Women who made a contribution to the crypto industry in 2022

by · December 25, 2022

2022 saw the continued rise of disruptive blockchain-centric concepts such as decentralized finance, GameFi, non-fungible tokens and Web3. Notably, some of the related projects that flourished in 2022 were led by women, which is a good indicator of progress in an otherwise male-dominated sector.

The increased involvement of women in the cryptocurrency field signals increasing inclusion and maturation of the sector, encouraging diversity and embracing ideas that resonate more with underrepresented subsets of the population.

That being said, a group of eminent women reached unprecedented levels of achievement in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries in 2022 due to their ambition, innovation, leadership and dedication.

Cointelegraph had the chance to speak with Nodira Sadikova, a venture capitalist and M&A advisor at Web3. She confirmed this positive development while noting that there was a new category of women under the age of 30 who made an impression in the industry.

“We can see the growing share of skilled and talented women under the age of 30, such as Nastya Moroz (crypto trading and investment course exclusively for women), Daria Lomova (art advisor and curator of digital art exhibitions), Stella Friaisse (crypto podcast and event organizer) and many more,” Sadikova said, adding:

“This army of extremely bold personalities changed the market and generated new trends and opportunities for women who did not have the courage to enter the crypto industry.”

The following is an overview of the women who made waves in the crypto industry in 2022.

Elizabeth Stark

Elizabeth Stark is the co-founder and CEO of Lightning Labs and an early adopter of blockchain scaling solutions. Her company, Lightning Labs, specializes in developing Lightning Network (LN) products that enable users to trade Bitcoin (BTC) more efficiently. The Lightning Network is a layer-2 scaling solution that allows users to make BTC transactions quickly and at a lower cost than primary chain transactions.

Her firm offers a variety of ancillary services, mainly related to the Lightning Network, which includes high-volume micropayment services. It achieves this by leveraging a two-way micropayment channelization process that allows transactions to be processed at a faster rate, helping to reduce transaction fees.

Aside from being a blockchain company CEO, Stark is also a fellow at the Coin Center, a leading non-profit organization that engages in cryptocurrency policy issues. She additionally serves as an advisor at Chia, a blockchain company that operates a unique crypto mining protocol whose mechanism is based on proof of time and space concepts. The algorithmic consensus system allows users to store random numbers in their digital storage, such as their hard drives or solid-state drives.

Users with significant storage space have higher chances of getting a reward. The concept is revolutionary in that it is not performance oriented or data intensive and only relies on numerical queries being issued. Consequently, the network’s energy consumption is hundreds of times lower than typical proof-of-work systems such as the Bitcoin network.

Before becoming a crypto entrepreneur, Stark was a lecturer at Stanford and Yale universities, where she taught students about peer-to-peer networks.

In particular, the Lightning Network infrastructure developed by her company was adapted to a wide range of uses in 2022, which includes transcontinental support for Bitcoin-to-fiat transactions.

Kathleen Breitman

Kathleen Breitman is the co-founder and CEO of Dynamic Ledger Solutions and is a graduate of Cornell University.

Dynamic Ledger Solutions is the developer behind the Tezos proof-of-stake blockchain protocol. Tezos was designed to address many of the shortcomings afflicting Bitcoin and other early cryptocurrency networks, such as limited scaling capabilities and high gas fees. Its native token, XTZ, is currently among the top 50 most popular cryptocurrencies in the world, with a market capitalization of over $700 million.

Prior to her crypto involvement, Breitman worked as a senior strategy associate at R3, a leading financial services firm. She also held top positions at some notable companies, such as Bridgewater Associates, Accenture and The Wall Street Journal.

2022 was a challenging year for her company, Tezos, due to the implosion of the crypto market that caused many cryptocurrencies to crash due to negative investor sentiment. However, Breitman and her team are credited with making a series of insightful, strategic decisions that are set to position the company for long-term success.

One of them was the listing of XTZ on Coinbase Japan in December 2022, which is expected to increase XTZ’s use in the growing Asian market.

Meltem Demirors

Meltem Demirors is Chief Strategy Officer at CoinShares, a leading digital asset investment firm managing over $4 billion in investor assets. CoinShares Group strives to lower the entry barriers for investors looking to invest in digital assets.

Demirors oversees the firm’s day-to-day operations in the New York office. She is also the chairman of CoinShares, a position that allows her to lead the company’s venture strategy. Prior to joining CoinShares, Demirors held the vice president position at Digital Currency Group, a crypto venture capital firm whose subsidiaries include Foundry, Grayscale Investments and Luno.

She is recognized for having contributed to the company’s growth over the years as strategy manager. The company’s exchange-traded products’ assets under management (AUM) grew to $4.13 billion in 2022 as of March 31, 2022 from $2.67 billion reached in June 2021.

Neha Narula

Neha Narula is the director of the Digital Currency Initiative, an MIT Media Lab research community focused on blockchain technology. While completing a computer science Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she built some scalable blockchain solutions and databases that earned her recognition in the field.

Due to her blockchain-centric endeavors and her commitment to championing the use of blockchain and innovative crypto payment systems, she has amassed tens of thousands of followers over the years and become a respected speaker on matters related to decentralized technologies.

Narula’s articulate communication skills, particularly in explaining complex crypto and blockchain concepts, have enabled her to speak to key audiences, including US policy makers.

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She has previously been asked to help US senators understand how digital currencies work and why they should look at central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). She is currently working with a number of financial institutions to create digital currencies and evaluate their impact and practicality for everyday use. Among them is the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Perianne Boring

Perianne Boring holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Florida. She founded the Chamber of Digital Commerce, which is the world’s largest trade association dedicated specifically to the blockchain industry. The chamber’s task is to promote the use of blockchain-based technologies and digital currencies. The organization works to create an environment that promotes growth of the industry, investment and innovation.

Boring regularly appears on financial media platforms to discuss digital currency and blockchain topics. Before getting involved in the cryptocurrency industry, she served as a TV anchor for Prime Interest, an international financial program that reached over 600 million viewers.

In 2022, she was vocal on cryptocurrency and blockchain adoption and spoke out against a number of discriminatory policies, including the recent crypto mining embargo mandated by the State of New York.

Amber Baldet

Amber Baldet is the co-founder and CEO of Clovyr, a blockchain company dedicated to developing versatile tools that can be used to improve the usability of decentralized applications.

Baldet is also a board member of the Zcash Foundation, a charity that develops privacy-focused blockchain infrastructure. The foundation is primarily aimed at users of the crypto network Zcash.

Before starting her own blockchain company, Baldet worked at JPMorgan where she oversaw the development of the company’s blockchain system called Quorum. She left JP Morgan in 2018 to start Clovyr, which she co-founded with Patrick Nielson, who also worked on the Quorum project as lead developer.

From strength to strength

Increased participation of women in the crypto industry is important as it improves inclusion and diversity in the sector. Furthermore, the enormous potential of the blockchain and crypto markets provides unique opportunities that empower women.

Related: The 5 most important regulatory developments for crypto in 2022

In 2022, a clique of resolute women left their mark on the sector and led the effort to strengthen women’s position in the cryptosphere. The trend is likely to encourage more women to join the crypto movement and change the narrative that paints the industry as male-dominated.