Every year, since 1977, International Women’s Day has been celebrated on the 8th of March. The theme for Women’s Day this year is ‘Gender Equality today for a sustainable tomorrow’. In this article, nine leading women entrepreneurs who are shaping the future of the crypto world.
In a recent study, cryptocurrency exchange BlockFi reported that a quarter of women surveyed already own crypto assets, while an astounding 92% of women had heard about cryptocurrency.
The aim of the study was to gain a better understanding of the changing demographics of cryptocurrency in todays world. The study found that more women are expressing interest in blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.
The findings of the study showed that 33% of women were likely to purchase cryptocurrency in 2022, and 60% said that they were likely to buy crypto within the next three months. The survey also found that more women are purchasing Ether, Dogecoin and Bitcoin.
In spite of the initial challenges, digital currencies, or cryptocurrencies are gradually entering the mainstream. NFT’s, wallets and the Metaverse have now become part of everyday conversation. Cyber attacks, volatility and awareness about the industry continue to be a challenge for the entire industry, leading to hurdles in becoming fully mainstream.
However, crypto technology is growing rapidly, along with public interest in the offerings. This article meets with nine women founders of crypto companies that are making headlines.
Meet the top 9 women in the Crypto Universe
Flori Marquez
Flori Marquez co-founded BlockFI, a crypto exchange in 2017, along with Zac Prince. BlockFi provides simple financial products and credit services to its clients. Prior to founding BlockFi, Flori worked with Bond Street as a portfolio manager, and with Oak Hill Advisors as an anlyst.
Yi He
Yi He is a co-founder of crytpo exchange Binance. Binance is a world leading crypto exchange and Yi works as the Chief Marketing Officer of the company. Previously, Yi He had worked as an anchor for China Travel TV, and in 2014, co-founded China’s crypto-to-fiat exchange OKCoin.
Maria Pennanen
Founder of Mindclip Behavious, Maria Pennanen’s company offers clients a product that enables them to understand team behavior and boost employee performance. Pannanen has been an entrepreneur for over twenty years, and has been a mentor to many startups. Maria Pennanen was the CEO of crypto startup Santiment prior to founding Mindclip Behavior. She was also elected as the most influential women in EU Startups in 2019, 2020 and 2021 consecutively.
Perianne Boring
Perianne Boring is Founder-President of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, the trade association that represents the blockchain industry. The mission of this association is to promote blockchain technology and digital assets.
Perianne has previously been named as one of the Top 50 women in Tech by Forbes Magazine. Perianne started her career in the US House of Representatives as a legislative analyst, and before founding the Association, was a TV anchor of an international finance channel that was aired in over a hundred countries.
Elizabeth Rossiello
Elizabeth Rossiello is the Founder-CEO of currency trading solutions provider AZA. The company intends to enhance global access to frontier markets with innovative infrastructure. AZA is a market leader in African currency, and enables payments in all G20 currencies. Elizabeth is a co-chairperson of WEF Global 4th Industrial Revolution Council on Blockchain technology. She is also a board member of the Global Network Advisory Board.
Elizabeth Stark
Elizabeth Stark is the CEO and co-founder of Lightning Labs, which was established in 2016 to provide layer-two Internet solutions for scalable and quick Bitcoin transactions. An educationist, Stark has previously taught Computer Science at Yale and Stanford University. She has also been a startup advisor in decentralized technology and Artificial Intelligence.
Galia Benartzi
Galia Benartzi, a technology entrepreneur, is the co-founder of crypto protocol – Bancor. The protocol is designed to create Smart Tokens which have built-in convertibility. She has also been the CEO and co-founder of Particle Code Inc., a multi-platform DE to write and launch mobile and applications across Web and mobile platforms. Particle Code Inc., was acquired by Appcelerator in 2011.
Kathleen Breitman
Kathleen Breitman co-founded Tezos, which is a blockchain based smart contract platform. The platform features a governance mechanism on-chain, to co-ordinate and push its network. Prior to Tezos, Kathleen Breitman has worked with companies such as De Dicto, Accenture and Bridgewater Associates.
Preethi Kasireddy
Founder-CEO of TruStory (a social network debating platform), Preethi Kasireddy has previously worked as an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs, a software engineer at Coinbase, and a blockchain engineer at Ethereum Network.
According to Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange, more women than men are interested in getting involved with blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.
