Coinmotion has held its “1st Meeting of Women in the Crypto Industry”. This initiative is part of the events organized by the Finnish Coinmotion Observatory on Cryptocurrencies, with the aim of reflecting and researching on the cryptoeconomy: regulation, innovation, services and international development have been addressed; as well as talent in cryptography.

This first edition, moderated by Cristina Murgas, Director of Finance and Institutional Communications at QUUM, was attended by the following; Heidi Hurskainen, CEO and member of the board of directors of Coinmotion Oy: Gabriela Chang, founder of EthicHub; Covadonga Fernández, Director of the Blockchain Observatory and Montse Guardia, General Manager of the Alastria Blockchain Eco-system.

In fact, it is the Guardia who calls for development and programming: "I would like to see more women, more at the construction level, in model creation and in technological programming." And he has made sure that it is a land that is “not balanced and there is no gender diversity”. Therefore, it is necessary for programmers and code developers to call Blockchain platforms and create digital projects.

Hurskainen, as head of the Finnish company, explained that although the number of women in the cryptoeconomy sector has been increasing in recent years, the challenge is that there is a fear of facing technical problems. “Many women think they should understand better to invest. The work that should be done to have more women working in the sector is education; to set an example and dispel myths about the subject. He also assured the Coinmotion headquarters that "despite the high positions in technology companies in the Nordic countries, there is little presence of women in the cryptocurrency and Blockchain industry. Not because of lack of opportunities, but because women still dare not make the leap to the sector."

For his part, Covadonga Fernández stressed that Blockchain has the same complexity as the Internet in its time. "This is like an academy. It's an investment you're learning and you're making. I'm a journalist and director of the Blockchain Observatory. I try to show women how to illustrate different events in the industry. We've put a lot of effort into telling how complicated it has been since Blockchain arrived."

Industry perspective and challenges

At the meeting, participants noted that the Blockchain and DeFi (Decentralized Finance) ecosystems are developing rapidly, leading to increased investment growth and greater institutional interest, for example in bitcoin and Ethereum. Geographically, the U.S. continues to drive market consolidation relative to Europe, with entities such as Goldman Sach, JP Morgan, Square and PayPal backed by cryptocurrency services. The introduction of Spanish banks such as BBVA is an example that could encourage European banks to act in the future, perhaps mergers and acquisitions, as it is still difficult to provide cooperation between Fintech operators and traditional banks.

Coinmotion has highlighted a higher demand for cryptocurrency and DeFi products from family offices, as well as from private banks. So they anticipate strong growth in 2021. On the other hand, Heidi Hurskainen highlighted the evolution of regulation, although there are still EU countries that have not implemented the Fifth Directive. Specifically, the creation of Sandbox in Spain has had a positive impact on the development of regulations.