Framing the Issue: Despite decades of progress, a stubborn gender gap persists in global finance. Women hold only about 28.8% of senior management roles worldwide, and in many regions they remain disproportionately unbanked. In fact, an estimated 740 million women globally are still unbanked excluded from basic financial services. This legacy of exclusion has real costs: the UN estimates women’s digital exclusion could cost low-and-middle-income countries $1.5 trillion in GDP by 2025. Crypto emerged with ideals of democratizing finance, so could it help close this gender gap? On one hand, the crypto sector today mirrors traditional finance’s imbalance women make up only ~22% of blockchain leadership teams and just 6% of crypto company CEOs are women.
In this deep dive, we explore how the crypto revolution is intersecting with women’s empowerment: from hard data on representation and adoption, to profiles of leading women, to the cultural shifts and initiatives aiming to make Web3 more inclusive.
Female Representation in Finance vs. Crypto: Women remain underrepresented at the top of financial services. In banking, for example, only about 7.5% of U.S. bank CEOs are female, and globally women still hold under one-third of senior positions. The crypto industry, despite its progressive ethos, has historically been even more skewed. There are signs of improvement as the sector matures. Surveys indicate that roughly one-third of current crypto owners are female, a share that has risen sharply from just ~15% a few years ago. In the U.K., a broader definition including past investors put women at 41.6% of crypto users. And encouragingly, almost 47% of those planning to buy crypto in the next year are women, suggesting the gender gap in adoption could continue narrowing.
Still, leadership remains lopsided: women occupy only about 26% of leadership roles in blockchain companies, and male founders receive the vast majority of venture funding. The World Economic Forum’s 2025 Gender Gap report warns that while women make up 41% of the workforce, they hold under 29% of senior roles, a participation drop that imperils equality. In crypto’s case, true parity in decision-making is still distant but the data shows women steadily gaining ground as investors, users, and leaders in the space.
Source : https://cointelegraph.com/news/women-in-crypto-an-overview
Before examining crypto's promise, it's important to understand the status quo it seeks to disrupt. Traditional banking and finance have long been challenging for women to navigate. In many countries, women historically needed male co-signers to open accounts or secure loans; while such legal barriers have fallen in most places, cultural and systemic biases persist.
Women entrepreneurs still struggle to access capital in 2020, startups founded solely by females received only 2.3% of venture funding.
Male-founded teams raised on average nearly 4x more than female teams ($29.2M vs $7.8M), a gap partly attributed to the fact that only 15% of VC check-writers are women. Mainstream financial institutions also have blind spots in serving women customers. Globally, women are 13% less likely than men to have a bank account in lower-income countries (a gap that has narrowed but not closed). Over 55% of unbanked adults are women, often due to lower income, lack of collateral, or restrictive norms.
Image source : Cryptoninjas
Who are the women leading and shaping the crypto industry today? Below we highlight 10 of the most influential women in crypto (as of 2025), spanning founders, technologists, investors, and policymakers. Each is making a distinct impact on the Web3 ecosystem:
Elizabeth Stark (CEO, Lightning Labs):
A pioneer in scaling Bitcoin, her work on the Lightning Network is critical for making everyday BTC payments feasible.
Caitlin Long (CEO, Custodia Bank):
A Wall Street veteran marrying crypto with regulated banking through one of the first digital asset-focused banks in the US.
Sheila Warren (CEO, Crypto Council for Innovation):
Formerly of the WEF, she now leads the global advocacy for responsible regulation and diversity.
Meltem Demirors (CSO, CoinShares):
A titan of strategy who helped institutionalize digital assets by persuading Wall Street of their vital role.
Hester Peirce (SEC Commissioner):
Known as "Crypto Mom," she is a vocal advocate for a "Safe Harbor" for token projects to allow innovation to flourish.
Elizabeth Rossiello (CEO, AZA Finance):
A trailblazer in African fintech who realized Bitcoin could revolutionize cross-border payments in Kenya and beyond.
Yi He (Co-founder & Co-CEO, Binance):
Regarded as one of the most influential women in the industry, she was the primary architect of the world's largest exchange's global growth.
Katie Haun (Founder, Haun Ventures):
After co-leading a16z’s $3B crypto fund, she raised $1.5B for her own Web3-focused firm, one of the largest debut raises ever.
Camila Russo (Founder, The Defiant):
A journalist who authored "The Infinite Machine" and now runs the leading media platform for DeFi.
Gloria Zhao (Bitcoin Core Maintainer):
In 2022, she became the first woman maintainer of Bitcoin Core, holding the elite power to commit access to Bitcoin's code.
One of the most striking trends in recent years is how women in emerging economies are embracing crypto. In several developing countries, female participation in crypto is approaching parity with men far above the global average.
A 2023 analysis ranked Vietnam as the leader, with 47% of crypto owners being women. Not far behind are countries like Indonesia (43% female), Kenya (42%), Colombia (42%), India (40%), and Brazil (40%), all of which vastly exceed the female share seen in the U.S. or Europe (often 20–30%). This pattern suggests that women in emerging markets are leveraging crypto as an alternative route to financial access and opportunity.
Image Source: CoinLaw
Crypto careers often offer a flexibility and meritocracy that traditional industries lack. Studies find an overwhelming majority of women highly value flexible work options (one survey reported 90% of women prefer remote or hybrid work in tech roles). The decentralized crypto workforce is inherently global and online, allowing women to collaborate without relocating or conforming to a rigid 9-to-5 office mold.
As the industry evolves, women are carving out roles across the spectrum of crypto from technical to creative to compliance. Some areas, in fact, have seen especially strong female participation and impact:
Of course, women are also founders, CEOs, investors, and engineers in crypto excelling not because of gender but on equal footing.
But highlighting these particular domains shows how injecting more women's perspectives has tangible benefit
Specific women-led projects are demonstrating the diverse power of Web3.
World of Women (WoW):
An NFT collection that generated over $400 million in trading volume while bringing diverse female representation to the digital art space.
Komorebi Collective:
A DAO specifically formed to fund female and non-binary crypto founders, backed by major VCs.
SheFi:
A grassroots education program that has empowered nearly 10,000 women globally to master DeFi concepts like staking and liquidity providing.
The state of women in crypto in 2025 is one of "optimistic urgency". While women have gone from virtually invisible to indispensable in just one decade, true equality in influence is the goal for the next. Achieving this requires intentional effort from all stakeholders to elevate female colleagues and embrace diversity. As the chapters of the Web3 era are written, it is clear that the future of finance will be built by women as much as by men, and the entire industry will be more robust for it.
Disclamer: This content is purely educational. While we highlight specific leaders and projects like World of Women or SheFi to illustrate industry trends, these mentions are not sponsored endorsements. Blockchain technology and the regulatory landscape are rapidly evolving; please ensure you are aware of the latest local laws before participating in DeFi or NFT markets.
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