36 Women Revolutionising Crypto

At a time where cryptocurrency, NFTs and the Metaverse are continuing to rise in popularity throughout the world, TechRound has decided to shine a spotlight on some of the women leading the way and innovating the Crypto industry.

TechRound recently featured the top 37 Crypto startups to watch and these article follows 36 diverse women who are just some of the women who have played such an important role in the rise of cryptocurrency across the world.

This list, taking place during TechRound’s Metaverse May is an important demonstration of the many women who lead or are integral to their company within the crypto space. These women are changing the face of the crypto, NFT and Metaverse world forever and it is important to know who they are.

These women have not been ordered in terms of importance, all 37 women have revolutionised and made their mark on the crypto world in their own right!

Take a look through TechRound’s leading woman in crypto and find someone to reach out to, or learn about a new innovative and state-of-the-art company that these powerful women are headlining.

For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.

 

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1. Meirav Harel, COO at XMANNA

 

Meirav Harel, COO at XMANNA

 

Featured twice on “Women in Fintech Powerlist” by Innovative Finance UK, Meirav specializes in innovative technologies, and their impact on the future of banking, finance, regulations, macroeconomics and businesses.

She was previously a candidate for the position of Director General of The Bank of Israel, and Israel’s Ambassador to EWPN, as well as served as former Head of Strategic Innovation Technologies at BDO, former Acting COO for Bancor and former COO at IQONIQ.

For 7 years, Meirav acted as the Business Development Manager of “LeumiTrade”, Bank Leumi’s award-winning Financial Trading website, which was chosen as one of the three “Best Trading Websites in Europe.”

Based in Miami, XMANNA is creating a new metaverse bringing blockchain, gaming and the Metaverse to live sports with its versatile solution for sports leagues, advertisers, retailers and stadiums seeking to create a digital fan experience.

XMANNA utilizes blockchain technology to create seamless digital connections, promoting active loyalty and benefits between users, teams, and advertisers. Through their innovative loyalty platform and Metaverse stadium project, XMANNA is merging digital and physical interactions for fans with their favorite franchises across the world.

 

2. Cheryl Douglass, CMO at Portion

 

Cheryl Douglass, CMO at Portion

 

With a degree in Economics and Mathematics from Columbia University, Cheryl has spent her career working on leading Web 3.0 and blockchain projects.

She worked as a Product Marketing Manager at ConsenSys for 4 years, building out Infura’s Web 3.0 developer tools and infrastructure stack prior to joining Portion as the CMO. Cheryl was also the Marketing Lead for the Ethereal Summit, a global series of conferences that explore the culture and creativity behind the decentralization movement.

Portion is a 21st-century auction house for rare, high-end NFT art, music, and collectibles. Portion connects artists and collectors through blockchain technology to easily sell, invest and own art and collectibles with verified authenticity and tracked provenance. From taking zero percent of artists’ work to offering eleven percent royalties on secondary sales, supporting creators is a central part of Portion’s mission.

 

3. Madeline Melinte, CFO at SeedOn

 

Madeline Melinte, CFO at SeedOn

 

Madeline is an Audit Deputy Manager with the proven expertise of working in the external audit industry. She has extensive skills in internal controls, risk management, and financial analysis. Madeline works closely with our team to fully complete our strategies by putting into practice her strong accounting and auditing skills.

Due to the constant need of adjusting to the industry’s changing needs, fastly adapting and working with our team to successfully conduct financial and economical strategies within our company, is a required skill. Our CFO has been putting that skill into practice throughout her career.

Headquartered in Iasi, Romania, SeedOn is developing the blockchain-based solution that will revolutionize the crowdfunding process to ensure transparent transactions.

Utilizing the native SEON token, users can invest in projects on the platform, with funds being held in escrow and released periodically for additional investor security.

Projects and founders will go through an intensive validation process before being granted access to the platform. The Smart Contract Escrow Model guarantees safe transfer of funds, expanding the future of crowdfunding for project developers and investors alike.

 

4. Thy-Diep (Yip) Ta, Co-Founder at Unit

 

Thy-Diep

 

Yip is cofounder at Unit, a blockchain project built with Substrate (Polkadot ecosystem).  She is a design expert for blockchain education and mindfulness training and invests into companies that work at the frontiers of technology to advance United Nations SDG.

Previously, she worked at McKinsey & Co in the Financial Services industry, and at Rocket Internet. She holds an MBA from INSEAD business school and is advisor at Antler, Techstars, Plug&Play, Launchpool.xyz.  She loves to write poetry and is author of the book “Beautiful Brains Change tomorrow… today” as a mindfulness manifesto and guide into entrepreneurship.

She has also won the impact track at ETHDenver Hackathon and was named one of 100 influential women in crypto by Unstoppable Domains Women of Web3.

