Australia’s rapidly developing cryptocurrency sector should not be allowed to become a “boys club” like the rest of the finance world, local crypto executive Tracey Plowman has warned.
Ms Plowman, the chief operating officer at Perth-based crypto micro-investments start-up Bamboo, told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald emerging assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum gave women a way to take control of their finances outside the typically male-dominated world of traditional finance.
Tracey Plowman, chief operating officer of cryptocurrency app Bamboo, says it’s important to get more women into the crypto space.Credit: Trevor Collens
“The finance world is a boys club, and it has been for a long time, it’s a very masculine industry,” she said. “Crypto offers women a chance to change this.
“It gives them a chance to change their personal finance and to grow their wealth. But it also gives them an opportunity to get involved in this really young industry.”
Having started just 11 years ago in 2009 with the development of Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency industry is very young when compared with other sectors of finance. Despite this, the total market capitalisation of all cryptocurrency assets is estimated to be worth more than $3.3 trillion.
However, a recent study by major Australian cryptocurrency exchange BTCMarkets shows just 23 per cent of investors in Australia are female. This worsens when assessed on an international scale, with other studies showing just 12 to 15 per cent of Ethereum and Bitcoin traders are female.
But industry figures such as Ms Plowman are doing their best to change these statistics. She explains her first foray into the world of crypto was working at blockchain-focused investment firm DCM in 2018, doing the company’s branding and marketing.
“I’m a bit of a maths nerd, and I felt compelled to learn a bit more about the blockchain, so I did some work after hours, and just kind of fell in love with the whole thing,” she said.
She became a regular in crypto chat rooms and trading forums and began to invest in cryptos such as Bitcoin and Ethereum before an opportunity arose for her to join the Bamboo team in early 2020.
Since then, Ms Plowman has been a vocal advocate for getting more women into the space, including spruiking the potential benefits at the daily school pick-up to other Perth mothers. Bamboo is also about to launch a new “Crypto Curious” podcast with Ms Plowman as a host, designed to demystify the often difficult-to-understand world of cryptocurrency.
“We have to be more vocal, educate and make sure that women know that there’s an opportunity in the industry,” she said.
“There’s such a high demand for roles in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, and I’d love to see more women get around that. The biggest opportunities for women in this industry are leadership, strategic direction and developers.”
In its report earlier this year, BTCMarkets noted the number of female investors in the cryptocurrency space in Australia was growing at a rapid rate, which would help the crypto industry gain more currency in the more “traditional” finance space.
“As more women invest, the industry becomes more representative of the investment community as a whole,” the report read. “That in turn advances its reputation as an asset class that can sit alongside other traditional investments.”
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