I contacted Louise via a confirmed method so I could be certain it was her and not an imposter, and she confirmed sending out these requests.
Apparently their PayPal account has been frozen (a common occurrence with research suppliers) and they cannot access the funds for 180 days. Their proposed solution is to have customers pay for orders a second time at the discounted price via crypto, and then they will issue a refund of the original payment via PayPal.
PayPal usually allows sellers to issue refunds from frozen funds, so on its face it seems like a reasonable solution. The "good" part about these being PayPal payments is that they give you 180 days to file a dispute, so anyone who makes a "replacement" payment via crypto can still go back later and file a dispute with PayPal if they do not receive a refund.
I am not going to recommend whether anyone should do this or not. Everyone has to make decisions based on what is best for them and their situation. I simply wanted to clarify/confirm whether or not this was really ERP/Louise, and I am reasonably confident that it is.