 

5. Alona Stein, VP & Partner at ReBlonde

 

Alona Stein, VP & Partner at ReBlonde

 

Alona Stein is the VP and Partner at ReBlonde, an award-winning global tech PR agency based in Tel Aviv, specializing in crypto, blockchain and DeFi. Alona holds MBA and BSc from TAU.

With more than a decade of media relations and communications experience, Alona and the ReBlonde team, has led some of the most memorable tech PR storms globally in the past years. Alona specializes in strategic media outreaches, brand building, public speaking, and crisis management.

The team at ReBlonde is dedicated to further expanding and immersing its brand in the Metaverse and Web3, in addition to their already existing areas of expertise, collaborating not only with tech companies but also auction houses, artists, and fashion designers that are looking to go all meta.

Today, Alona leads a team of 27 professionals, from 9 different nationalities in the company’s Israel office. They have some very exciting collaborations and jaw dropping clients and they’re extremely honored to be chosen to be their voice.

ReBlonde is an award-winning global facing tech PR agency based in Tel Aviv. Led by Motti Peer and Alona Stein, ReBlonde’s team of professionals has become one of the globe’s leading forces in technology public relations for tech startups, enterprises, VCs, working with a wide portfolio of clients in the areas of medtech, cyber, healthtech, fintech, commerce, consumer tech, foodtech, entertainment tech, blockchain and crypto. ReBlonde’s Specialty is threefold:

1) Helping ambitious Israeli startups and Unicorns get global media coverage

2) Helping global brands have solid media presence in Israel and

3) Helping our clients receive notable global awareness for their work.

 

For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.

 

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6. Maria Florencia Lorenzo, QA Engineer at Kryptomon

 

Maria Florencia Lorenzo, QA Engineer at Kryptomon

 

Maria Florencia Lorenzo is a QA engineer at Kryptomon, the living NFT-powered Play-and-Earn gaming project combining Pokemon, Tamagotchi, and CryptoKitties.

Maria is also a co-Founder of a Tattoo Studio, and entrepreneur, and boasts 6+ years of experience in QA. In her role at Kryptomon, Flor is in charge of setting up the company’s QA practices and test automation to ensure smooth and bug free deliveries. She serves as a major stakeholder during the release process and an integral part of the NFT play-and-earn gaming ecosystem and team.

Set in the Kryptomon metaverse, community members play as “Trainers”, taking care of their own NFT pet monsters, which have a unique and mutable genetic code made up of 38 randomized parameters that determine their physical and behavioral characteristics.

They are capable of learning, falling sick, getting hungry, and protecting their trainers when out on an adventure in the physical world. In turn, trainers will have to care for, feed, and train their Kryptomon partners in order to grow and prepare for the battles ahead.

Kryptomon aims to create the next step in the evolution of crypto and metaverse-gaming by using the blockchain, digital genetics, and location-based technologies.

 

7. Mandeep Kang – Co-Founder at Bricktrade

 

Mandeep

 

Mandeep Kang comes from a family of entrepreneurs and is a graduate in both Law and Business. 

Her career began in banking, helping consumers understand complex financial products and educate them on how they could achieve their financial goals, before becoming a fully qualified mortgage advisor and underwriter.

She moved to an independent mortgage brokerage, where she quickly realised the vast majority of the products a consumer needed have very high barriers to entry and are inaccessible. She became focused on how we could reduce these barriers for the average consumer. This became the genesis of Bricktrade, set up in conjunction with her husband Gav.

Bricktrade is a blockchain based digital marketplace where property can be traded between buyers and sellers. The first platform in the UK reinventing how real-world assets are purchased with both fiat and cryptocurrency.

With a unique mission to alleviate the global housing shortage, the platform is setting itself apart from others by tokenising real estate assets, proving that accessibility can be the focal point of the housing market, reducing the barrier to entry by allowing investors to participate from as little as £500 through the cutting-edge crowdfunding platform.

Bricktrade creates tokens on the blockchain then assigns them to properties that are either in existence or under construction. This means an investor’s risk is significantly reduced as it is backed by a tangible asset, protecting an investor’s principal.

Bricktrade is on its way to becoming FCA regulated and prides itself on being a one-stop solution to many of the concerns property investors and potential homeowners may have about the property market.

All of Bricktrade’s utility tokens, $BRKT, are backed by real-world assets i.e. property. This means an investor’s risk is significantly reduced as it is backed by a tangible asset, protecting an investor’s total capital..

 

8. Maccie Paquette, Marketing Manager at Univers

 

Maccie Paquette, Marketing Manager at Univers

 

Maccie is an experienced marketing manager, social media manager, business and artist grant writer, PR specialist and content creator.

