It is Women's History Month. Is crypto enough for Women of Color?

It is Women's History Month. Is crypto enough for Women of Color?

While the international woman is in full swing, founders praise the progress in the direction of inclusion in cryptocurrency - but say that the industry still has a long way to go when it comes to black women and other minorities.

The statistics are shattering. Only 69 of the 1,229 crypto companies based in the USA have one or more founders, pro . Only 29 % of the NFT artists are women, according to Limna, a company for artificial intelligence. Data from the Kapor Center and Digital undivided show that women of colored greenery make up 4 % of tech startups.

There are outliers, including blockfi and Bakkt, both of whom were partly founded by women. Everyone has collected over half a billion dollars.

"Web3 will thrive when it is designed for diversity," said Maya Miller, Chief People Officer at Blockchain.com. "Industry that are represented with different ways of thinking, experiences, ethnic affiliations and genders reflect their ecosystems and users most precisely."

But the booming business with digital collector's pieces was not always built up with regard to diversity, say industry participants.

Yinkore, an Nigeria-based NFT artist (non-fungable token), said Blockworks, to which they "count" the names of black women who are moved into the spotlight "in crypto.

"It was [International Women’s Day] yesterday, and there were several panels and exhibitions for women, yes," said Yinkore. "But most of them only showed white women."

Although numerous web3 startups claim to support women, according to the NFT artist Oghenetega Akpomedaye, it is mostly white.

"The change this year was significant because many women were supported, but I would say that black women, queer women and non-binary people are still down in the room," Akpomedaye told Blockworks. "We [have] it remains to be seen how much has changed in the community. But based on what I saw yesterday, I would say that they still have a long way to support more black women [this] space. Hopefully it will be better in the future."

The number of all startups founded by black women-not only crypto companies-increased by 2.5 times, according to the latest available data from 2016 to 2018. And the funds collected by black founders rose from 2016 to 2017 from $ 50 million to almost $ 250 million.

• OpenSea was the host of a NFT Auction Tuesday. The funds go to Girls in Tech, which describes itself as a "non -profit organization with a focus on the training and training of the next generation of female executives".

• The Sandbox, a Metaverse game, will send the World of Women Foundation $ 25 million in the next five years. The foundation was founded in cooperation with World of Women-the creators of the NFT collection WOW.

The initiative "Signals [The] intention to invest in the design of a diverse and integrative space for women in the long term, says a statement by The Sandbox co-founder Sebastien Borge.

• Worldwide Asset Exchange (Wax) celebrated the month with a number of Twitter spaces with women in Web3. The startup announced a group of women who focused on blockchain and will stop virtual meetings all year round.

• Unstoppable domains, a provider of blockchain domain, said that all year round he will donate free domains worth $ 10 million to the participants of the event for international women's day. The company works with 65 organizations, including Google Cloud and Deloitte.

Jassy Jackson, Vice President of Operations at NFT Blockchain Wax, said that many diversity initiatives “lose a trip or adapt to the needs of the industry”, but “this does not only apply exclusively to the blockchain or crypto range”.

"This is an ongoing conversation that has to be conducted in all industries," said Jackson. "It is an initiative that gives women the opportunity to express, create and be authentic about how they perceive, treat and, which is even more important, integrated into companies dominated by men."

However, the participation seems to be gaining constantly. Coinmarketcap Data indicated that the number of female crypto investors from 2019 to 2020 has increased by 43.24 %.

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The contribution is month in women's history. Is crypto enough for Women of Color? is not a financial advice.