Bitcoiners love dogs, gold bugs prefer cats — Important new research

New research from US crypto exchange Xcoins suggests gold investors are pretty evenly split between men and women, but men dominate the ranks of crypto investors by a significant margin.

The data also revealed that “gold investors are more likely to own a cat than cryptocurrency holders (45% to 38%), while cryptocurrency holders tend to be ‘dog people’ (43% to 38%).”

Xcoins’ research used Global Web Index data between 2017 and 2020, to find the differences between gold and crypto owners.

The research found that there is a significant disparity between women's views on gold as an investment as opposed to crypto. Around 46.7% of gold investors are women and 53.5% are men, while among crypto investors, 71.9% are men and just 28.1% are women.

The crypto gender gap is nothing new and it is widely believed the crypto and blockchain sectors are male-dominanted. However, research is showing that the gap has been shrinking over the past couple of years, as crypto gradually embeds itself into mainstream society.

A report released by CoinMarketCap in April 2020 found that 43% of investors interested in Bitcoin were women, up from just 13% the year before. Recent data published by Cardify found that the amount of women depositing their money into crypto was also growing, with women accounting for 15% of crypto deposits in January 2021, compared to 5.6% the year before.

Despite the growing interest from women, Xcoins’ research highlights that there is still a major gender diversity issue in crypto which requires more action.

Rob Frye, CEO of Xcoins, commented on the exchanges’ findings in which he emphasized the importance of bringing more women into crypto, noting that Bitcoin’s mainstream adoption is dependent on their participation:

“If Bitcoin is to succeed in the mainstream then it needs support from all demographics. No-one is stopping women from entering or investing in the crypto space, but little is being done to encourage them either."

“With data suggesting that female investors view cryptocurrency as a riskier investment, it’s clear that more needs to be done in this area to educate and inform people of what risks cryptocurrency actually carries instead of letting assumptions hinder the growth of the asset.”