Her passion resides in meaningful and effective storytelling to differentiate brands within their respective fields and garner both excitement as well as lasting consumer loyalty. She now brings this expertise to Univers with the goal of amplifying their vision of a truly decentralized and interconnected Metaverse network.

Maccie Paquette graduated from RTA School of Media with an Honours BA, (major in media arts and a minor in English). For over 7 years she has worked with incredible brands from independent artists, corporate automotive and athletic brands, to more recently representing and writing for healthcare and blockchain companies

Univers is an ever-expanding network of interconnected projects and dApps built on the blockchain. The company’s technology enables metaverse interoperability, meaning any project, application or platform can be connected to or built on the network through any reality, such as VR, AR or 2D interfaces.

Metaverse interoperability also provides asset liberation and increased utility as avatars, in-game assets, NFTs, and tokens can be accessed while participating in any experience connected to the network without third party involvement (e.g., exchanges).

 

9. May Michelson, Director of Global Sales at GK8

 

May Michelson, Director of Global Sales at GK8

 

May Michelson is the Co-Founder of Fintech Ladies IL Community – a community of executive women in fintech with the aim of professional empowerment, and the Director of Global Sales at GK8 and works to position the company solution to decision makers in global banks and financial institutions.

Before joining GK8, May spent 4 years in PayKey, a FinTech start-up that developed an innovative platform to help banks deliver a better mobile banking experience to their customers.

A Computer Science Engineer by trait, May masters the art of cultivating leads throughout the sales funnel: she walks each initial prospect through GK8’s value proposition, injecting excitement in her demonstrations and helps each prospect visualize how our solution could perfectly fit their expansion strategy into the digital asset domain.

May holds a dual degree in Computer Science and Business from Tel Aviv University.

GK8 is a blockchain cybersecurity company that offers financial institutions an end-to-end platform for managing blockchain-based assets on their own.

Its solution incorporates the world’s first true air-gapped Cold Vault that enables its clients to create, sign, and send secure blockchain transactions without internet connectivity as well as a highly-scalable MPC warm vault. Recently acquired by Celsius Network for $115 million, the company continues to operate as an independent entity.

Chosen by Mastercard to help it define the future of blockchain finance and payments, GK8 serves clients managing billions worth of digital assets, including social investing network eToro, Securrency, a blockchain fintech company backed by State Street, U.S. Bank, WisdomTree, and Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners, Tezos Foundation, and Prosegur, one of the world’s largest custodians with more than $400B assets under management. Recently, GK8’s founders Lior Lamesh and Shahar Shamai joined the 30 Under 30 list by Forbes.

 

10. Genevieve Leveille, CEO & Principal Founder at AgriLedger

 

 

For over 25 years, Genevieve Leveille has been a noteworthy leader in the finance, supply chain optimization and technology ecosystems. These days, she is recognized as the CEO and Principal Founder of AgriLedger but she continues to contribute in the realms of digital identity, and financial transformation.  

In 2020, Genevieve implemented a blockchain solution in the Fresh Fruit Value Chain in Haiti in collaboration with the Ministry of Commerce and the World Bank.  Farmers, consumers, and families reaped the benefits of fairer prices and improved food security.  The participating small-holder farmers saw an increase of over 700% in their revenues. 

AgriLedger continues to drive the adoption of blockchain in agriculture with implementation in the coffee value chain in Tanzania and an extension of Reimagined Finance (ReFi) for the Maize and Peas value chains in Haiti. 

In her earlier career, Genevieve held executive management level roles for several Fortune 500 companies including General Electric, JP Morgan Chase, Hewlett Packard and the Royal Bank of Scotland. 

Currently, Genevieve serves as vice chair of techUK Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Working group.  She is a non-executive director and board member for FinTech for International Development (F4ID), Resurgence, and a Senior Advisor for a Digital ID roll-out for the Democratic Republic of Congo Ministry of Education.  

 

For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.

 

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11. Wanda Pascua, Head of Marketing at Oz Finance

 

Wanda Pascua, Head of Marketing at Oz Finance

 

Wanda has been in the marketing and advertising field for 12 years to date. She led award winning and revenue generating ad campaigns for global FMCG brands on skincare and beverage. She also has an extensive knowledge of e-commerce, as seen on her last stint as a marketing team lead in Southeast Asia’s leading e-commerce platform.

She is well versed in consumer insights, digital marketing, and branding.

Oz Finance brings together a worldwide network of special economic zones, linked through its TOTOZ utility token, creating global economic residency and business opportunities. By staking TOTOZ, users attain residence status in the economic zones for individual or business residency based on the volume of the stake.

Oz is currently building its own blockchain protocol alongside decentralized finance (DeFi) services to provide capital and credit to the members of its community and to participating Ecozones. Additionally, Oz is working on several ambitious projects to integrate NFTs and Metaverse applications into its ecosystem.

