Why Crypto Needs More Women In Order to Grow
By: Ivy Riane
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Finance, Cryptocurrency, Investing, Blockchain

Photo by Piotr Krzyżanowski on Unsplash

Many crypto businesses are starting to take an interest in getting more women involved in the crypto space and with good reason!

Women are avid consumers, educated communicators, and excellent at influencing trends. Plus, those that have already gotten involved in the tech space have set the world on fire!

So, why aren’t more women involved in crypto and what benefit could we see if we were able to get more women to participate?

And how do we go about getting more women interested in crypto or in the technology behind it?

Looking at the Crypto Space

“The blockchain industry is a combination of two very traditionally-male industries — finance and tech,” Elizabeth Rossiello, CEO & Founder of BitPesa said.

She made an excellent point in saying that! I have an MBA in Finance and get some strange looks when I show up for meetings that are finance related.

Many women see this as an opportunity to lay the groundwork for women going forward by being early adopters of crypto and in the tech/ finance industries.

In January 2018, the North American Bitcoin Conference was held in Miami and got hemmed up because of the lack of women at the conference. Moe Levin was the organizer of the event that had 84 male speakers and only 3 female.

I guess it’s kind of them to not hold the event in a strip club like they originally intended.

On the flip side of that same coin, influencers like Sir Richard Branson are encouraging female involvement. His most recent blockchain, financial summit held in Morocco actually had more women then men in attendance.

Bill Tai, guest speaker and venture capitalist, spoke about his choice to fund women-run ventures, “I’m on this panel because I happen to have funded a lot of women and my success rate with them happens to be higher than with men.”

Women in the Crypto Space

Women do deserve a seat at the table but it may be up to us to take that seat at the table instead of expecting it to be handed to us. Many women that I know are hungry and ambitious but not because they need to prove themselves to others. They legitimately enjoy the work and the challenge that is presented by the tech and the industry.

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

If we end up with enough women that are qualified to speak on finance and tech there will be no reason to not include women more in the education of the space.

“Women comprise 51% of the world population and drive 80% of household spending in the US,” Meltem Demirors, Chief Strategy Officer of CoinShares.

So, why did venture capitalists invest only $1.46 billion in female-run companies when male-run companies garnered $58.2 billion in investment capital in 2016?!

Surprisingly, this is an increase to 4.94% of venture capital funded deals for women-led companies versus 2.95% a decade ago.

Business and entrepreneurship is still a mostly male dominated game but women are rapidly advancing through the ranks and making a name for themselves.

The crypto space is big enough for everyone to get in on the action and get a piece of the pie. We can all work together to develop the space and to improve on technology for the betterment of society. Women can definitely add their knowledge and experience to the cause!

What do you think? Do you think the crypto arena could use more women or do you think we are ok where we are at? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for reading,

Ivy