A new study confirms the crypto industry has a lot of progress to make to bridge the gender gap. It shows that startups conducting ICOs are still markedly male-dominated – over 85 percent of the team members in the surveyed companies are men. The data also suggests women are even less likely to hold executive and advisory positions.
Also read: New Platforms Track Major Stablecoin Markets
Four out of Five Startups Don’t Have a Female Executive
The research conducted by Longhash covers 100 upcoming initial coin offering (ICO) projects listed by ICO Rating, a website that tracks new token sales. The crypto analysis platform has collected data about the overall gender balance of each team, the number of female executives, including founders, as well as the share of women among their advisors.
According to the report, 14.5 percent of the team members are female, with only 7 percent of the executive roles occupied by women. Their number among advisors is just a touch higher – 8 percent. Furthermore, almost four out of five startups (78 percent) don’t have a single female C-level executive and 75 percent don’t have female advisors.
The survey is based on information published on the projects’ websites. The companies have listed a total of 1,062 team members, including 326 founders and senior executives, and 473 advisors. Another key finding is that well over a third of the companies, or 37 percent, have no female employees at all. The authors believe these are telling numbers and also warn they might even be overly optimistic:
In the case of advisors, if you discount two outlying startups that had large advisory boards with more than 25 percent women, the overall percentage of women in advisory roles drops to under 6 percent. And in the case of executives, there was only one startup out of the entire 100 we looked at that had more than one woman in an executive role.
ICOs With Female Advisors Less Likely to Be Managed by a Woman
Researchers at Longhash have also found some interesting correlations. It turns out, for example, that crypto companies with a woman on their advisory board are “slightly less likely” to have a female member of their executive team.
On the other hand, startups that have at least one woman in an executive role appear to be more likely to have a female advisor too. Longhash warns, however, that in both cases the differences as well as the samples are relatively small to draw reliable conclusions.
The authors of the report also note that the tech industry in general remains largely male-dominated. They point to other studies in the field indicating less pronounced but nevertheless evident imbalance. For instance, a study published by Statista on March 8, the International Women’s Day, shows that women made up between 26 and 43 percent of the employed in eight leading tech companies last year. And in 2015, they held 25 percent of the executive roles. Also, according to another study released by software platform Carta in September of this year, less than a third of the employees at small tech startups are women.
Some representatives of the crypto industry have tried to address the issue. Following accusations that its leadership had become an “old boys’ club,” Switzerland’s Crypto Valley Association recently elected two female members to its board. According to a recent report, the upcoming major reshuffle of its management team will not affect their roles.
What is your opinion about the gender imbalance in crypto startups? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Longhash.
Express yourself freely at Bitcoin.com’s user forums. We don’t censor on political grounds. Check forum.Bitcoin.com.
The post Study Finds Less Than 15% of Team Members in ICO Startups Are Women appeared first on BitcoinLinux.
In August, news.Bitcoin.com 
Lawyer Park Ju-hyun, who is in charge of filing this case, explained last week why the government’s ICO measures are unconstitutional, Zdnet Korea reported. He noted that the measures can be subject to a constitutional appeal if a request is filed with the constitutional court.
The lawyer also referenced a recent court case where the court ruled that one of the country’s largest banks, Nonghyup Bank, illegally blocked transactions of cryptocurrency exchange Coinis. He reiterated the importance of “whether there is a legal basis,” noting that the bank’s action was illegal because it was done without a legal basis.
Lawyer Park Ju-hyun, who is in charge of filing this case, explained last week why the government’s ICO measures are unconstitutional, Zdnet Korea reported. He noted that the measures can be subject to a constitutional appeal if a request is filed with the constitutional court.
The lawyer also referenced a recent court case where the court ruled that one of the country’s largest banks, Nonghyup Bank, illegally blocked transactions of cryptocurrency exchange Coinis. He reiterated the importance of “whether there is a legal basis,” noting that the bank’s action was illegal because it was done without a legal basis.
Speaking at Harvard Law School, Peikin described the SEC’s enforcement division as having the “daunting task of ferreting out misconduct and, where appropriate, recommending civil enforcement actions that variously seek injunctions or cease-and-desist orders, penalties, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, suspensions and bars of bad actors, and the temporary suspension or delisting of securities.”
Peikin said that the SEC generally sees two types of securities law violations from token offerings.
Peikin said that in recent years, ICOs have “exploded from a mere concept to a phenomenon.” He added that the global ICO industry has grown “some 22,000 percent” in just two years, comparing the “more than $22 billion” raised by ICOs in 2018 with the “less than $100 million” raised in 2016.
It’s widely agreed that the Ledger Nano S is the best space to store supported cryptocurrency assets. As a hardware wallet, this device is only connected to a device when you’re using it. Otherwise, assets are entirely offline and inaccessible by any hackers or bad actors.
The SEC chairman reiterated that the SEC does not see bitcoin as a security. However, it does view the tokens that are offered in many ICOs as securities. “If you’re going to offer and sell securities, you have to do that in compliance with our laws,” Clayton said.
When asked about the proposed Vaneck bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), Clayton declined to “comment on timing.” However, he asserted that the SEC has been clear about several matters of regulatory concern. Among the issues it has identified are “whether there is reliable price information on trading markets.” The SEC has also looked at concerns about custody, particularly “whether people who hold those assets can count on those assets to be there in the same way you can with other assets that underlie an ETF.”
Hacken, a Ukrainian startup, partnered with social media influencers to promote its initial coin offering earlier this year. Dmytro Budorin, Hacken’s chief executive officer, said the company embarked on an extensive promotional campaign that leveraged social media to reach mainstream investors, after it successfully raised $3 million at the end of 2017.
Larry Cermak, head of analysis at The Block, said he is concerned that sponsored reviews delivered by self-purported cryptocurrency gurus are driving new investors to make poor decisions. “The main reason why so many inexperienced individuals invest in bad crypto projects is because they listen to advice from a so-called expert,” he complained. Many unskilled investors “believe they can take this advice at face value even though it is often fraudulent, intentionally misleading or conflicted.”
Markus Hartmann, another Alethena co-founder, revealed earlier this year that he was contacted by two individuals in May offering to broker five-star ratings on Icobench for $500 each, for which the broker would take a $50 commission. Hartmann negotiated for two five-star reviews in exchange for $800 worth of ETH. The reviews were published within 30 minutes of finalizing the negotiations.