There has long lingered the notion that those investing in cryptocurrencies are nearly all men. Some reports go as far as branding it a "boys club".
While the male demographic makes up the majority of people dabbling in cryptocurrencies, recent data shows there is an increasing trend towards more involvement from females. This is based on the findings from BTC Markets' inaugural annual investor report.
Breaking stereotypes
Although it might have been true of the past, the cryptocurrency community is fast outgrowing a concentrated demographic. Yesterday, we covered how more people of retirement age are entering the market. At the same time, the balance between genders participating is also equalising.
According to data from BTC Markets, females now make up 23% of all users on its cryptocurrency exchange. During the last financial year, the exchange witnessed a significant uptick in female investors signing up to the platform. In numerical terms, new female investors increased at a rate of 172%. This compared to a 79% increase in new male investors.
Not only that, females tended to initially deposit larger amounts than males — potentially demonstrating a higher degree of confidence and conviction in their investment behaviour.
On closer inspection, BTC Markets is not the only one citing this trend. A study conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, published in July 2021, found that 41% of crypto 'traders' were women. Interestingly, the study found this to be higher than the number of women invested in stocks, at 38%.
Cryptocurrencies are opening up investing opportunities for more diverse investors, which is a very good thing.
Angela Fontes, Vice president in the economics, justice, and society department at NORC
Australia isn't the only geography seeing more females investing in cryptocurrency. According to the Economic Times, Indian crypto exchanges are witnessing at least half of all new signups being women in the last 3 to 4 months.
Not only investing in cryptocurrency
The cryptocurrency space has not only been ripe for investing, but it is also teeming with talented developers and entrepreneurs.
Many females are playing important roles in building the new digital finance world. For those interested, CryptoWeekly has a full list of the top 50 most influential females in crypto for 2021.
Examples of females making valuable contributions include:
- Elizabeth Stark: cofounder and CEO of Lightning Labs – a network client that scales and speeds up the Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) network.
- Cathie Wood: CEO and chief investment officer of ARK Invest – an advocate of Bitcoin and blockchain innovation
- Galia Benartzi: cofounder of the Bancor Protocol and CEO and founder of Particle Code
- Vansa Chatikavanij: CEO and founder of OmiseGo, a second layer scaling solution for Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH)
Finally, the company, whose data kicked this whole article off, BTC Markets' CEO Caroline Bowler leads Australia's largest digital asset exchange.
Bowler commented on the increase in females investing/trading in cryptocurrency, stating:
More women trading cryptocurrency dispels misconceptions around cryptocurrency investors being risk lovers. This is because behavioral finance studies have found women to be more risk-averse in their investment decisions than men. It also shows a calculated appetite for the volatility that is still a feature of this asset class.
