STEM is still heavily dominated by men around the world. The world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies is, of course, no exception.
Back in 2019, in an article in Forbes, Tyler Gallagher wrote: “my industry has a problem. We definitely have a ‘bro culture.’ If you go to a cryptocurrency conference, most of the attendees are men. Most of the speakers are men. Most of the leaders of crypto companies are men”.
Fast forward to 2022, an eternity in the crypto world, and things are slowly improving. Although the industry is still male-dominated, there are prominent female crypto leaders widely accepted in the community. Many women are getting more used to hearing, learning and using cryptocurrencies and the participation of women in the industry keeps rising.
The Australian exchange BTC Markets published a study (PDF) this year revealing that in 2021 women tended to do larger initial deposits than men. However, men were doing more trades than women during the year.
Frequent trading is not necessarily a sign of better performance. Earlier this year an article published in CNBC showed that women, on average, were performing 0.40% better than men in financial trading. Although this number might not seem significant, in the world of financial trading 40 basis points is a number that could make or break an investor. As the article stated:
“If female investors have any weakness, it’s their mistaken belief that they’re not good investors”.
What can be changed?
In the previously mentioned 2019 article by Gallagher, some solutions mentioned are still valid: education, awareness of the gender bias, role models and even the gender equity gap as solutions to include more women crypto. Gallagher brilliantly summarised the article saying that we need to go from diversity (just getting more women on board) to inclusivity (getting female participants to design projects, take risks and assume responsibility in the crypto industry).
Some prominent crypto women
Hester Peirce (web)
Popularly known as “crypto mom”, Peirce is a SEC commissioner since 2018 and frequently a supporting voice for crypto currencies.
Cathie Wood (@CathieDWood)
The CEO of Ark Invest has been a visionary and Bitcoin supporter for a long time. She famously predicted that Bitcoin could reach US$ 1 million in 2030.
Elizabeth Stark (@starkness)
The CEO of Lightning Labs, besides co-founding her own company, is a prominent speaker with a huge Twitter follower community.
Caitlin Long (@caitlinlong_)
Current CEO of Custodia Bank, Long moves equally between the crypto and traditional financial industries. A long-time crypto supporter Long is highly respected in elite financial circles.
