The Prevailing Gender Inequality in the World of Cryptocurrency?

The gender gap is so subtle in the stock market that it often gets ignored. Similarly, within the cryptocurrency market, one hardly hears of women being actively participating. It is quite ironic though; even a virtual market where gender shouldn’t matter at all, is also a victim of gender inequality.

However, times are changing and women are warming up to the concept of crypto investment. This is a welcomed change for the crypto industry that is dominated by men.

For instance, Nirali Solani who is heading her family business in Mumbai, recalls avoiding crypto investments until last year. It is after she started reading up on the digital asset that she became comfortable with the concept. One of cryptocurrency’s common features is volatility and this is what kept Solani away from it. However, the rise in the prices of Ethereum and Bitcoin has helped Solani to put her faith in the tokens. Starting off with little investments in the digital tokens, she now looks at it as a store of value. Initially what started as 3-4% of investments in Bitcoin and Ethereum has now increased to 15-20%.

ZebPay, one of India’s crypto exchanges reported Rs. 5.7 lakh increase during the period of September last year to February this year. This is quite a lot in comparison to Rs. 3 lakh it was in between March and August last year. This rise can be credited to Elon Musk’s promotion of Bitcoin followed by Tesla’s revelation of investing a whopping $1.5 billion in Bitcoin. This had helped Bitcoin to go beyond $50,000 cap.

ZebPay revealed that 15% of its investors are women and it hopes to increase this percentage to 25 within a year. ZebPay mostly has women investors from Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana, Delhi, and Rajasthan, typically investing in Tron, Bitcoin, Ripple, Matic, and Ethereum.

The Chief Marketing Officer of ZebPay also commented on the risk assessing capabilities of women. According to him women are more cautious when investing as compared to men.

In 2021 CoinDCX, Cryptocurrency exchange has seen a rise of 5% in its female investors. What accounted for 15% in 2020, has now in 2021 increased to 20%. According to the exchange’s co-founder Sumit Gupta women investors aged between 18 and 34 years of age account for 60%. 30% of female stockholders come from Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. Many of these women investors instead of buying the whole token, buy fractions of the Bitcoin. The average value of the fractional token is Rs. 8,000-10,000.

Just like it’s true for other industries, women are gradually entering the crypto industry too. Current figures already show a rise in women investors and with much awareness and popularity surrounding cryptocurrency, these figures are sure to rise. It won’t be long enough when they start ruling this industry.