- Bitcoin 2024 kicks off as Donald Trump brings nationwide consideration to the occasion.
- It is a very male affair — solely about 13% of its speakers are female-presenting.
Bitcoin 2024 is one of crypto’s largest conferences.
And this 12 months shall be a bonanza as former President Donald Trump and a slew of different high-profile speakers flock to Nashville, Tennessee.
Crypto will, once more, be within the nationwide spotlight — and so will the business’s struggles with gender illustration.
Solely about 13% of Bitcoin 2024′s speakers are female-presenting, in accordance to data compiled by DL News.
That’s lower than 5 years in the past, when about 17% of the listed speakers had been identifiably feminine.
Women are typically underrepresented in tech and finance.
One study discovered that, from 2016 to 2018, they made up 25% of keynote or standalone speakers at tech conferences globally.
One other survey of conferences from a spread of industries discovered that male speakers nonetheless outnumber feminine speakers two to one.
Be a part of the neighborhood to get our newest tales and updates
Crypto can also be a notoriously unequal business, even by the requirements of different male-dominated industries.
The 17 wealthiest crypto billionaires are all men, in accordance to Forbes.
And a latest report from the Affiliation of Women in Cryptocurrency, a nonprofit that advocates for women in web3, highlights the gender disparity within the business.
In late 2023, the organisation surveyed roughly 400 women in crypto and located that 82% of respondents imagine the business is just not free from harassment.
“The dearth of women speakers at crypto conferences is nothing new,” Amanda Wick, founding father of the Affiliation of Women in Cryptocurrency, instructed DL News.
She stated that is why her nonprofit has requested men to pledge to not communicate on all-male panels. Bans on so-called “manels” are normal in finance and different industries.
“We want conferences, particularly these missing women speakers, to additionally pledge if this business is severe about seeing significant and impactful change,” she added.
Worse than Consensus
DL News categorised every speaker publicly listed on the Bitcoin convention’s web site as both feminine or male, based mostly on speakers’ names, profile photos, and the pronouns used of their bios.
For these with pseudonymous names and photos, DL News checked out bios, podcasts, and different media to categorise the speaker.
Whereas it’s no excellent science — speakers can determine as non-binary, for instance — the tally illustrates the Bitcoin convention’s gender disparity.
In 2019, out of the 90 listed speakers, solely 15 had been identifiably women — about 17%.
The share of speakers who had been women dipped within the years afterward, floating between 13% and 16%.
In 2024, there are extra male speakers whose first names start with an “A” or “B” than the overall variety of feminine speakers on the convention, based mostly on a model of the convention’s web site accessed on July 24.
Women’s share of the spotlight on the Bitcoin convention pales as compared to Consensus, one other main crypto convention.
About 26% of Consensus’ speakers had been identifiably women in 2024, in accordance to knowledge DL News compiled.
David Bailey, head of Bitcoin Journal, Bitcoin 2024′s organiser, didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Representatives for Consensus additionally didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Allegations in opposition to headliners
Molly White, a outstanding critic of the business, additionally pointed out on X that three of Bitcoin 2024′s seven headliners are accused of great sexual misconduct.
Trump, who’s working for re-election, was discovered accountable for sexual abuse in opposition to columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996.
Carroll is one of at the least 26 women who’ve accused Trump of sexual misconduct for the reason that Seventies.
Trump has denied the allegations.
Russell Model can also be scheduled to communicate.
A former UK radio character, comic, and actor, he has extra lately turn out to be a conspiracy-minded podcast host.
Final 12 months, Model was questioned by London police associated to allegations of sexual assault and abuse following an investigation from The Occasions.
Model has denied the allegations.
three sexual assaulters out of a lineup of seven headliners is admittedly one thing
— Molly White (@molly0xFFF) July 23, 2024
Unbiased presidential candidate and vaccine sceptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr can also be scheduled to communicate.
He allegedly assaulted his kids’s babysitter within the Nineties, in accordance to a Self-importance Truthful report.
Kennedy later described the story as “a lot of garbage,” declined to remark on it additional, and privately apologised to Eliza Cooney, the babysitter reported The Washington Post.
Bitcoin 2024, nonetheless, has thought of gender inclusion.
On Thursday morning, in accordance to the convention’s agenda, it’s internet hosting what it referred to as a “Women’s Brunch.”
Ben Weiss is DL News’ Dubai-based correspondent. Attain out to him at bweiss@dlnews.com. Joanna Wright is DL News’ regulatory correspondent. Contact her at joanna@dlnews.com.
