PremiumWhen it comes to gender gap, the underrepresentation of women is evident in the stock market. A survey done by Central Depository Services Ltd (CDSL) a few years back revealed that out of the total individual demat accounts, 76% belonged to male investors. The story isn’t quite different when it comes to the crypto market. Top crypto exchanges in India have an overall percentage of women investors in the range of 15-20%.
However, in terms of new investors, women have been giving a tough fight to men. Over the last one year, the count of new women investors on Indian crypto platforms has surged by up to 1,400%, which is comparable to new male investors.
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On 4 March 2020, the Supreme Court of India had overturned an April 2018 ban by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on cryptocurrency payments.
BuyUcoin, which has around four lakh users in India, witnessed 1,040% rise in number of women investors since the ban was lifted. New male investors increased by 1,064.5% during the same period.
The data on user pattern of Indian crypto exchanges also revealed that apart from bitcoin, the top preferences of women investors included ethereum, ripple, tether and cardano.
“When it comes to crypto investing, women tend to choose an asset class, which has very strong fundamentals. Ethereum blockchain has very strong fundamentals and a lot of projects around the globe are using it to power their infrastructure. In 2021, we are expecting almost five times jump in the number of women investors," said Shivam Thakral, CEO, BuyUcoin.
Many women were also seen dabbling in dogecoin. The controversial cryptocurrency, which in 2013 was created as a joke or a meme in comparison to the world’s oldest digital currency, bitcoin, had surged over 800% within a span of 24 hours last month on frenzied speculative trading by retail investors.
Another crypto exchange, WazirX, which has seen 1,355% rise in women investors in the last one year, said 63% of women traders are less than 34 years and 82% are less than 44 years in India. At WazirX, overall, 15% users are women investors.
Apart from the rise in the number of new women investors, overall percentage of women in the crypto market is also increasing at a quicker pace. According to CoinDCX, the total women investor base increased to 20% as of 5 March 2021 compared with 15% at the end of 2020. “In 2021, new women investors went up by three times compared with the November-December period," CoinDCX said.
In terms of geographies, urban centres continue to have a dominant position with most women investors coming in from states such as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Delhi.
Meanwhile, a recent survey by online mutual fund platform Groww revealed that an increase in income level of women investors saw an increase in the number of asset classes in the investment portfolio. “When it comes to investing in cryptocurrencies, about 6% of women making more than ₹30 lakh per annum have invested in cryptocurrencies. Only 4% of women earning less than ₹10 lakh per annum have invested in cryptocurrencies in comparison," it added.
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