Women’s Day: Nine crypto entrepreneurs climbing the ladder of success

Highlights

• March 8 is celebrated each year as International Women’s Day.
• This year’s theme is: “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”.
• Women’s participation in the crypto space is low, but they are curious to know more.

International Women's Day has been celebrated on March 8 every year since 1977. This year's theme is: "Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow." We discuss nine women entrepreneurs who made it big in the crypto space on this momentous occasion. 

According to a recent study conducted by the cryptocurrency exchange BlockFi, 92% of the surveyed women heard about cryptos, and around a quarter of them already own assets. 

The study was organized to understand the changing attitudes towards cryptocurrency. More and more women, it said, are showing interest in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. 

The study found that one-third of the participants intended to purchase cryptocurrency this year, and 60% said they would buy crypto in the next three months. The survey, cited by cointelegraph.com, noted that more women are buying Bitcoin, Dogecoin and Ether.

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Despite challenges, digital currencies are gradually becoming mainstream. Today, crypto wallets, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), metaverse, play-to-earned games, etc., are the buzzword.

The crypto market is currently highly volatile. The absence of regulations, adequate mass awareness about the industry in the public domain, and the risk of hacking and other cyberattacks continue to pose a significant challenge in its fully becoming mainstream.  

Still, this disruptive crypto technology is growing leaps and bounds, and so is the public interest. The following are nine women founders of crypto enterprises that are making news.   

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Flori Marquez

Along with Zac Prince, Flori Marquez co-founded the crypto exchange BlockFi in 2017. BlockFi provides credit services and simple financial products to clients. Before founding BlockFi, she worked as a portfolio manager with Bond Street and as an analyst with Oak Hill Advisors. 

Yi He 

Yi He co-founded the world’s leading crypto exchange, Binance. She is also the company’s chief marketing officer. Before founding Binance, she worked as an anchor for the China Travel TV channel and co-founded the Chinese Crypto-to-Fiat currency exchange OKCoin in 2014.   

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Maria Pennanen

Maria Pennanen is the founder of Mindclip Behaviour, a mobile-first tool that enables companies to understand their teams' behavior to boost performance. Pennanen has 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship and has advised many startups in her professional journey. Before MindClip, she has served as CEO of crypto startup Santiment. She was elected as one of the EU’s top influential women in startups and VCs in 2019, 2020, and 2021. 

Perianne Boring

Perianne is the founder and president of the trade association representing the blockchain industry, Chamber of Digital Commerce. The association’s mission is to promote digital assets and blockchain technology.

 She has been named one of ‘America’s top 50 Women in Tech’ by Forbes. Before her role in the association, she was a TV anchor for an international finance program aired in over 100 countries. She started her career as a legislative analyst in the US House of representatives.

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Elizabeth Rossiello

Elizabeth Rossiello is the founder and CEO of AZA, a currency trading solutions provider. AZA aims to accelerate global access to frontier markets through innovative infrastructure. It is a market maker in major African currencies and facilitates payments in G20 currencies. She is also a board member of the C41R Global Network Advisory Board and co-chair of WEF global fourth industrial revolution Council on Blockchain.

Elizabeth Stark

Elizabeth Stark is the co-founder and CEO of Lightning Labs. In 2016, she founded the company to develop a layer-two internet solution for fast, scalable bitcoin transactions. Stark is also an educator and has taught computer science at Yale and Stanford University. She was also a visiting fellow at Yale's Information Society Project and has advised startups in decentralized technology and AI.  

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Galia Benartzi

Galia Benartzi is a technology entrepreneur who co-founded the cryptocurrency protocol called Bancor. The protocol creates Smart Tokens with built-in convertibility directly through the smart contracts. She was also the co-founder and CEO of Particle Code Inc, a cross-platform development environment to write and deploy mobile applications across mobile devices and web platforms. In 2011, Appcelerator acquired the Particle Code Inc.

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Kathleen Breitman

Kathleen Breitman is the co-founder of Tezos, a blockchain-based smart contract platform. The platform has an on-chain governance mechanism to push and coordinate its network. Kathleen has previously worked with Accenture, Bridgewater Associates, and De Dicto. 

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Preethi Kasireddy

Preethi Kasireddy is the founder and CEO of TruStory, a social network enabling debating platform. Before founding TruStory, she worked as a software engineer at Coinbase, an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs, and a blockchain and smart contract engineer at Ethereum Network. She is an active member in her own right in the crypto space.

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Finally, according to the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, more women than men in the US are interested in getting into the cryptocurrency trade. 

Still, women's participation in the industry remains low at around 1/4th in the US.