12. Maria Grazia De Marchi, CMO of DTSocialize

 

Maria Grazia De Marchi, CMO of DTSocialize 

 

Maria Grazia has headed marketing and communications departments in some of the world’s leading financial services brands including Lombard International Insurance and Zurich Insurance. She has a master’s degree in behavioral economics and neuromarketing.

DTSocialize Holding (DTSH) offers its community a seamless user experience in a single ecosystem across platforms where people will be able to transact, manage their assets, communicate, shop, and socialize both in the physical and virtual worlds.

The ecosystem lets users choose whether they want to monetize their data, which is then anonymized and aggregated into Big Data stacks for market research, or to keep their privacy. The entire DTSH ecosystem uses the most trusted technologies, ensuring privacy and confidentiality.

 

13. Teresa Anaya, Compliance Officer at TrustToken

 

Teresa Anaya, Compliance Officer at TrustToken

 

Teresa is the Compliance Officer at TrustToken. Teresa is an energetic global, risk and compliance leader with broad experience in financial services, investigations, anti-money laundering, and compliance with specific focus on blockchain technology and reducing the risk associated with cryptocurrency and virtual assets.

 

She has an insatiable desire to introduce technology to reduce manual processes, complexity and risk. She is self-motivated with a strong desire to build solid teams, encouraging personal growth and strong ethical standards, and joined TrustToken with a long history in compliance the traditional financial market.

 

TrustToken modernized financial infrastructure, combining the company’s experience in DeFi with the expert regulatory and legal guidance of professionals like Teresa. TrustToken’s TrueFi platform brings uncollateralized lending on-chain, offering lenders high earning rates with full transparency of how the funds are used, and borrowers the ease of rapid loans without collateral requirements.

 

This approach sets up a new paradigm for DeFi lending, which has traditionally relied on over-collateralization to offset the risks. To date, TrueFi has originated over +$1.5b in collateral-free loans,
collected over +$1b in repayments, and enjoys a 100% repayment rate.

 

In 2022, TrustToken launched its Lending Marketplace, opening the protocol to work as a foundation for third-party asset managers and developers to build their own financial products, offering them to TrueFi’s active and engaged investor base, now serving lending to emerging markets, B2B financing, and real estate crypto loans.

 

14. Galia ben Artzi, Co-Founder & Business Development at Bancor

 

Galia ben Artzi, Co-Founder & Business Development at Bancor

 

Galia Benartzi is the co-founder of Bancor, the world’s first open-source protocol ensuring on-chain liquidity between any blockchain-based asset, inventor of the Automated Market Maker, now a building block of Decentralized Finance (DeFi).

More than $2 billion in token conversions have been processed via Bancor, as the protocol impacts organizations and people across the globe, from blockchain teams to real-world communities issuing local currencies.

Galia was recognized by Forbes and Glamour Magazine as a leading woman in crypto; she has been featured on BloombergTV and CNBC, and has spoken at the United Nations, TEDx and the Oslo Freedom Forum on monetary theory and innovation.

Galia previously co-founded Mytopia, the first social gaming company for smartphones (acquired by 888), and Particle Code, a cross-platform development technology for mobile applications (acquired by Appcelerator).

She was a Venture Partner at Peter Thiel’s Founder’s Fund, a founding member of Summit Powder Mountain, and the organizer of Bretton Woods 75, a commemoration event evaluating the historic monetary accords.

Bancor is an on-chain liquidity protocol that enables automated, decentralized exchange on Ethereum and across multiple blockchains. The company has a protocol for the creation of Smart Tokens, a new standard for cryptocurrencies which are intrinsically exchangeable directly through their smart contracts.

Bancor utilizes an innovative reserve method to enable automatic price discovery and continuous liquidity for tokens, without needing to match two parties in an exchange. Smart Tokens interconnect to form token liquidity networks, allowing user-generated cryptocurrencies to thrive.

 

15.  Yael Tamar, CEO & Co-Founder at SolidBlock

 

Yael Tamar, CEO & Co-Founder at SolidBlock

 

Yael Tamar is the CEO and Co-founder of SolidBlockworks, an end-to-end tokenization platform powering the world’s digital assets with real estate- and equity-backed securities, where she strives to make property investing accessible, transparent and streamlined.

Previously, Yael has spent almost two decades in the financial markets, starting as an analyst at a Wall Street broker-dealer, and moving to M&A and private equity, as well as financial engineering, structuring products and indices for pensions funds and family offices.

Yael also worked on the largest IPO of an Israeli real estate company on AIM and served as an executive on the largest MVNO in Israel that was listed on NASDAQ. With Co-Founder roles in numerous fintech startups, a blockchain marketing company, and an import/export company that was acquired.

Yael also sits as a regional co-chair at FIBREE, the Foundation for International Blockchain and Real Estate Expertise, the leading international network for exchanging knowledge between the real estate industry.

