Women Prove They Belong in the Crypto World
Long gone are the days when women played a back-seat role on Wall-Street, or in investments as a whole. Since 2009, the birth of Bitcoin has made financial investment more accessible, not just for the few, but for all. Women, as much as men, are curious to understand crypto and are ready to invest.
Traditional Finance
In our traditional system, there are countless challenges alongside levelling the investment playing field and achieving financial freedom. In 2020, the national gender pay gap in the United States was roughly 18%, with not a single US state paying females higher than males (on average). This resulted in increased difficulties for women attempting to build their 401k’s and plan for retirement in a way as effectively as men could. Due to the large disparities in active income, more women are looking for ways to invest in forms of passive income…cue cryptocurrencies.
How Crypto Supports Females
Decentralised finance allows for transactions to occur without passing through a third-party intermediary, granting individuals complete control and freedom over their own assets. This not only increases efficiency and affordability but provides a sense of security that is often overshadowed when interacting with third-party sources. Gemini conducted a survey that found among those planning to invest in crypto, 40% are women. Additionally, 39% of millennial women would be more interested in crypto if they knew it could make finance more accessible. Proving the intense need for women to feel empowered by their financial options and decisions.
Women in Crypto
Stats published by eToro showed only 15% of Bitcoin investors were women, however, this number had increased from 10% in 2020. Though only a small increase, this does show more women are becoming investors and this could be in part to the influence of women like Elizabeth Stark, and Katie Haun.
Elizabeth Stark redefined the cryptocurrency marketplace for women. This double-ivy league graduate co-founded the company Lightning Labs in 2016, a “second layer” protocol that helps run the blockchain more efficiently. One of Stark’s famous quotes is “Welcome to Bitcoin, you can’t tell people what to do.”
When speaking to Karen Hao of Quartz, Stark said “The perception that there are no women in bitcoin discourages women from getting involved.”
Katie Haun, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz was introduced to Bitcoin in the currency’s early days, utilising blockchain’s capabilities to investigate criminal activity. Haun was interviewed by Grace Hong from Business Today, where she was asked about how she got involved in crypto: “I was looking for something different, away from violent and organised crime, so my chief asked me to work on Bitcoin. I quickly realised it wasn’t something that could be prosecuted—that would be akin to saying ‘Let’s prosecute the internet’ or ‘Let’s prosecute cash.’ It’s not possible nor desirable. Instead, I set about looking at some of the cases that involved nefarious uses of cryptocurrencies.”
Haun then went on to tell Hong about the crypto task force she created in the Department of Justice, “I realised there’s a real need for bridges to be built between the crypto ecosystem on one hand, and the government, policymakers, and regulators, on the other hand. We discussed it within the Justice Department and decided we would create a task force in San Francisco.
“One purpose of the task force was to bring and investigate cases involving criminal uses of cryptocurrency. Another very important purpose was to help educate and facilitate understanding on all ends: government regulators, technologists, developers, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders in the crypto ecosystem. There was a liaison function and mutual cooperation.
“A third purpose was having a point of contact—a lot of times, the government’s first line of defence against the criminals in the community would be the people at crypto companies, and naturally, crypto companies also wanted a point of contact to go to. And finally, the task force was the training ground to keep prosecutors and other government agents up to speed with developments in the sector.”
Flashforward a decade and Haun is serving as an independent director on the board for the billion-dollar company, Coinbase. Her crypto advice reads, “Don’t let yourself think ‘Oh, it’s too complex, I don’t want to go dive deep in it.’ You don’t need to dive deep into it, just go learn something about it that you didn’t know.” Haun encourages all individuals to be patient with the crypto space as it is ever-changing and evolving. Having seen the success that Haun has had, it is likely many more women will be inspired to get involved in crypto.
Coinbase competitor Blockchain.com raises $300 million in crypto funding frenzy
Just one month removed from a $120 million dollar financing round, London-based cryptocurrency giant Blockchain.com announced Wednesday it raised another $300 million to reach a $5.2 billion post-money valuation.
The Series C funding round comes as the 10-year-old crypto company reported hitting 31 million verified users across 200 countries. Blockchain.com CEO Peter Smith said the company has been able to raise $1.5 billion since its founding as institutional interest continues to swell with bitcoin holding above $50,000.
