The crypto world needs more women

The technology and engineering fields have historically been male-dominated. Deloitte estimates, for example, that only around a quarter of management positions in the largest technology companies are held by women. Yet the world of crypto – cryptocurrencies, digital tokens, smart contracts, NFTs and decentralized finance (DeFi) – underpinned by blockchain technology gives a whole new meaning to male dominance. A December 2021 study found that of the 121 leading crypto companies, only five (or 4.13 percent of the total) were founded by women. Even more worryingly, less than 10 percent of partners in all crypto funds are women. It should therefore come as no surprise that the crypto space has a well-deserved reputation for having a “bridge” culture – a culture that was on full display at the 2018 North American Bitcoin Conference where the 5,000 attendees were invited to a “networking party” at a famous strip club in Miami. Due to the growing size of the crypto industry, its overwhelming male dominance has serious discriminatory implications for women’s career opportunities in tech. But before we discuss how this gender disparity can be reduced and the crypto world benefits from doing so, let’s step back and look at the size and growth of this increasingly important economic sector.

The crypto world

The first thing to keep in mind is how new crypto is. The first bitcoin transaction took place just 14 years ago in 2009. From then until the last week of 2022, the capitalization of the crypto market has grown to over a trillion dollars. Fortune Magazine predicts that the global cryptocurrency market will grow to $1.9 trillion by 2028. Daily online transactions in bitcoin are around $6 billion, a payment method surpassed only by Visa and Mastercard with daily transaction volumes of $30.3 billion and $16.2 billion respectively. Although daily crypto trading volume was down in 2022 from the highs of 2020 and 2021, it still hovered between $20 and $70 billion, a huge market by any measure. And these transactions take place on more than 300 crypto platforms or exchanges.

No matter how you look at the crypto market, it is a dynamic and increasingly important sector of our economy, one where women should play a much bigger role. Increased equality in the crypto world will not only open up new career opportunities for women, it will also bring positive changes to the crypto culture and increase its innovativeness.

The crypto culture

Gracy Chen, a veteran of several crypto firms now at Bitget, describes the crypto world as “the Wild West dominated by male speculators and a bridging culture reinforced by recent scandals and market dives.” Chen notes that she has had “first-hand experience” of seeing how “female engagement and leadership [can] help [create] a more positive working environment and improved product improvement.” Indeed, researchers have found that when women’s participation in the top three levels of management in a company increases to at least 30 percent, both genders find that it results in a positively “changed management culture….” Such a critical mass of women in management results in “a closer alignment with the ideals of modern leadership [that] should be seen as desirable.”

Innovation in crypto

No one would suggest that crypto has lacked innovation. But as Chen points out, more women in leadership leads to “enhanced product improvement.” Her observation is confirmed by a number of studies showing that mixed gender collaboration greatly improves business results. Gallup found, for example, that gender-diverse teams performed better than single-gender teams, largely because women and men bring “different viewpoints, ideas and market insights to projects.” Gallup found that companies, teams and individuals are more productive, creative and effective in solving problems and coping with difficult situations when they have gender-diverse leadership. More importantly, however, the benefits of mixed gender collaboration are not fully realized unless women make up at least 30 percent of the team or decision-making group. In fact, with such a critical mass of women in teams, men process information more thoroughly, become more reflective and are more open. In addition, there is less “groupthink”, hence less isolation and closeness.

Get more women into crypto leadership

Increasing the proportion of women in crypto leadership will not be easy, but there is a way forward. In a forthcoming book Beyond Bias: The PATH to End Gender Inequality at Work, which I wrote with my husband, we are setting up a program that organizations can use to ensure that women’s advancement opportunities are equal to men’s. There are three important steps crypto firms must take.

Eliminate exclusionary behavior

First, companies must clearly and decisively prohibit exclusionary behavior, behavior that puts women down, limits their access to advancement and networking opportunities, exposes them to rude, abusive, or uncivil behavior, and causes them to be talked over, interrupted, or ignored when they trying to speak up. Eliminating exclusionary behavior must be a top-down initiative. Once crypto leaders are committed to bringing women into leadership and making them feel welcome, exclusionary behaviors can quickly be reduced if not completely eliminated.

Adopt discrimination-resistant personnel procedures

Second, Crypto firms must also adopt procedures for making personnel decisions that resist the influence of stereotypes and biases. Decisions involving hiring, compensation, assignment of responsibilities, and promotion are highly susceptible to these discriminatory influences. With the heavy male dominance in the crypto world, affinity bias is a matter of particular concern. Affinity bias is the natural preference we all have to favor people who are like us. This means that the male leaders in crypto are far more likely to assign high-profile projects to other men; socialize with other men to the exclusion of women; and give more and more useful advice, support and encouragement to other men. Given the power of affinity bias, it’s hardly surprising that the straight white men who lead most major crypto firms have surrounded themselves (mostly) with other straight white men. To counteract the influence of affinity bias, firms must adopt specific, objective and comprehensive; criteria on the basis of which personnel decisions must be made. Companies may also require more than one person to be involved in making each personnel decision, and the decision makers must explain to each other the reasons for their preferred choices. Decision makers may also be required to write down their reasons for their personnel decisions, which will then be reviewed by another person.

Provide peer leadership consulting and coaching

Third, as crypto firms begin to hire more women, it is important that these women receive evaluations, advice, and coaching that is as thorough, constructive, and supportive as that given to the men. This also applies to management development, training and support. Companies must work hard to hire more women, but once they hire them, companies need to be sure that these women’s workplace experiences are as satisfying, encouraging and useful as their male counterparts.

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As exciting and dynamic as the crypto world is, its full potential will not be realized unless women begin to play a greater leadership role. But this is not going to happen unless the crypto world becomes more welcoming to women, they are not disadvantaged by affinity bias, and they are given equal opportunities to advance. This can happen – it’s a simple matter of crypto firms recognizing their vested interest in doing so.