As many visionary women leaders enter the crypto industry it seems like the boys’ crypto club is finally opening up. Women are not just coming up as active investors, project founders and developers, but are also making game-changing moves across blockchain and related sectors such as DeFi, NFTs and digital currencies.
2020 saw a 43% increase in women working in crypto, and currently, they make up 26% of crypto holders in the US. Of all the people who want to learn about cryptocurrency, 53% are women. This indicates that the ratio of women in crypto and related industries will see a dramatic increase in the coming years.
Several new grant funding initiatives are being offered to drive female participation within the blockchain sector, and educational initiatives are also being offered to encourage women.
Crypto as the Vehicle For Financial Independence
Many women are using cryptocurrencies to gain more control over their finances. Thanks to their anonymous nature, cryptocurrencies can be the vehicle for women to escape from bad relationships in which the partner has gained full financial control.
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Women are also becoming savvy crypto investors. In India, where previously around 12-15 percent of customers at crypto exchanges were women, that number increased to more than 20 percent in 2021.
The Wall Street Journal reports that one in four customers trading crypto on the Robinhood app are women and Digital trading platform eToro Group had similar conclusions, reporting that since 2019, female participation in trading on the platform has doubled to 20 percent.
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Women have different investing habits from men. “In general, women are long-term investors, less impulsive, and tend to hold on to their positions, which explains why they are over-indexed on bitcoin,” said eToro director Guy Hirsch, explaining why more women held Bitcoin and Ethereum, while men tended to hold Cardano and Tron.
Women-Powered Decentralization
Hester Peirce, SEC Commissioner:
“It is not the SEC’s overzealous action that has stifled the crypto industry, but its unwillingness to take meaningful action at all.”
Peirce, lovingly known as Crypto mom, is famous for delivering clarity in the crypto industry as well as for having high hopes for the DeFi sector. Being an extremely crypto-positive influence, many look up to her for guidance while navigating the sometimes murky waters of crypto.
Krista Kim, Artist & Founder of Techism Movement, Creator of First NFT Virtual Home:
Krista’s Mars House sold for more than $500,000 on SuperRare.“ Mars House is a sneak peek into the future, as the first 3D digital home that can be experienced as an immersive experience in augmented reality,” says Kim.
“Artists are expressing what it means to be human in the digital age through NFTs. Soon we will adorn our lives with NFT art, fashion, poetry, music, collectibles, and interactive experiences using A.R. technology.”
“It's time to wake up and plug into our generation's greatest opportunity for women. The muscle required was no more than clicking a mouse and the ability to connect the dots, take risks, and go. If these are the requirements to play a very active role in our economy's future, then ladies, it has never been a fairer playing field. We have a unique opportunity to define a new era of financial markets and make these changes faster than our predecessors.”
Taynaah Reis, CEO of Moeda:
Moeda is a micro-lending platform that uses blockchain and a cryptocurrency named MDA to connect investors to unbanked populations in emerging countries. They are focusing on cooperatives in Brazil, especially on women-owned enterprises, offering interest rates of 15 percent.
“Over the years, I’ve seen investors consider social enterprises in Brazil to be a risk,” says Reis, “Trust is important, especially in a country like Brazil--and blockchain allows us to nurture that trust.”
Ria Bhutoria, Fidelity Digital Assets Research Director:
"Have you ever read about how Merkle Proofs can help customers confirm their assets were included in their exchange's proof of reserves calculation?”
As a Research Director at Fidelity Digital Assets and a strong advocate for Bitcoin, Ria Bhutoria gives a deep analysis of what’s happening in the crypto markets and why.
She has created the “FUD Fort” — a carefully cultivated list of articles that helps to address some of the biggest areas of fear, uncertainty and doubt that proliferate in the crypto space. Anyone looking to stay informed in the crypto-world is also advised to keep up with her tweets
Carylyne Chan, Departing CEO/Chief Strategy Officer, CoinMarketCap:
“Scam cases… have engendered many tragedies, and created a more insidious impact: For those who truly believe in the blockchain, such scams are smearing the blockchain technology name, making it notorious while the underlying premise is laudable.”
Carylyne’s most recent role was CEO at CoinMarketCap, which was acquired in 2020. Her previous artificial intelligence startup (AngelPad S’16) was acquired in 2018. She currently writes here about everything from startups to leadership, crypto and tea.
Conclusion
Recent conferences indicate that women still make up only a small fraction of the diverse range of voices in the blockchain industry, and yet they have already made a larger than life impact on it. The advancements that will happen when diversity increases at every level of the industry are beyond what is imaginable inside the limits of our closed-box modern mindset.
