[Coinlive] Are Women Struggling to Stand Out in the Crypto World

Is the world of cryptocurrency primarily male-dominated? I hate to say it, but yes. This issue in gender gap is more prominent in the past than now in 2022 though it is by no means equal. Most of the men I know in my life invest in crypto to a certain degree (more like a side hobby), but not a single woman I know invest in crypto, with some knowing only what they have heard or read briefly. No matter your gender, ask yourself this now: “How many men and women that I know in my life invest in crypto?” Chances are, the former’s percentage will tower over the latter.

When we talk about this, we need to go back in time (just a few years) to make a point. CEO and Founder of Regal Assets, as well as a Forbes Council member, Tyler Gallager, expressed his concerns in writing in 2019:

Quote extracted from Tyler Gallager’s post “Cryptocurrency’s ‘Bro Culture’ Problem And Seven Ways We Can Fix It

One of the numerous problems that probably alienate women from partaking of the crypto movement or stepping out to voice their involvement, was the thought (or the lack of it) that went into organising events like the below:

The three-day North American Bitcoin Conference 2018 held in Miami, Florida, drew experts worldwide but garnered attention for all the wrong reasons. Even though the agenda promised over 80 speakers, only three female speakers were invited. The cherry on top of the cake was that the official after-party (“networking event” they say) was held at a strip club! The audacity; can you imagine that? This blatant lack of consideration and respect, negative representation, and failure to diversify its offerings, angered plenty of women no doubt. So why the gender disparity? Is it because of the lack of education, the scarcity of role models, abysmal amount of support networks, gender inequality, and so on?

One of the female conference attendees, Hadjar Homaei, tweeted the above about the embarrassing event

As someone who has two X chromosomes, I delved into the crypto world rather late (better late than never). I cannot speak for others but I dare do so for myself: why did I jump onto the crypto bandwagon so late? A large part was the lack of understanding. For example, if someone were to try to hard-sell you an item that you have never heard of before, do not need it at all, and explain the item’s purpose with technical jargons of the other realm, how likely would you want to buy the item? Chances are slim to negative; you might even grow averse to the item.

This applied to me in the past:

a) everyone I knew that invested in crypto, are male so whenever I asked a ‘crypto-proficient’ person to dive into crypto jargons, all I got was extremely technical terms that made me more confused

b) the lack of patience from the explaining party when attempting to expound crypto terms (some sighs, eyerolls, and the likes are inevitable)

c) online research yielded SOME results but not really knowing what I am searching for or not knowing what I do not know, made googling harder

d) the desire to start was there but not knowing where to begin and what to invest in held me back

e) since the hype was over, what was the point of jumping in? I do not want to take the risk if I am uncertain

With all the above in mind, it was unavoidable that my interest would wane over time and contribute to the statistics of women who do not participate in crypto. Thankfully the light was at the end of the tunnel (very winding and long).

According to Coin Dance’s website, only 14.23% in the Bitcoin community are female based on the Bitcoin Community Engagement by Gender

Coming back to the present, as of 2022, the number of women investors in cryptocurrency is rising. Based on a survey conducted by BlockFi in March 2022, 33% of the surveyed women are keen to buy crypto assets this year with around 60% of them intending to do so in the next few months. This is in contrast to a similar survey done by BlockFi in September 2021, where only about 29% of the surveyed women expressed interest in crypto purchases in 2022.

With that in mind, there are numerous crypto and NFT projects created by women, such as World of Women (WoW), Boss Beauties, Lightning Labs, and more. One of the most popular women-led NFT projects has got to be World of Women: a community created to embrace representation, inclusivity, diversity, and equal opportunities for all (it burst onto the NFT scene in July 2021). Founded by four friends, it has since blossomed into a group of nine. WoW’s manifesto is to balance representation in the NFT space and push it ahead, as well as support causes that are close to their hearts, through a collection of powerful, diverse, and awesome women.

At the time of writing, World of Women’s (WoW) floor price is $4,537.50 with a 24-hour sales volume of 43.7 ETH, 5524 unique owners and a total market cap of $45,375,040.36. Each WoW NFT was initially only 0.07 ETH to mint

The first of its kind collection consisted of 10,000 tokens of diverse and powerful women created and illustrated by artist and co-founder Yam Karkai with the help of a unique computer algorithm that randomly combined 11 characteristics with 189 features. These 10,000 NFTs exist on the Ethereum blockchain and can only be bought with Ether. Promotions by celebrities like Eva Longoria, Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow and others also helped to push the project.

Actress, producer, and entrepreneur (Founder of media company, Hello Sunshine) Reese Witherspoon’s first NFT purchase was Woman #8072. She tweeted the above when she made the purchase

Woman #5672 was snapped up for $754,340 at an auction conducted at Christie’s London Evening Sale on 1 March 2022

The second collection — WoW Galaxy — took WoW to another world (literally) as it portrays WoWs from the first collection who traveled through a portal to join the galaxy and experienced surprising transformations and also increased in quantity.

All that talk aside, what are the perks of buying WoW NFTs?

• - Download the NFTs in ultra-high resolution (4000x4000) while people like me who like to right click, can only save the 800x800 version
• - Get exclusive access to curated pre-sales and members-only discounts and offers
• - Invitation to annual gala and IRL events for holders
• - Ownership of the underlying artwork and all its Intellectual Property
• - 100 signed exclusive framed prints will be airdropped on a monthly basis to token owners (10 random owners will be picked for every 1000 primary sales)

Can WoW rival Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) that has a market cap of $1,023,182,531.20 (at the time of writing)? Not yet but we do not know what the future holds. After all, when the second collection came out, it left behind the popular BAYC NFT to become the top collected NFT collection in the last 24 hours. According to OpenSea, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) and BAYC NFT collections ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively at that time. So, fingers crossed.

As a proud owner of 0.00105365 BTC (do not laugh), I am light years away from becoming a whole Bitcoiner but having ownership of one of the popular NFT artwork feels more achievable in my lifetime.

To all ladies out there, ask yourself this if you are not in the crypto realm: why not? What is stopping you? Do you share reasons like mine or are there other factors stopping you? In the world of crypto, it is no longer a ‘Boys Club’.

Written by: [Coinlive] Catherine