Growing a fintech business is not immune to gender imbalance. When I read recently that Bitcoin transactions account for just under 9% by women, I decided to do some further research and soon came to the conclusion that something needed to be done about this huge disparity. And, in very much a similar vein to the General Kitchener war posters from 100 years ago – Your Country Needs You – today, my mantra is Crypto Needs Women!
Two months ago, Dacxi decided to undertake some research to uncover why women were not as forthcoming into the crypto-space as they might be and from what I found- chiefly around lack of confidence, understanding and of course ‘the unknown’, it gave me reason to ensure that, in the future, women would be armed with the necessary education and tools to be confident about cryptocurrency, and hence the ‘Women Who Crypto’ movement was born.
Despite lockdown, our immediate uptake across the UK has surpassed our initial expectations. We’ve provided online events which have been hugely supported by women interested or working in retail crypto and we believe that as a new ‘movement’ Women Who Crypto has become the largest community group of its type in the UK.
Education
Indeed, a recent poll of female investors, by Dacxi, showed that 41% of the women surveyed were looking to purchase crypto assets of more than £1,000 in the next 12 months, but that lack of knowledge was the prime limiting factor.
For the women that were intending to purchase, 97% of them were motivated by long term financial planning. We seek to address access to the relevant information to empower our community to make decisions about their future financial security. Having crowd sourced the major concerns for our audience around crypto, guest speakers join who are happy to share their experiences, ups and downs of building wealth through digital assets.
These resources are provided for free, and available online through a variety of mediums including webinars, e-books, 121 support and learning programmes.
Crypto, of course, has been the best performing asset class over the last year yet remains a topic of mystery to the majority of the population. Dacxi is primarily focused on the blue-chip cryptos that have enjoyed huge success this year. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is up 42% and has proven more resilient than any other asset since the coronavirus recession hit.
Whilst this is impressive and people saw the benefits of crypto investment, there was a distinct lack of entry-level education and whilst we wanted to ensure that everyone who was investing, did so in a pragmatic way, we felt that more could be done in getting people and women in particular, more access to entry-level education around crypto and have done this by launching a certified crypto-coach programme, which we believe to be world’s first.
Our mission is to bring together “ordinary people” who wish to gain wealth through crypto, either through purchasing crypto or in having crypto-related businesses. They are hugely supportive, inspiring, and empowering, every we seek to celebrate each other’s success. Women, in my opinion, are natural networkers, and the content is always uplifting and inspiring. After all, what woman would not like to hear about how others are interested in financial freedom and increasing their wealth. All without jargon, death by power point, and ‘mansplaining’ that is so common in the industry. These are very much consigned to the Dacxi dustbin!
Future Proofing
Above all, this is about future proofing yourself. Exponents of crypto are evangelical about the dawn of a new age. It is already true that blockchain is disrupting a long list of industries: banking, finance and remittance, to credit cards, gold, insurance, supply chain, social media, gambling, gaming and more. Interestingly, we have seen some titans of retail – Amazon, PayPal, Mastercard – pin their colours to the flag and declare interest in the technology. It is now firmly in the mainstream.
Certainly 2020 has given rise to a broad feeling that financial infrastructure is not fit for purpose and a small number of proven crypto currencies stand in the wings ready to take a starring role. Indeed, a recent ING International Survey stated that: “25% of Europeans, 21% of Americans and 15% of Australians” intend to own crypto assets in the future.
Many of our group are looking to learn more about the tidal wave of adoption of this new technology. The language of crypto is an improved, better, faster, cheaper, more democratic way of moving value and, indeed, wealth.
In 2017 we saw the first crypto asset boom, resulting in some of the highest percentage returns seen in the history of financial markets. Much of the industry analysis focuses on the forthcoming growth expected in the short term, as more institutional investors come to the table, as some of the world’s largest exchanges and brokerages launch their own exchanges, including The New York Stock Exchange Singapore SE, Fidelity and many others.
The Women Who Crypto group is looking to profit from these gains in what we expect to be another period of hyper-growth before the market matures and levels out.
Crypto does not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, or geography. Crypto will be a dominant force in finance and banking in the relatively near future: anyone with a personal or professional interest will be well placed to educate themselves on the subject and women who want to learn more about the crypto space will never have a better opportunity to join a movement and community that will embrace their involvement with open arms.
