10 Influential Women in the Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Industry

Meltem Demirors

Demirors is the chief strategy officer at CoinShares, a financial services firm in London and New York that focuses on alternative assets, such as cryptocurrencies. He also hosts the weekly podcast and the annual Crypto Springs conference in Palm Springs.

Elizabeth Stark

Elizabeth Stark is an entrepreneur, educator, and open internet advocate. Elizabeth is the co-founder and CEO of Lightning Labs, a client network that scales Bitcoin. She is a fellow at Coin Center, a leading cryptocurrency policy organization, and an advisor to the Chia Project.

Cathie Wood

Catherine Wood is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of ARK Invest. ARK focuses solely on challenging innovations and provides investment solutions to individuals seeking long-term growth in the public markets. As Chief Investment Officer (CIO) and Portfolio Manager, Kathy led the development of ARK’s investment philosophy and approach and has been a long-time supporter of Bitcoin and blockchain-based innovation.

Caitlin Long

Caitlin Long is the president of WyoHackathon, a blockchain event for developers, entrepreneurs, and established companies. Long has been a blockchain and Bitcoin enthusiast since 2012. Prior to WyoHackathon, she was a co-founder of the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition.

Blythe Masters

Blythe Masters is the former CEO of Digital Asset Holdings, a financial technology company that develops distributed ledger technology for wholesale financial services. Masters is the first and most prominent Wall Street banker to enter the blockchain space. He is also the chairman of the board of directors of the Linux Foundation’s open source Hyperledger project, a member of the Santander Group International Advisory Board, and a member of the U.S. Chamber of Digital Commerce’s advisory board.

Galia Benartzi

Benartzi is a technology entrepreneur and co-founder of the Bancor Protocol, a standard for creating smart tokens! She is also the CEO, founder of Particle Code.

Joyce Kim

Joyce Kim is the co-founder and CEO of Stellar.org. Previously, Joyce was a venture capitalist at Freestyle Capital. She was also the co-founder of simplehoney, a mobile commerce startup, and the CEO of Soompi. She is currently a fellow at the MIT Media Lab.

Laura Shin

Laura Shin is a crypto and blockchain journalist. She is known as one of the first mainstream reporters to cover cryptocurrencies and is a former editor at Forbes. Laura has also worked as a reporter for Newsweek, a technical writer for the Wall Street Journal, and a producer at The New York Times. Currently, Shin is the producer and host of the podcasts “Unchained” and “Unconfirmed” and is writing a book about cryptocurrencies.

Kathleen Breitman

Kathleen Breitman is a co-founder of Tezos, a blockchain-based smart contract platform. She has also worked at Accenture, Bridgewater Associates, and the Wall Street Journal.

Kelly Loeffler

Kelly Loeffler is an American businessman and politician who has served as the junior United States Senator for Georgia since 2020. After a 15-year career at digital asset platform Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Kelly entered the crypto industry when she became CEO of Bakkt. Her company is the first to offer CFTC-approved “physical” Bitcoin futures contracts.