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Paper short abstract:

The year 2020-21 has seen a surge in new women investors in Cryptocurrency. Women are not only engaging as investors, but also as creators and builders. The present research attempts to take cognizance of this phenomena, looking at the nuances of a gendered engagement in Cryptocurrency.

Paper long abstract:

Cryptocurrency, visualized as fully mechanized, decentralized currency of which all its users collectively retain control, stands to welcome new and diverse users into its folds. Engagement in cryptocurrency displays the gender disparity traditionally prevalent in the investment market. In spite of this, eToro pegs (2021) documents a new wave of women investors, and trading app Robinhood professed a seven-fold increase in women trading crypto on its platform from end 2020 to March 2021(Krishna and Catalano,2021). In the Indian context, between 2020-21, new women investors on Indian crypto platforms surged by nearly 1,400 percent, comparable to new male investors (Frantz, 2022). Women are not only engaging as investors, but also as creators and builders. The present research attempts to take cognizance of this phenomena. Dodd (2017) in context of Bitcoin points out that "the image is of a fully mechanized currency that operates over and above social life...in practice... has generated a thriving community around its political ideals, relies on a high degree of social organization in order to be produced, has a discernible social structure, and is characterized by asymmetries of wealth and power that are not dissimilar from the mainstream financial system. Unwittingly, then, Bitcoin serves as a powerful demonstration of the relational character of money". In light of this understanding the present paper tries to recognize the nuances of a gendered engagement in Cryptocurrency. It also looks at how the socio/cultural/political realities outside of the cryptocurrency community influences the engagement with Cryptocurrency.