Is Crypto Male-Dominated?

 

Is Crypto Male-Dominated?


A twenty-first-century financial instrument cryptocurrency has a twentieth-century problem: a lack of women. According to CNBC and Acorn's Invest in You the Next Gen Investor poll which was done in association with Momentive; men twice than women invested in bitcoin i.e.,16 per cent of males vs. 7% of women.

Women are lagging behind men in bitcoin investment, as they have in other traditional financial fields. In fact, the gender gap in crypto is more than the gender gaps in exchange-traded funds (14% of men and 7% of women), individual stocks (40% of men and 24% of women), mutual funds (30% of men and 20% of women), real estate (36% of men and 30% of women), and bonds (36% of men and 30% of women) (14 per cent of men and 11 per cent of women).

Momentive, previously SurveyMonkey, conducted a study for CNBC and Acorns from August 4 to 9, 2021, among more than 5,530 adults in the United States, 2,980 of them have investments in financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, or cryptocurrencies.

‘Democratizing’ investing and gender

For decades, gender disparities have plagued the financial services business, but cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ethereum, and dogecoin have been promoted as a way to democratise a previously closed-off field, letting new and more diverse investors into the fold. Only about one in ten Americans (11%) invests in cryptocurrencies, but the business has failed to gain traction among the crucial demographic of women.

That's especially perplexing given bitcoin is, in many other ways, delivering on its promise of levelling the playing field. Crypto is the only financial tool in which young people have high participation rate than the other ones. 15% of people aged 18 to 34 have invested in cryptocurrencies, compared to 11% of those aged between 35 and 64 and 4% of those aged 65 and beyond.

Younger individuals are more bullish and knowledgeable about cryptocurrency

An intriguing fact is that people of all races hold roughly equal cryptocurrency: 11% of whites, 11% of Blacks, 10% of Hispanics, 14% of Asians, and 13% of people of another race have invested in bitcoin. Despite the fact that bitcoin has broken down barriers in investing on the basis of race, it has not to be done on the basis of gender.

Black women suffer the most difficulties when it comes to investing.

Women and people of colour have long been marginalised in personal finance and the financial sector in general. For decades, women could not take out a loan, sign a mortgage, or even own a credit card without a male co-signer. People of colour were also affected by discrimination and institutional barriers to investment.

These acts of discrimination have left an everlasting impression on history books. According to the latest study, Black women are half as likely as Black men to own real estate, one-third as likely as white women, and one-fourth as likely as white men to own real estate.

Similarly, only 51% of Black women, compared to 63 per cent of Black men, 71 per cent of white women, and 78 per cent of white men, say they hold a traditional checking account.

Percentage of people by gender and race who possess various forms of investments - bar chart

At the same time, Black women have the highest rates of educational debt than any other people, 30% of Black women, compared to only 17% of Black men, 16% of white women, and 13% of white men, have student debt.

As a still-evolving sector, cryptocurrency is well-positioned to avoid many of the discriminatory issues that the traditional financial world has instilled through time. Today's would-be investors have more tools at their disposal, such as social media platforms, online training, and targeted marketing, to entice consumers to try new or traditional investment strategies.

Demographics as financial destiny

Black women may feel they are kept out of the investment world if they are not given access to more traditional financial products. Although women of all races are equally likely to state that no one ever taught them how to invest (28 per cent of all women), Black and Hispanic women have invested at lower rates than white women.

Demographics of different investors - bar chart

Whites still make up the bulk of the crypto industry, despite the fact that individuals of colour are investing in cryptocurrency at higher rates than they do in other financial areas. More than half of bitcoin investors (62%) are white, 67 per cent are men, and 66 per cent are under 45 years old.

When compared to persons who invest in mutual funds, for example, who are 80 per cent white, 58 per cent male, and 75 per cent 45 and older, this is a more diversified population.

When gender and ethnicity are factored in, bitcoin resembles some of the more staid financial verticals: only 19 per cent of cryptocurrency investors are white women, and only 4% are Black women. Due to the lack of diversity among bitcoin investors, large sections of the public are missing out on the chance to invest.

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