5 Fearless Female Crypto Leaders I Admire (And You Should Too!) 😉
By: Cara Lam
Tags: International Womens Day, Crypto, Women In Tech, Bitcoin, Women

When you hear the word crypto, what comes to mind?

A computer geek with thick-rimmed glasses in an old t-shirt frantically spilling out lines of code into the blockchain? Hold on — is that programmer a gentleman or a lady? Aha, we get it. When 85% of blockchain startup employees are male, it may take you an extra three seconds to discern that there are more than a handful of influential female leaders in the crypto industry.

In fact, there’s a lot of them, but we’ll focus on five this time.

Elizabeth Stark — CEO of Lightning Labs

If there is one name that you’ll see on almost every list about notable female crypto leaders, it’s Elizabeth Stark, or @starkness as she’s known on Twitter.

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Stark first discovered bitcoin when she was teaching computer science at Stanford University. And she has only dived deeper since.

In 2016, she turned the clever idea of building a decentralized network for open-source, scalable, and instant transactions into reality — with ex-Google engineering intern Olaoluwa Osuntokun — and named the service Lightning Labs.

Of course, Stark didn’t stop there.

Besides being the CEO of Lightning Labs, she’s also a Fellow at the digital currency policy organization Coin Center, and the founder of Startbitcoin.org, where entrepreneurs come together to discuss digital currencies and decentralized technology.

Galia Benartzi — Co-founder of Bancor and Particle Code

A native Californian, Galia Benartzi has been an active player in the startup scene since graduating from Johns Hopkins University in 2005.

After co-founding and going through the acquisition of Particle Code — the award-winning company that automates the porting process for software developers — Benartzi went on to found Bancor. This crypto firm gave birth to a platform where users can convert different tokens directly as opposed to exchanging them on crypto markets.

Bancor is one of the more advanced crypto firms out there, with $153 million in funding. Its ICO is also one of the highest grossing ICOs of all time — cheers to Benartzi!

Celine Lazorthes

A true female role model is one that empowers other females.

Throughout her career, Celine Lazorthes has always made it possible for other females to rise in influence. Not only is she the founder of Leetchi Group (a leading online money pot) and Mangopay (dedicated to marketplaces, crowdfunding, and sharing economy), she’s also the co-founder of SISTA, an NGO dedicated to reducing the funding gap women face when fundraising for their companies.

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Despite being the CEO of Leetchi Group which has 10 million users and billions of dollars in transactions, Lazorthes speaks honestly about the difficulties she has continued to face being a young female in the fintech industry.

“People expected a 40+ male, not a young woman with no banking industry experience,” she explains.

But she’s not one to give in. Instead, she strives to create a space for ambitious women. For example, for her own company, she employs 45% women across 20 nationalities to make sure diversity is a synonym with the type of product that she provides.

Linda Xie

When talking about risks and legal compliance in the crypto space, a lot of people know what the right thing to do, but Linda Xie knows her ways inside out. With prior experiences at AIG and Coinbase, Linda moved on to found her own crypto investment management company, Scalar Capital specializing in diverse tokens in September 2017.

For Scalar Capital, not only is she the co-founder and managing director, she’s also an advisor to the 0x project, an open protocol for decentralized exchange on the ethereum blockchain.

You can learn what Xie is up to on Twitter!

Preethi Kasireedy

Preethi makes 👏 things 👏 happen 👏.

As a blockchain engineer, she’s built many new protocols on the blockchain and designed Ethereum-based smart contracts for token sales. Some fortunate companies that have enjoyed her engineering talents are big names such as Coinbase, Goldman Sachs, and Andreessen Horowitz.

But Preethi doesn’t keep her knowledge of cryptocurrencies to herself. On her personal website, you can find all sorts of articles with insights into the world of blockchain, tech, and coding, on top of her personal journey in traveling and living a healthy lifestyle.

Of course, this is not all

Look around you — women everywhere are doing great things across every corner of the world. The five women we listed here are just a few examples of how female leaders have taken on the cryptosphere — and there are so many more out there!

Are there any female leaders that inspire you?

Let us know in the comments below!