Going under $ 4,000 for the first time this year, bitcoin is down by more than 80% compared to the all-time high back in December 2017 when the price hit the $20,000 mark.
While the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rose last year, most of this rise, more than 20 times, was driven by men. One Google search analysis pointed out hat 95% of people who were searching for the term “Bitcoin” were male, while 5% only were women. These results seem to be shifting to other cryptocurrencies too like Ethereum for example. Women make only 4% of the Ethereum traders, according to another survey.
The founder of Athena Capital, Meltem Demirors pointing to the world’s female population, who have control over most of America’s wealth and household spending stated:
“I feel that we are missing out on a great opportunity to market 51 percent of the population, 60 percent of wealth, and 80 percent of consumer spending,”
Demirors stated on the latest episode of “Balancing the Ledger,” Fortune’s show which talks about the crossroads of technology and finance :
“One of the things that really drew me to the cryptocurrency ecosystem early on in 2012, 2013, when I started getting involved in Bitcoin, was the fact that it was a true intellectual meritocracy.”
She also added:
“And I think the question is, can we use our influence…to ensure that 51% of the world’s population isn’t missing out on this massive wealth-creation event.”
In spite of the fact that Bitcoin has lost more than an 80% of its value since reaching the highest point in December at around 20,000, the cryptocurrency has still made a lot of early adopters wealthy. Although Demirors considers herself “fortunate” to have made profits from the bull market last year, she as well other supporters seem upset that the evolution of Bitcoin might be the reason of disproportional enrichment of males over females.
Actually, several of the most famous supporters of Bitcoin are men, such as Tim Draper, known for his bullish prediction that Bitcoin would reach $250,000 by 2022. John Pfeffer of Pfeffer Capital, who is betting that Bitcoin’s value could hit $700,000 someday.
Early in January this year, Alexia Bonatsos, former co-editor of TechCrunch, appealed on Twitter:
Women, consider crypto. Otherwise the men are going to get all the wealth, again.
— Alexia Bonatsos (@alexia) January 25, 2018
The lack of female investors in cryptocurrency indicates that there is a lot of money remaining on the sidelines that may lead to boom the price of Bitcoin if invested. However, Demirors believes that the survey data cannot tell the actual number of females who invest in Bitcoin; because of the blockchain technology system behind Bitcoin which hide the names and the genders of the users and keeps them anonymous (Unlike operators of some cryptocurrency exchanges). That means it’s impossible to collect accurate statistics on the participation of women in Bitcoin.
The potential is big if women get more involved in cryptocurrency, a thing that might drive prices up increasing the demand more.
Do you think the statistics mentioned above are accurate, that women make only a small percentage of the crypto community? Feel free to post your opinion in the comment s below.