Investing in the crypto industry has been dominated by men since this asset class first appeared in 2010, but the situation is starting to change. According to a recent survey conducted by the Israeli investment company eToro, the popularity of cryptocurrencies among women is growing.

In the recently released Q4 2022 Retail Investor Beat report, the eToro team found that cryptocurrency is currently the second most widely owned asset class for women after cash.

The survey data showed that the share of women holding cryptocurrencies increased significantly between the third and fourth quarters of last year, rising from 29% to 34%, while the increase in the share of men was only one percent. About 10,000 global retail investors in 13 countries took part in the survey.

At the end of last year, well-known crypto proponent Tim Draper, predicted that the price of bitcoin would reach $ 250,000 by the end of 2023, mainly due to an increase in female investors.

Statistics show that women control 80% of retail spending, and only 1 in 7 bitcoin wallets are currently owned by women.

The eToro survey results show that the adoption of crypto among women can benefit the industry.

The fourth quarter saw an increase in the popularity of crypto assets, despite the poor performance of this asset class in 2022. The proportion of retail investors holding cryptocurrencies rose from 36% to 39% compared to the previous quarter. The report says that this was partly because an older group of investors apparently wanted to buy the dip.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, the share of retail investors aged 35–44 and 45–54 holding crypto rose five percentage points to 53% and 36%, respectively.

The main reason they invested in crypto was the opportunity to earn high returns (37%), with 34% saying they believe in the power of blockchain and think that crypto is a transformative asset class.

The majority of respondents (61%) still avoid investing in the crypto sector, with 50% citing the perceived risk of this asset class. By comparison, 30% cited the lack of strong regulation as a reason for not investing.

While the proportion of respondents who shun cryptocurrencies remains in the majority, the data shows that this fact is slowly changing, especially thanks to the surge in business adoption. According to a recent survey conducted by Casper Labs, out of 603 participating companies, 90% indicated that they have already deployed blockchain to some extent.