The tech industry has been one which has been often accused of being highly skewed in terms of gender diversity in their workforce. Allegations have been made against giants such as Apple and Uber in the past that they don’t have enough women working for them. Cryptocurrencies are another sector where women are underrepresented. Not just in organizations, but even in trading. Reports from Etoro indicate that women account for only 8.5% of cryptocurrency traders.
This report is based on an analysis performed between the March of 2017 to February of 2018. Etoro, which is a social investment network as well as a multi-asset brokerage firm has conducted this survey to understand their customers in a better manner. The demographic details are rather surprising.
Traders By Gender
The Males:Females ratio is quite skewed when it comes to cryptocurrency traders and it is safe to say that cryptocurrency trading is a massively male-dominated industry. While there are many eminent women in cryptocurrencies such as Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas, the number is quite limited.
However, this has been something which does not come as a surprise because cryptocurrency trade comes at an intersection of Finance and Technology, both of which are industries when women are underrepresented.
Another interesting aspect of this report shows how each gender invests in currencies. While there is no imbalance in investing in Bitcoins, reports point at the fact that women are stronger supporters of Ripple and NEO as compared to men while men tend to invest more than women in Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.
Traders By Experience
The survey indicates that close to 82% of the traders are at a ‘novice’ level, about 11% have an intermediary experience while the remaining 7% are advanced traders. This is perhaps one of the biggest reasons why FUD (panic selling due to Fear, Uncertainty or Doubt) is more common in the crypto markets than in the stock markets.
Considering that cryptocurrencies have been around for less than a decade - and 2017 was the year when awareness spiked, it would be no surprise to see the number rise even higher if this poll is conducted for 2018-19 as newer investors keep joining by the thousands every day across the world.
Traders by Profession
About 30% of cryptocurrency traders are not employed. 14% of cryptocurrency traders students, 2% of the traders are retired, and 15% traders are unemployed. Members of the IT industry form the biggest chunk of employed professionals - with a 15% share. This is closely followed by those involved in sales and marketing, as they constitute for 14.5% of all crypto traders.
What is perhaps the most surprising part about this is that there are more traders from the sales and marketing sector than from the world of finance. About 8.5% of crypto-traders are involved in the finance sector.
Surveys that reveal statistics like these are quite important and they need to be conducted from time to time to understand the shift in the demographic distribution of audiences. While it is impossible to get an exact reading based on every crypto-trader in the world, sample surveys do give an insight into smaller trends which can be combined to understand the larger picture.