment, but her experience in finance and the due diligence process helps her feel comfortable investing in the space.
The San Antonio resident sees cryptocurrency as a way to build up and pass on generational wealth. She and her family are excited about what she calls the “unprecedented opportunities that cryptocurrency offers as it provides a level playing field for the unbanked and under-banked”.
16 years in banking and finance
Mentally she was done with day-to-day finance. Still, it took a year for her to walk away from her job. The main cause was she wanted something more exciting and it came in the form of DeFi. She had also started a media company and was taking on marketing and consulting jobs in the NFT and DeFi space.
Transition
The transition was rocky at first because she loved her job and loved the work relationships she had built over the years. She felt like it was the end of an era. The reason for the rocky start. What made it smoother, however, was looking forward to being at the front of a new technology and a new asset class that was going to usher in generational wealth.
Today, Brenda Gentry is known on the internet as the “Crypto Mom”. She continues to invest in digital assets but primarily runs her own brands which she oversees with her daughters Cynthia, 24, and Imani Gentry, 20.
On how she became the crypto mom, Brenda has this to say,
“My daughters got me into crypto and at first, I was like…maybe I should try and be like everyone else, and just blend in. Then I was like, Nah, I love being a mom and I will own up to it!”.
Brenda feels blessed to have both her daughters in the space with her. Cynthia and Imani both run Gentry Media Productions with her. This allows them to spend even more time together than they did when the Crypto Mom had a 9-5 job at the bank.
Her biggest win in cryptocurrency, asides her family, is taking ownership of BundlesBets.com where she is building a great product in hybrid sports prediction pools. This adopts the Web3 space that will also incorporate some aspects of Web2. Brenda has also advised on NFT projects such as BossBeauties, WomenAndWeapons and TheRoyalsNFT.
On losses and lessons
Brenda Gentry is not without hers.
“I lost money trusting other people to host my mining but I came to find out later they were scammers. To me that’s a loss. Otherwise, you don’t lose until you sell”.
When asked what she would change in the blockchain ecosystem, Brenda maintains that the ecosystem is still in its infancy. And like any space, in the beginning, one has to deal with scammers and rug pulls. “It’s like the wild wild west right now”, in her own words. She advises that it is important to educate people about scams because it needs to be highlighted.