Women in the world of crypto: Facts and figures 

Produced in partnership with Binance

Yes, it’s a stereotype, but when talking crypto, it’s hard not to think of strongly aggressive, wildly overconfident crypto-bro types boasting and throwing around acronyms like a soldier in the middle of a jungle incursion.

That said, last week, the Currency team attended Binance’s third annual Women of Vision conference in Cape Town – and besides coming face to face with a room spilling over with chic, cool women, we took away some truths about this DeFi (decentralised finance) realm.

We thought it would be useful, especially for our female readers, to know that, yes, this world is still dominated by men, but in our neck of the woods this is changing.

Here are some of the numbers:

• Globally, women comprise only 39% of crypto owners.
• Less than 5% of founders at top crypto companies are women. Binance co-founder Yi He is one of them.
• As of 2022, there were 292 female-founded cryptocurrency companies in a pool of 10,000.
• A 2024 study found that women in crypto earn nearly 15% more than their male counterparts on a median salary basis, partly because they have more experience and are more likely to hold mid- to senior-level roles.
• Sub-Saharan Africa makes up a small part of the crypto user universe (about 2% of the global value), but it is growing and, importantly, users in our region are steaming ahead in using crypto practically – to make business payments, as an inflation hedge, and the like.
• More than 20% of crypto startups in the region are co-founded by women.
• Women make up 31% of crypto holders in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Women occupy 24% of tech roles in Southern Africa. According to a 2023 report by OfferZen, only 56,000 women are working in tech out of a total of more than 236,000 jobs.
• Kenyan women lead in cryptocurrency adoption in Africa, with a 2023 study showing they make up 42% of crypto owners in the country. In South Africa, women account for 7.6% of crypto owners, compared to 4.25% in Nigeria.
• In South Africa alone, women make up close to half of Binance users.
• This is a testament to the growing interest and participation of women in crypto and Web3 (which, in case like you’re wondering like we were, is the next version of the internet where users control their own data, using blockchain and decentralised technology to improve security).
• In 2022, Binance Charity donated $2m to fund over 36,000 dedicated Web3 scholarships for women.

Sources: Binance, Triple A Technologies, Pulse, Cointelegraph, Pantera Research Lab, TechAfrica News, Chainalysis, ITWeb, Emurgo Africa, Forex Suggest, OfferZen.

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