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Top Female Leaders in the Crypto Industry

Mar 7, 2024 6 min read

In 2023, the share of women in global C-suite roles in finance was just 18.4%, and in blockchain and crypto, women hold only 6% of CEO roles, and only 24% of leadership roles beyond CEO.

Even though crypto and blockchain are considered typical “men’s” sectors, however, you will be surprised to learn that there are many women who have impacted the development of these industries and continue playing key roles in the development and fostering of the mass adoption of crypto and blockchain.

Here is the list of the top ladies in the crypto and blockchain industries.

Elizabeth Stark, Co-founder of Lightning Labs

Elizabeth Stark is one of the most prominent figures in the world of blockchain and crypto. She is the co-founder and CEO of Lightning Labs, a Layer-2 solution on top of the Bitcoin blockchain.

Elizabeth’s journey in the world of technology and blockchain began with her education. She has a J.D. degree from Harward Law School, and she used to teach at Stanford and Yale.

Elizabeth Stark launched Lightning Labs, better known as Lightning Network in 2016 to solve the scalability issue of the Bitcoin blockchain and speed up the mass adoption of Bitcoin and crypto.

She is also a fellow at Coin Center, one of the leading digital currency policy organizations, and an advisor at Chia, a crypto project that is working on building a blockchain ecosystem by utilizing the proof of space and time consensus mechanism.

She is very active and constantly gives speeches around the world about law, technology, and culture, and has collaborated with a plethora of organizations promoting decentralized technology. Her work and contribution are not only technical but involve educating people and building communities around new promising projects and technologies.

Olayinka Odeniran, Founder and Chairwoman of Blackwomen Blockchain Council (BWBC)

Olayinka Odeniran is a founder and a chairwoman of Blackwomen Blockchain Council where she takes care of education and strategic framework and ensures that the organization provides a space where black women can receive all the required support, including economic, to pursue professional and entrepreneurial careers in blockchain and fintech.

After graduating from Boston University, Olayinka got her M.Sc. in Cybersecurity Management and Policy from UMC. Since then, she has been helping financial firms to navigate through regulations and manage their cyber security matters. In 2019, Olayinka started her cybersecurity firm CybSecWatch which provides compliance and educational tools as well as cybersecurity consulting services to major players in the financial industry.

When blockchain started gaining fraction, Olayinka immediately noticed the potential that this technology has, however, she also noticed that, even though there were enough women in the industry, they didn’t get the needed attention. Just the same few women used to participate in most industry conferences, needless to mention that there were no black women among them.

This was one of the main reasons why Olayinka Odeniran created the first International Women of Blockchain conference with just 16 women in 2021.

In 2022, more than 100 women participated in the conference, and in 2023, the conference turned into a three-day event.

Olayinka aims to eliminate human-constructed barriers based on race, gender, and class, and open new opportunities to everyone who is willing to learn.

Aya Miyaguchi, Executive Director at the Ethereum Foundation

Aya Miyaguchi, a former high school teacher in Japan, heard about Bitcoin in 2011 after she had moved to the USA to go to a graduate school. In 2013, she got an opportunity to join Kraken where she managed the exchange’s operations in Japan. Soon after that, Aya became a managing director of Kraken.

In 2018, she joined the Ethereum Foundation to coordinate and organize things internally, as well as organizing events for community, educational events, and similar. She also supports projects in the ecosystem including core Ethereum protocol research and development.

Sandra Ro, CEO of the Global Blockchain Business Council

Sandra Ro is the CEO of the Global Blockchain Business Council where she takes care of fostering the education and building enterprises, governments, and startups to realize the potential of blockchain technology in solving real-world problems and helping society.

She was named to the Innovate Finance, Women in Fintech 2016, and is a director and founding member of several industry boards, and is an advisor and investor in emerging tech startups across blockchain, robotics, IoT, VR/AR, and digital assets.

Sandra Ro is a co-founder of UWINCorp: Unleashing Wealth in Nations that focuses on using blockchain technologies in Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Earlier, she worked at CME Group where she founded Digitisation, developed CME CF Bitcoin pricing indices that were followed by CME Bitcoin futures.

She was a founding member of Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, Post Trade Distributed Ledger Group, Linux Foundation, Hyperledger, and GBBC Board.

Meltem Demirors, Chief Strategy Officer at CoinShares

Meltem Demirors joined the crypto industry in 2015, and since then, she has been building investing firms to support and advise promising projects at their early stages.

Meltem Demirors is a Chief Strategy Officer at CoinShares, a London- and New York-based firm that focuses on digital currencies and other alternative assets.

CoinShares manages over $7 bln in assets across ETPs, venture funds, and index funds. The company builds investment products and offers financial services to provide its clients with a secure and easy way to participate in the growing market.

Demirors takes care of the company’s corporate strategy, investment portfolio, and growth.

Meltem teaches at Oxford and MIT, and is co-chair of the WEF Cryptocurrency Council.

Caitlin Long, CEO and Founder of Custodia Bank

Caitlin Long is among the most popular personalities in the crypto industry thanks to her contribution in speeding up the crypto adoption and her work to bridge the world of digital assets with TradFi.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political economy from the University of Wyoming, she obtained a Master of Public Policy from Harward Kennedy school of Government, and a Juris Doctor from Harward Law School.

Caitlin was a managing director for Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley, and after that, she switched to blockchain. She was chairman of the board and president of Symbiont.io, a smart contract platform.

In 2020, she founded Custodia Bank and became its CEO.

Custodia Bank is a payment system provider and a custodian for cryptocurrencies that require KYC, fully comply with AML requirements, and all related regulations.

Yi He, Co-Founder and Chief Customer Service Officer of Binance

Yi He has been in the crypto industry almost since its launch when in 2014, just five years after Bitcoin was launched, she co-founded OkCoin, one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges. She was friends with some of the earliest investors in the crypto industr, and they encouraged her to use her media skills to promote the new technology. When she started doing so, she understood that she had the potential to do something more than just promoting a new industry.

She met CZ at a conference where he was giving a speech about blockchain, and she felt that he was the guy who could have the skills to explain the complex blockchain technology in an easy way. So, whe brought CZ to OkCoin, but soon after, they both left the startup. And soon after that, CZ invited Yi He to join Binance in 2017. Yi He offered her services for free because she felt that the future of this company os great, and indeed, within just 5 years from launch, Binance turned into a giant with over 5,000 employees and more than 90 mln users.

The role of Yi He at Binance was to cover customer service, marketing and PR. Now, Yi He leads the business, investment, marketing and branding strategy of the company and is the Head of Binance Labs. Yi He, even though she doesn’t like being in the limelight, is among female leaders in the crypto industry.