A leading voice in the space, Yael is an influencer, who has appeared as a guest speaker in over 50 conferences and events, has a podcast (Apple podcast, Spotify: BlockSolid) and a full course on tokenization. To top it all off, she was listed as one of the Top 25 Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Speakers and 100 Most Inspirational Women In Blockchain.

SolidBlock helps property owners create fully compliant digital financial products, raise capital efficiently and offer their investors an option to invest or liquidate at any time.

Ranked as a Top 25 Financial Services Startup in Europe, and one of the Fastest Growing Financial Services Company in Israel, SolidBlock is an end-to-end tokenization platform powering the world’s digital assets with real estate- and equity-backed securities.

 

For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.

 

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16. Ori Lea Kliper, Director of Marketing at Kirobo

 

Ori Lea Kliper, Director of Marketing at Kirobo

 

Ori is a marketer with more than seven years of experience in the digital marketing industry.

Working with some of the biggest advertisers in the industry, Ori specializes in performance PPC marketing for high budget clients and social media management.

She is passionate about investment, technology and data, without compromising on creativity, and is proud to be an early adopter of cryptocurrency. Ori’s interests also include all forms of art, food (cooking and eating), and everything to do with investing – stocks, real estate, and of course, crypto.

Kirobo is a decentralized application developer building out a suite of services focused on DeFi security and usability. With a $5 million investment from Digimax in 2021, Kirobo works to make decentralized finance as accessible and user-friendly as regular online banking.

Kirobo is the proud recipient of two grants from the Israeli Innovation Authority—the only blockchain technology company to achieve this.

17. Mor Assia, Founding Partner and Co-CEO at iAngels

 

Mor Assia, Founding Partner and Co-CEO at iAngels

 

Mor Assia is Founding Partner and Co-CEO of iAngels, and General Partner in the iNgenuity Fund. An Israeli high-tech insider, a graduate of the IDF’s elite intelligence unit 8200, Mor leads iAngels’ investment committee, deal screening, due diligence and portfolio management activities.

Mor’s tech background with SAP, IBM and Amdocs has proven invaluable in assessing new technologies and her ability to deep dive with entrepreneurs into their business strategy and solution has created a strong foundation for relationship building.

Mor has been instrumental in structuring and pricing investment rounds and consistently brings value add partnerships to help portfolio companies.

Mor is a recognized investment expert in the areas of Fintech, AI and Automotive. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Columbia University in NY.

Mor mentors on several accelerator programs and serves as a board member for iAngels portfolio companies – including from the crypto space.

Founded in 2014 by Shelly Hod Moyal, Mor Assia and David Assia, iAngels is a venture capital firm and investment platform. iAngels offers accredited investors worldwide exclusive access to tech startups and scaleup investment opportunities originated in Israel and curated through a streamlined due-diligence process.

Through iAngels’ various investment offerings, investors can choose to invest in specific startups, create a personalized VC portfolio of tech companies or join our iAngels Ventures Fund, an institutional fund backed by the European Investment Fund, partnering with some of the highest caliber entrepreneurs in the nation.

With over $300m AUM, and a global network of 5,000 accredited investors, iAngels is one of the most active investors in the Israeli tech ecosystem. iAngels works closely with family offices, institutions, and private investors globally and offers tailored offerings for each field of expertise.

 

18. Joanne Lefson, Pigcasso

 

Joanne Lefson, Pigcasso the painting pig’s caregiver

 

No stranger to thriving outside the box and dancing against the mainstream, South African Joanne has engaged in a multitude of vast experiences that have invaluably shaped her perspective, and molded her life’s path.

Most notably, a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology (Texas A&M University), a professional athlete (golf), columnist (Complete Golfer Magazine), TV Sports Presenter (Super Sport), and a whirlwind romance with American folk singer, John Denver.

In 2004 Joanne adopted a dog from a Cape Town shelter whom she called Oscar. The unusual mutt redirected Joanne’s passion towards the plight of shelter dogs and in 2009, the duo teamed up to navigate the world. They traveling across 43 countries over 5 continents in 9 months to inspire dog adoption and the ‘World WOOF Tour’ remains a first of its kind.

Joanne later took an Indian street dog called ‘Rupee’ up Mount Everest.  Another first. In 2016, Joanne founded a dynamic dog adoption agency ‘ Oscars Arc’ in Oscar’s memory and a sanctuary for rescued farmed animals ‘ Farm Sanctuary SA’ – with a painting pig hogging the limelight.

Oscars Arc has saved the lives of thousands of shelter dogs since its inception in 2017 and Pigcasso’s Abstract Expressionist masterpieces are sold all over the world and have raised over 3 million rand for the sanctuary.

