Different industries open up to inclusion in their own time – which is often too late. The progress of female finance is usually measured by the number of women in C-level positions while the management levels below are often disregarded. Nevertheless, patience and an insistent interaction with lawmakers is starting to pay off for women in business. The number of female role models in the world of finance is increasing, as is the number of investment vehicles managed by women. And while the fintech subsector remains dominated by men – male venture capitalists invest in male-lead startups, whose leaders often form connections in college and encourage other young men to enter the fintech sphere – women have made their voices heard in the world of crypto.

Forming digital connections in a sector characterized by its basis in open source, women have reached partner positions in venture capital firms focused on crypto or started their own funds. Others hold leading positions at crypto investment firms or exchanges. One of these trailblazers is Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas, who managed the billion dollar stock market launch of her company. Several other successful women in the world of crypto have not really made it to the public eye as of now. Here‘s introducing three of them.

One of the most influential voices in the industry, Meltem Demirors, graduated from the prestigious MIT Sloan School of Management with an MBA, going on to work in the treasury management division of a multinational oil company. Having developed an interest in Bitcoin during her studies, she eventually joined crypto giant Digital Currency Group as vice president of development, building a portfolio that generated high returns. In 2017, she became Chief Strategy Officer at Coinshares, an investment management company focused on digital currencies.

At Coinshares Demirors is working in an environment that allows her to contribute her profound expertise and fiery temper. The latter is a characteristic she often exudes during her appearances as a pundit on CNBC, Bloomberg TV and other networks as well as during business conferences. Endowed with a quick wit Demirors is always good for a laugh. Her Twitter bio („I like sci-fi books, #bitcoin, and talking with my hands“) underlines the positive energy that along with her natural authority makes her successful in capturing an audience‘s attention and motivate her co-workers.

Demirors is best known as an advocate for Bitcoin and aims to fight prejudices regarding the leading crypto currency, disputing statements that focus on its energy consumption. Her own investment vehicle Athena Capital allocates equity of companies like Compass Mining, which is also part of the Coinshares portfolio. Demirors communicates her investment decisions transparently and even discusses them on Twitter, allowing users and other investors to learn from her insights.

In a blogpost published in April 2015, she reflected on her roots and life‘s journey thus far. Her parents come from a village without access to electricity or running water, located within a valley in the Taurus Mountains in southern Turkey. Her father studied abroad in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and her mother, who holds a degree in accounting, followed him there. In 1984, their first child and Meltems older brother was born. After Meltem‘s birth almost three years later the family first moved to the Netherlands before migrating to the US and settling in a small town in Michigan. Meltems mother always encouraged her to aim high. She followed her mothers lead when she went to Houston to study financial mathematics. After her graduation she started her career at consulting giant Deloitte before she began to work on innovative ideas with the potential to revolutionize the financial industry.

The currently most important leading woman in the crypto industry may be Elizabeth Stark. The co-founder and CEO of Lightning Labs hails from the New York borough of Brooklyn and follows the vision of making Bitcoin‘s payment function scalable. The Lightning Network enables blazingly fast micro payments. Market experts believe its growth potential has recently been enhanced when Twitter introduced a new feature that allows the social media platform‘s users to tip their favorite content creators in Bitcoin. The tipping process is based on a payment service within the Lightning Network.

Lightning-founder Stark has positioned herself as a pioneer and architect of an open and free information structure within the past five years. Speaking at the Blockstack Summit in 2017 she made the claim that Bitcoin and Web 3.0 offered an „opportunity to re-decentralize the internet“. Her remarks were directed at online giants who were able to establish total control over access to their platforms uninhibited by antitrust legislation in the US.

Blockchains and Distributed Ledger Technologies offer a solution to the problem of monopolization as they enable users to own their data again and to send and receive digital money on a peer-to-peer basis. Stark discovered her passion for free information networks during her studies at Harvard Law School where she contributed to the „Journal of Law & Technology“ and founded the „Harvard Free Culture Group“. Like many of her peers in the Bitcoin sphere, she is highly committed to her cause and believes that Bitcoin and Blockchain will be as ubiquitous as an e-mail. Yet, she always remains calm and suave in her explanations, setting herself apart from toxic Bitcoin maximalists.

Stark who once lived in Berlin and speaks German addresses a wide range of topics in her speeches stretching from intellectual property and electronic music to open software protocols. Recently, a software entrepreneur from the US recounted how he once traveled thousands of miles to witness one of Stark‘s presentations in a gloomy seminar room.

Elizabeth Stark, Meltem Demirors and other women like investment expert Lyn Alden are united by their drive for autonomy. While they are actively shaping the financial system a very young lady is bringing attention to crypto on social media: Three-year-old Lily Knight and her Bitcoin videos have found a large audience on Twitter – with a little help by mom and dad. Lily uses candy to demonstrate how the leading crypto currency works. Her and her friends Teddy, Unicorn and Dolly each hold little bags filled with Skittles. „This is my wallet,“ Lily proclaims. Skittle by Skittle, transactions are directed to Lily‘s wallet and registered on a toy „blockchain“ with help by her mother, with the transaction from Teddy‘s wallet causing the most excitement. Lily‘s closing argument: „I love Bitcoin...and Skittles.“

Several business personalities like MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor have been guests on „Lily‘s Show“. The show‘s star travels around the world with mom and dad, currently residing in Spain. Lily‘s parents have opened a crypto wallet for their daughter; according to her Twitter bio, Lily is a „hodler since birth“. The term „hodl“ is a hallmark of the conviction that Bitcoin is not a speculative short-term asset, but something to hold on to and expand on. Lily knows terms like „hodl“ and “sats“ (short for the smallest Bitcoin unit „Satoshis“) because her parents started with a little bit of financial education early in her life. Still, the audience is not under the impression that any pressure is put on the young Bitcoin enthusiast – Lily is just learning to understand the concepts of ownership and the creation of value at a very young age.

Nobody knows which path in life Lily is going to pursue, but her fans believe that she‘s equipped to lead a self-determined life – as are many other young women who, one day, might follow in Elizabeth Stark‘s and Meltem Demirors‘ footsteps.