The Frontier of Cryptocurrency is Taking on a Feminine Shape from Binance to SheFi
Women’s impact on Web3 is transforming the industry with growing influence across crypto exchanges and community building initiatives.
Opinion by Elena Sinelnikova, co-founder of Metis and CryptoChicks
The Underutilized Potential of Women in Web3: A Call to Action for Inclusion
As I reflect on the progress made in the crypto space, I am reminded that women are leading top crypto exchanges and earning 15% more than men, according to Pantera Capital. We have indeed come a long way. However, Web3 is still far from harnessing the full potential of its feminine community, both economically and culturally/psychologically.
The Statistics Speak for Themselves
Only about 13% of Web3 projects have female founders, and they receive merely 6% of the industry’s total funding. Web3 events – conferences, hackathons, afterparties – are primarily male-dominated. Furthermore, predators lurk around, threatening the safety and well-being of women in this space.
The Importance of Inclusion
Web3 promises inclusion and fairness for all – onboarding more women and creating safer places are necessary steps towards achieving this goal. Women comprise around 50% of the global population, have over $31 trillion in spending power, and control 85% of consumer spending in the United States. Dismissing and disempowering their leadership simply doesn’t make sense for Web3.
Breaking Down Barriers
Creating more women-centric corners in Web3 means more inclusivity and accessibility for everyone. It’s about breaking the monopoly of the hypermasculine ‘bro code’ that tends to exclude anything, or anyone, remotely feminine. The idea of a feminine frontier represents a cultural shift in Web3 – a call to build and nurture spaces where care, collaboration, empathy, and emotionality are celebrated.
The Power of Feminine Spaces
Feminine spaces emerge from the experience of facing marginalization in all shapes and sizes. Along with sisterhood, these experiences drive women to be more receptive, accepting, and giving. These qualities are also recurring concepts in any textbook definition of inclusion. That’s why diverse voices feel more heard and at home in feminine communities.
The Benefits of Inclusivity
Onboarding more women to Web3 and creating more women-centric spaces will make the industry more inclusive internally and complement its external mission of fostering inclusivity in finance. Breaking generational stereotypes is, however, as challenging as replacing legacy business structures, if not harder. Women themselves are made to feel they are inferior, let alone being told so by others.
The Power of Education and Mentorship
Statistical data showing that women-led businesses achieve significantly higher income growth or return on equity doesn’t seem to make a difference. Even the fact that companies with female leadership grow approximately twice as fast as their male-dominated counterparts fails to have the desired impact. The problem isn’t altogether rational or cognitive but rather psychological and deep-seated.
The Role of Women-Centric Communities
Women-centric communities are doing great at this. From cohorts to scholarships, they provide young, aspiring women the means to make it big in Web3. Not mere pep talk and lip service. As these female-centric communities grow, they’ll create more visibility overall for vibrant and inspiring women leading Web3’s evolution in different capacities.
A Positive Loop of Empowerment
This evolution will create a positive loop, motivating more young women to take the leap and stake their claim on emerging tech paradigms. Given the proper training and skills development – besides vision – women supported in this loop should be well-equipped to empathize with the users’ community worldwide.
Feminine Sensibilities in Web3
Web3 products and services can be more oriented toward solving real, even mundane, pains instead of fanning speculation to the moon. Feminine sensibilities will inevitably manifest themselves in Web3 codebases and technology since coding is a means of expression.
A Movement towards Inclusion
What we’re seeing now – and calling for – is a