Lefson’s unique collaborations with Pigcasso, Oscar and Rupee have all been  featured on all global media outlets on a regular basis. These include ABC, NBC, CBS News, SABC, SKY News, ZDF, CNN and National Geographic. Print publications include The London Times, Sunday Times, USA Today and Spiegel.

Lefson has also appeared live on the Jeremy Vine Show (2020), Good Morning America (2012 and 2019), Saturday Night Live (2019) and ‘Carte Blanche’ (2009, 2010 and 2013), amongst many others.

 

19. Olga Ivanova, Content & Community Manager at Spielworks

 

Olga Ivanova, Content & Community Manager at Spielworks

 

Olga Ivanova is the Content & Community Manager at Spielworks, a leading blockchain startup specializing in gaming and decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions. She helps the company stand out in the buzz around the blockchain gaming industry and build bridges into the mainstream gaming space.

Growing up, Olga spent weeks traversing the Forgotten Realms in classic role-playing games like Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights and ventured out into the obscure lands of Planescape: Torment.

Her passion for digital realms prompted her to cover the videogame industry for IGN Russia before delving into the blockchain space in 2017. In 2018, she joined the editorial team at CoinMarket.News as an Assistant Managing Editor, keeping her finger on the industry’s pulse before joining Spielworks in 2020.

Olga sees blockchain as a promising technology for the videogame industry, leveling off the playing field between users and creators and bringing both a plethora of major opportunities.

She feels right at home at Spielworks, which works to bring gamers true ownership over in-game assets and help developers connect with their audiences in a new way, making for an experience that transcends beyond the game itself. She still likes to spend a few hours behind the keyboard in her spare time, with Rarity, a Fantom-based tribute to old-school RPGs, as her latest favorite.

 

20. Jordyn Benedict (TAROT), Singer-Songwriter

 

 

Jordyn Benedict aka TAROT is a Nashville-based independent singer-songwriter who has transitioned her music career into the web3 space.

 

The 24 year-old sold her first NFTs by minting 28 tokens everyday in the month of February — all of which contained a new song written, produced, mixed and mastered by Jordyn herself. She also sold a collection of 11 music video NFTs, 5 of which were sold during an appearance Jordyn made in a Twitter Space.

 

With a modest following of 22k across her social platforms and less than 100k streams on Spotify, the female singer made over $10,000 from songs that otherwise would have sat in her collection — all thanks to web3.

 

Benedict is one of the few female music artists leading the way as an NFT creator in a very much male-dominated space. From her first NFT launch, she has been able to cultivate an organic and highly engaged audience of loyal fans and supporters whose NFTs will grow in value as she builds out her web3 ecosystem.

 

“I felt like I had to prove myself coming into the web3 space,” said Benedict. “Even on my hardest days, I realized my effort was going beyond myself. I was impacting other people in web3 — as small as my impact was, it’s continuing to grow every single day.

 

I’m connecting with real people and building the 1000 fan rule. You can look at an artist’s stats, Spotify numbers, streams, etc., but how many people will actually show up to their shows? That’s what this space allows independent artists to create on our own.”

 

Next up, she will be launching her crypto crowdfund campaign on May 2nd, which entail unlockable 3D Tarot Card NFTs — each with an instrumental snippet from the album — with the goal to fully fund and promote her debut album “Wake.”

 

For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.

 

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21. Amy Matushima, Founder at Woman In Crypto and MetaTora

 

amymatsushima

 

From an early age, Amy Matsushima has displayed an innovative, entrepreneurial, and unbounded anima. You could say it all began in 3rd grade, wherein she recalls selling her own hand-crafted bracelets during recess. After two weeks, the demand rose, and she hired and trained fellow 8 year olds to optimize the production of the bracelets, thus, optimizing revenue.

In 2019, she began investing and trading, powering her fascination with cryptocurrency and its historical significance. In that same year, she entered the car and boating rental business, and presently remains active in the venture.

No matter the entrepreneurial stride, her gender has raised eye-brows, often finding herself to be the only woman amongst men in these enterprises.

In the Marina, whether she is walking to her boat, or driving it, her conversations often start with, “Yes, it’s my boat” or “Yes, I know how to drive it”. Daily, she is reminded of the gender gap (both financially and epistemically), not only in the realm of entrepreneurship as a whole, but now in the world of cryptocurrency.

Nonetheless, these disparities further motivate her to actively pursue and work towards educating and empowering underrepresented individuals. Ultimately, she is committed to inducing the shift necessary to ensure the equal opportunity of women in the global marketplace.

With this current opportunity, she firmly believes every person has a place on the blockchain, and should feel able to partake in this technological and financial revolution at hand.

22. Victoria Pérez Gascón, Scientific Communications Lead at DNAverse

 

victoriaperez

 

In her role at DNAverse –  the world’s first art NFT collection customized with real DNA data – Victoria works alongside the platform’s in-house team of seasoned NFT specialists, scientists, designers and 3D animators at the vanguard of innovation in the biometaverse.

