Women in crypto: How women are shaking up crypto and the Web3 space
Web3 has historically been dominated by men. To celebrate International Women’s Day, we’re looking at the women shaking up an industry that is, after all, still in its infancy. More and more women are making their presence felt on the blockchain, whether that’s in the capacity of founders, legislators, developers, influencers or traders.
Unfortunately, certain barriers to opportunity disproportionately affect women even in 2023. A recent World Bank report stated that women are almost 10% less likely than men to have a bank account. When it comes to crypto women still lag behind men, though this is beginning to change and there are several reasons why Web3 can become a far more gender-equal space than Web 2.0. Web3 is fundamentally global in nature, which means that women who live in countries where their rights are routinely threatened have the opportunity to overcome local politics, and the anonymity afforded by the distributed ledger allows women to evade unconscious biases that have sometimes prevailed in macho tech cultures.
According to a 2021 Pew Survey, among the 18–29 demographic in the US, 19% of women had invested in crypto compared with 43% of men. Among the women with crypto holdings, 70% preferred to hold their assets rather than engage in trading. This level is of course growing, and the numbers in other countries show relatively high crypto adoption among women.
Looking at Europe, the figures are heading in the right direction, though there is still much work to be done. In Germany, just 26% of crypto holders are women, while the figures in France and the UK are 30% and 40% respectively. The most women-friendly crypto country on the continent is Italy, where 43% of crypto owners are women. Italy is very crypto-friendly in general, with digital assets considered the second most attractive investment after bank holdings. Among people who don’t own crypto yet, almost 50% of interested parties are women. Down under in Australia, crypto is among the top three asset classes among young female investors aged 18–34 at 61%, behind home equities at 71% and cash at 82%.
Further to this, the rise of NFTs and the widespread adoption of anthropomorphic and non-human avatars allows people to make a name for themselves beyond their gender, race or physical appearance. This is in fact one of the best things about web culture in general, laying the foundations for a genuine meritocracy.
Today, we’re going to look at some inspiring examples of women who are making a name for themselves in Web3 and advocating for the sector in the media, in government and legislation, in popular culture at large, and on social media platforms.
Meltem Demimors
Meltem Demimors is a hugely influential player in Web3, operating between policy and investment. She is currently Chief Strategy Officer at the CoinShares trading and investment group. Demimors regularly lectures at Oxford and the MIT Media Lab, and hosts a weekly podcast titled What Grinds My Gears. With 250K followers on Twitter, she is an influential crypto figure and a passionate advocate for the inclusion of cryptocurrencies on traditional financial markets.
Elizabeth Stark
Elizabeth Stark is the co-founder of Lightning Labs, which launched the Lightning Network as a Layer 2 protocol on top of Bitcoin. She is also a fellow at Coin Center, a non-profit organization advocating for policy initiatives in support of crypto and promoting the rights of innovators to use open blockchain networks. Stark has taught courses on tech and Web3 at Stanford and Yale in the US.
Cynthia Lummis
Cynthia Lummis is a United States Senator and an early adopter of crypto in her own right. She first purchased BTC in 2013 and has been advocating for digital assets ever since. Representing the state of Wyoming, where she is expected to hold her post until 2027, she is a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
Yi He
Yi He is a co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer at Binance. With over a decade in the crypto space under her belt, she describes herself as “one of the most OG” in the Binance team. As one of the 5% of crypto founders who are women, she is known as an advocate for women in crypto and a supporter of the Women Academy Mentor Programme, which was launched by Binance to empower female leaders in crypto.
Randi Hipper
Known as Miss Teen Crypto on Twitter, where she has 50K followers, Randi Hipper first entered the Web3 space aged 16. Investing her pocket money in Bitcoin, she then started making digital artwork that would later become an NFT collection. She is one of relatively few high-profile Gen Z voices in crypto and uses her platform on Twitter and Instagram to popularize the sector.
Women’s involvement in Web3 is affected by numerous hard and soft factors, but we hope that the incredible people we’ve highlighted will offer an inspiring example for girls and young women who are currently deciding on their next career moves and looking to the blockchain as one of the most exciting innovative technologies in the world today.
At WiFi Map, we’re grateful for all the women in our company and the amazing work they do, whether that’s in the executive team, marketing and PR, new business or development.