“In the last 12 months, between debt and equity, we’ve raised over $1.5 billion,” he told Yahoo Finance Live. “I think that’s really driven by the fact that experienced and sophisticated investors are seeing for the first time not just consumers in the crypto market, but institutions as well. And when they see a business like ours that’s profitable on both the consumer basis as well as on the institutional basis as well as profitable overall they want to be a part of that growth story.”
The company, which originally launched as a block explorer for users to view public transactions, now offers other services beyond its popular open-source wallet for customers to trade and store cryptocurrencies. The company has grown to add financial services like credit and structured products. Smith highlighted that part of the business focused on offerings for institutional investors as an area of personal focus.
Blockchain Co-Founder & CEO Peter Smith speaks during the Web Summit 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal on November 6, 2018. (Photo by Pedro Fiúza/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“I’m spending a lot of time with clients trying to figure out what they are going to need over the next two or three years to become long-term, active participants in the crypto market,” he said.
Blockchain.com now has another $300 million to work with to build out those offerings, but that new capital hasn’t caused Smith to rule out an expedited route to follow competitor Coinbase to the public market.
“We haven’t needed to raise capital in quite a while because the business is very profitable, but we continue to be very active about thinking about the best way to position the company for long-term success,” Smith said. “And that may involve going public soon.”
Story continues
Blockchain.com’s funding round follows other recent large deals in the crypto space, including the $350 million crypto digital exchange and banking platform BlockFi was able to raise earlier this year in its Series D.
Zack Guzman is an anchor for Yahoo Finance Live as well as a senior writer covering entrepreneurship, cannabis, cryptocurrency, and breaking news at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @zGuz.
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit.
Find live stock market quotes and the latest business and finance news
For tutorials and information on investing and trading stocks, check out Cashay
Crypto Exchange Coinsquare Ordered to Hand Thousands of Customers’ Records to Canadian Tax Agency
Canada’s tax authority, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has prevailed in a court battle for access to a trove of high-value customer data held by cryptocurrency exchange Coinsquare. And the CRA seems to be coming for more.
Under a federal judge’s March 19 order, Coinsquare must hand over detailed information on its Canadian customers, their crypto trading activity and identifying information to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
Coinsquare told CoinDesk that it will disclose information on an estimated 5% to 10% of its 400,000 customers to the CRA, which had originally sought to secure the lot. Court documents indicate only high value accounts will be caught in the sweep.
Related: IBM Ventures Further Into Crypto Custody With METACO, Deutsche Bank Tie-Ups
The first of its kind ruling hands CRA a win just seven months after it began pursuing Coinsquare’s customer data in court. CRA argued it needed the data to check if taxpayers were meeting their crypto reporting burdens and the federal court agreed.
Today, CoinDesk also learned that the tax authority is “currently in the process of serving” Coinsquare with a further request for customer information by means of an “Unnamed Persons Requirement” (UPR). According to a spokeswoman for the CRA, the agency needs Coinsquare’s customer information to verify compliance with Canada’s Income Tax Act (ITA) and Excise Tax Act (ETA).
Coinsquare will have 15 days to comply with the order once it is received.
Echoes of Coinbase vs the IRS
Five years ago, the Internal Revenue Service, CRA’s southern peer, launched a similar effort against Coinbase, using a parallel argument for access. Though Coinbase at first lambasted the IRS’ “fishing expedition” it ultimately acceded to a judge’s order, handing over records on some 13,000 customers.
Related: Goldman Files to Offer Notes Linked to an ARK ETF That May Have Bitcoin Exposure
Story continues
At the time, Coinbase called the outcome a “partial victory” because it said it had pared down the scope of the IRS’ demands to include only accounts trading more than $20,000.
Coinsquare echoed that sentiment on Tuesday as it touted the pared-down order secured through negotiations with CRA as a win.
Coinsquare’s final bargain will compel the crypto exchange to hand over at year’s end exhaustive data on accounts that held $20,000 CAD in crypto from 2014-2020 or cumulatively in their history, as well as the 16,500 largest accounts from each year.
“Coinsquare negotiated to protect its clients’ privacy, and limit any disclosure to only what was absolutely required by the CRA under Canadian tax law,” Coinsquare told CoinDesk.
“Instead of providing the CRA with all client data dating back to 2013 as was initially requested, Coinsquare and the CRA have agreed that information relating to 90-95% of Coinsquare’s clients will not be disclosed.”
The CRA spokeswoman said the agency “reserves the right” to mount future taxpayer data collection efforts against Coinsquare and “other sources.” However, she said the pared-down court order “appears sufficient to verify compliance with the ITA and/or the ETA.”
Related Stories