Victoria works closely with DNAverse Marketing Manager Juan Castillo in directing the company’s global communications strategy, while overseeing the day-to-day marketing functions of the business.

Victoria also heads up Digital Marketing and Scientific Communication for 3DforScience, one of the world’s most influential and internationally renowned scientific visualization studios.

During her distinguished career to date, Victoria has underlined her credentials as a specialist in Scientific Communication, Digital Marketing and NFTs, while demonstrating exceptional creativity and strategic acumen.

Now firmly immersed in the NFT space, Victoria is energised by the prospect of enhancing social interactions in the metaverse by enabling the total customization of NFT collections and BIOavatars. Victoria is passionate about driving NFT and crypto innovation forward, while leveraging technology as a force for good.

She holds a degree in Journalism from Universidad de Santiago de Compostela in Spain and a Masters in History of Science and Scientific Communication from Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche.

23. Dagmara Aldridge, Amélie Arras and Devina Paul – Chief People and Culture Officer, Marketing Director and Chief Financial Officer, Zumo

 

Women in Management team at Zumo-2

 

Dagmara is Zumo’s first Chief People and Culture Officer, responsible for its progressive ‘People’ function, which is shaped by the latest neuroscience and Future of Work trends.

Her role is to support the company’s growth ambitions while maintaining Zumo’s culture, and empowering its talent to have a positive impact on the wider industry, financial inclusion and the environment.

Dagmara joined Zumo in 2020 as Chief Operating Officer, bringing over 15 years’ leadership experience from across the payments, financial services and fintech sectors.

Prior to becoming a member of Zumo’s senior leadership team, Dagmara was head of operations, change and delivery for CashFlows, a UK-based multichannel payments start-up. She previously served in various change delivery leadership roles with Valitor, Travis Perkins and Barclaycard.

Amelie is a marketing and communications leader in the fintech and sector. Amélie has widely promoted the benefits of cryptocurrency and championed the work of women in this space.

She has a rather unique background in the fintech and financial services sectors, she travelled over 16 countries around the world paying only with crypto, and experienced first-hand the real-life challenges of using an emerging payment method and technology.

Amelie’s personal mission is to bring fun and accessibility to the fintech and crypto space. She is immensely passionate about supporting sustainable initiatives and collaboration in the finance and payments world.

Devina has 20 years’ experience as a finance professional and has spent the last 10 years working with start-ups to prepare their businesses for investment, scale, high growth and exit. She has multiple exits and funding rounds under her belt – most notably with I Spy to Dentsu Aegis, Encore Digital Media to Next 15 and most recently Aquila Insight to Dentsu Aegis.

As well as her work with Zumo, Devina is an early-stage investor and co-founder of Galvanise Capital, an angel investment syndicate. She has several board NED and advisory roles; is a trustee of Re:Generate and Centre for Youth Impact; and is an advisor to One Tech. Devina is also a keen advocate of financial well-being and accessibility and regularly hosts workshops around getting investment and providing investment.

 

24. Lydia Wang, Marketing Director at OVER

 

Lydia Wang, Marketing Director at OVER

 

Lydia Wang is the Marketing Director at OVER, a decentralized Metaverse platform curating geolocalized AR/VR experiences. Skilled in crypto project branding and marketing/PR strategy, Lydia boasts strong sales experience as a skilled professional with a Master’s Degree focused in Media and Communications from London School of Economics and Political Science.

OVER is a world-scale, open-source AR platform powered by Ethereum Blockchain and based in Italy. OVER makes it possible for users to delve into a metaverse of location-based live interactive augmented reality experiences through their mobile device or smart glasses.

OVER sets the new standard in augmented reality experiences by building the first content browser where the available AR/VR experiences are tied to the user’s location. OVER adopt the open-source philosophy, meaning that the entire OVER community contributes to its growth, thus making the platform independent of its creators.

 

25. Aleksandra Shelepova, Head of Legal at CoinLoan

 

Aleksandra

 

Aleksandra Shelepova is CoinLoan’s Head of Legal, a position which she has held since 2018. She is also a Certified Data Protection Officer and AML coach / expert. Aleksandra is responsible for the CoinLoan license updates, along with the development of the company’s terms and internal policies, including the ongoing legal documentation.

Previously, she has worked as a legal advisor, being the Head of Legal in different consulting projects and CEO to a number of companies in Estonia. Before joining the CoinLoan team she also ran her own licensed legal consulting company advising on a wide range of industries, including European corporate / migration / tax legislation.

CoinLoan’s legal department, led by Aleksandra Shelepova, has recently been involved in innovating the approach to the crypto legal space.

