money Crypto: Women are lagging behind men in Web3 investing
The promise of Web3 — a vision of the internet built on blockchain-based, decentralized systems — has reinvigorated an entirely new generation of investors. According to a 2021 study by the personal loan company Stilt, 94% of people who own crypto are millennials or Gen Z.
And while the numbers show a growing interest amongst young investors, a stark disparity exists amongst male and female Web3 investors.
According to a recent report from cryptocurrency marketplace Gemini, women make up just 26% of Web3 investors. Additionally, as evidenced by ownership of bitcoin (BTC-USD), the premiere digital currency, women make up less than 15% of bitcoin investors.
The emergence of NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, has created opportunities to grow the Web3 community in both size and diversity. NFTs surpassed $22 billion in the global market last year, according to data from DappRadar, a firm that tracks sales, easily eclipsing the $100 million market in 2020.
One of the leading female voices in the space is Becky Smouha, an entrepreneur and founder of SuperBabesNFT club, a crypto-centered community made by women for women, based in Sydney, Australia. After initially having no interest in investing, Smouha’s boyfriend introduced her to the world of crypto and unlocked an entirely new world of opportunity for her. Now, Smouha believes it’s her duty to help empower and “gently guide” other women into the space.
“I’ve been seeing what everyone else is bringing to the table and seeing how I can get involved,” Smouha told Yahoo Finance, acknowledging her own hesitancy early on. “It’s very showy. It can be very over complicated as well, and with that male-dominated side, it can be very off putting for a lot of women.”
Bitcoin 'a huge part' of making women financially independent
Charlene Fadirepo, a former audit manager at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors turned bitcoin adviser, told Yahoo Finance earlier this year that she believes more women should get involved in the crypto space because coins like bitcoin can be used for social justice.
“It allows communities to build wealth in communities that have been left out of the discriminatory banking system that we have today,” Fadirepo said.
Fadirepo and Smouha hope the crypto space can help level a playing field that has never been equal for women. According to Pew Research, women currently make $0.84 to every dollar a man makes, despite female leaders outperforming male leaders across more than a dozen categories, including driving results and innovation, according to a recent Harvard Business Review study.
When all is said and done, Fadirepo ultimately believes women will be the ones leading the bitcoin revolution.
“We are so focused on taking women from financial health to financial wellness to hopefully financial independence and … we believe that bitcoin and investing in bitcoin is going to be a huge part of that story,” she said.
Smouha recommended one particular action for women interested in crypto: Find a community of like-minded women and simply jump in, not being afraid to make mistakes.
Her organization, SuperBabesNFT club, starts with the very basics of crypto using infographics on Instagram to explain what a blockchain is and encourages women from all types of backgrounds to participate in order to lower the barrier of entry that women have in the space.
The end goal is to empower women with the confidence they need to succeed in the crypto space.
“With the crypto and investing side of things, it can be super empowering especially when you’re managing your own money and learning how to do that properly,” Smouha said.
Brittany Miller and Shivani Reddy are students at Syracuse University.
For more information about cryptocurrency, check out:
Dogecoin, what is it? How to buy it
Ethereum: What is it and how do you invest in it?
The top 21 crypto leaders to watch in the back half of 2021
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