Women Buying Crypto On The Rise
Over the last year, some of the top online brokerages and cryptocurrency exchanges have reported seeing a spike in women investing in crypto on their platforms. The Wall Street Journal reported that over the last two years, the number of women crypto traders on eToro in the U.S. has doubled. On investing platform Webull, 21% of the crypto traders on the platform are now women, growth that is only accelerating the company says. In March, Robinhood said the number of women actively trading crypto on their platform had grown seven-fold since 2020, contributing to the significant growth of crypto trading on the platform this year. And of the women actively using Robinhood, 40% are trading crypto.
Twenty-three-year-old entrepreneur and software engineer Araceliz Gomes said that by 18 she knew a good deal about blockchain technology and cryptocurrency and was confident enough in it to make it the first asset class she invested in.
“Because cryptocurrency is decentralized, it kind of eliminates the need for banks — big banks,” Gomes told The Money Manual of what initially piqued her interest in cryptocurrency.
“When we think about not only how much banks have exploited mostly lower-class and middle-class people and also retail investors, in addition to fees that banks charge, it doesn’t really make sense for us to use this strategy to exchange money that’s no longer necessary…There is just a lot of potential for cryptocurrency and the way the world is changing is in alignment with cryptocurrency.”
Gomes says that in the past, she’s invested in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, and Polka Dot, and she saw a 30% return. Because of that she recently divested to buy a real estate property, something she was able to do in part because of her crypto returns.
While Gomes got into crypto — at least initially — because she believed in the technology behind it, other women are diving in hoping to make a profit.
Sierra Boxberger, a 28-year-old New York gaming inspector, has holdings in Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Cardona, Algorand, Acrecoin, and Polygon. She plans to hold on to many of these coins for at least four to five years in the hopes she’ll turn a significant profit.
“All of these have huge growth potential,” Boxberger told The Money Manual. “I feel like it would be foolish to not know that cryptocurrency is a part of our future and there are certain cryptocurrency projects that stand to make a large profit if you’re willing to wait it out until the next bull run, which is potentially in the next three to four years.”
Thirty-two-year-old personal finance coach Raya Reaves, who has invested in Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Dogecoin, takes a bolder approach, trying to profit by day trading crypto — an investing strategy that in and of itself has predominantly been known to be male-dominated.
“I’m interested in cryptocurrency because it trades twenty-four-seven and is extremely volatile,” Reaves shared. “I think crypto can be a great way to day trade or to trade short term to make extra money. I also like that you can trade it whenever you want.”
Reaves says her strategy is to think about crypto as something to invest in “if you have money that can be risked.”
Of course, not all women investors are going all-in when it comes to investing, and many remain skeptical — especially when looking at crypto as a vehicle to build wealth. Schelo Doirin, 28, who is the founder and CEO of the education resource Black Women Invest is one of them. With no lengthy history to analyze, Doirin believes there is no adequate way to predict what will happen with crypto in the future.
“The only reason why Bitcoin and Etherum are going up is because of conversation and hype,” Doirin shared of her take on the crypto craze. “Crypto is supposed to be a currency — a medium of exchange — but it’s not used as that yet.”
Currently, she does invest in cryptocurrencies, but they only make up about 3% of Doirin’s portfolio. She is playing the long game with her investments in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other crypto, holding onto them until they reach the exit price points she has set for them.
“I am very conservative when it comes to investing and while I do believe in the change that crypto can bring…I recognize that it’s very risky,” Doirin said.