Female participation in the global crypto ecosystem has increased significantly in the last few years amid rising awareness and a wide range of trading opportunities. Just like FX, crypto is still a ‘male dominant’ space, however, the latest research reports indicate that the surging number of female crypto investors has dwarfed the growth of male users.
BTC Markets, an Australian crypto exchange led by Chief Executive Officer Caroline Bowler, witnessed an enormous jump of 175% in female users during 2021, compared to a spike of 80% in male users. The IRCI survey of 2,000 Australian investors showed that the female Bitcoin owners in Australia grew from 8.3% in 2020 to almost 16% in 2021. Countries across the world witnessed a similar growth trend in female crypto participation.
If we compare the FX market with crypto, the popularity of the latter has jumped significantly in the past decade mainly due to the status of crypto as an ’emerging’ asset class. While the involvement of women in cryptocurrency trading has jumped substantially, the FX market found it difficult to match the rapid growth of women traders in the digital asset space.
But why do female traders prefer crypto over FX? There are several factors behind that. Firstly, the cryptocurrency market is open 24 hours a day and seven days a week, compared to the FX market which has limited trading hours and no activity on the weekends. Secondly, barriers to entry in the foreign exchange market are more than crypto. Due to highly regulated FX markets, new entrants have to go through a broad list of requirements to start trading. On the other hand, the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies allows users to spend less time on the client onboarding process. Thirdly, the emergence of Defi, NFTs, and meme coins has allowed female cryptocurrency investors to trade in a wide range of products.
‘Not so Male Dominant’
Maria Stankevich, Chief Business Development Officer at EXMO, believes that the rising participation of women in crypto has broken the stereotype of crypto being a ‘male-dominated industry’.
“Contrary to popular belief about the dominance of men in the cryptocurrency industry, statistics show that this stereotype is outdated. According to a study by Grayscale…