 

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26. Jillian Godsil, Co-Founder and Editor of Blockleaders.io

 

jill

 

In September 2021, Jillian Godsil was a finalist in the prestigious CryptoAM UK awards in the education section. In August, she was named as one of the UK’s Most Influential Women in Tech by Computer Weekly in 2021. Jillian Godsil is a tireless advocate for Women in Blockchain, eradication of homelessness and income equality.

After the Bitcoin Miami conference, she signed a contract with Brock Pierce, James Heckman and David Bailey to port her Blockleaders news site onto their new censorship resistant media platform – going live in May 2022.

On international Women’s Day 2021, Jillian was nominated one of 100 global women in leadership awards in COVID reflecting the 30 plus years her career spans across a global stage including Sydney, Singapore, Kiev, Austin, Muscat, Columbo, Dubai, Capetown, Liberland, Malta, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Vienna, Dublin and London

In June 2020 she was awarded Blockchain Journalist of the year by Uptrennds (then largest blockchain social platform).

In 2019 she was nominated for the national Irish IMRO radio awards, made the top 100 Global Blockchain Leaders list by Lattice80 and was named AI and Blockchain Journalist of the Year at the CC Forum in London. In 2018 she was awarded the Order of Merit by the President of Liberland.

She changed the law in Ireland in 2014 and is a former European Parliamentary candidate (as an independent).

She is a co-founder and editor in chief of Blockleaders.io. She is the author of more than 18 books. She is a freelance journalist for many publications including CoinDesk, CityAM, CoinTelegraph, CryptoSlate News, The Irish Times and ITN.

 

27. Sarojini McKenna, Co-Founder at Alien Worlds

 

sarojini mckenna (1)

 

Sarojini McKenna is a co-founder of the breakthrough NFT Metaverse, Alien Worlds, one of the world’s most popular blockchain games and one of the biggest dapps overall, according to DappRadar.

Alien Worlds, which lives on the Ethereum, WAX and Binance Smart Chain blockchains, is a Metaverse spread over seven planets and at its core is the concept of not one but six competing decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). 

McKenna is a pioneer when it comes to using DAOs as a governance mechanism in the Web3 space. She is committed to using DAOs as a new way to co-ordinate economies at scale and demonstrating the positive network effects of these communities. 

McKenna previously worked on the EOS blockchain and was part of the team that worked closely with the micronation Liberland, a tiny 8-square-kilometer nation on the banks of the Danube River. McKenna’s role was to examine how to install a system of governance on one the world’s newest nations using blockchain and the concept of DAOs. 

She has bridged traditional business practices with decentralized communities and concepts since the early days of cryptocurrency.

Prior, she spent more than four years in M&A at Rothschild in London and has represented equity on Boards of Directors. Saro holds an MA Hons from Oxford University where she was a Mrs. JH McKeown scholar. 

 

28. Irina Karagyaur, Head of Metaverse Growth at Unique Network

 

Irina

 

Irina Karagyaur is the Head of Metaverse Growth at Unique Network, where she leads the business growth activities for the organisation. She focuses on establishing strategic partnerships and ecosystem building to enable bridging the off-chain world with the Metaverse.

She is the Head Ambassador for Western Europe of the Polkadot network, and also London’s Regional Co-Chair to FIBREE (Foundation for International Blockchain and Real Estate Expertise), co-coordinator of DigitalArt4Climate initiative.

Irina co-founded BQ9, a crypto-fintech boutique advisory firm that focuses on NFTs, and other Web 3.0 services. With over 10 years of experience, she has established herself as an international business development professional in strategic partnerships, analysis of foreign markets, and business planning across the UK, EU, and Russia.

Irina holds a BA from the Southern Federal University in Russia, and an MSc in Urban Planning and Policy Design from Politecnico di Milano, Italy.

 

29. Lisa Gibbons, Blockchain Journalist, Educationalist and Web3 Advocat

 

lisa gibbons photo

 

Lisa is a passionate blockchain professional with a love for all things, education and sustainability. Most recently she is working on a sustainability series for Blockleaders, bringing the leaders web3 projects and impact investors together to discuss the opportunities for creating a greener future.

She writes for numerous publications, including Euronews, Cryptoslate, Blockleaders and Blocktelegraph. She founded Orchardsnearme.com, a platform dedicated to wild food foraging and sustainable food distribution.  

After learning about the leading women in blockchain Lisa teamed up with acclaimed journalist Jillian Godsil to run her Blockleaders news site as a new censorship resistant media platform under the Roundtable brand. 

Lisa works with numerous NFT projects, has minted her own NFTs and is fascinated by the technology that brings NFT’s to life. 

In the past Lisa has judged the Student Enterprise Awards and helped to organise the World’s first Simulated Crypto Trading Competition with The Blockchain Academy. 

 

30. Maria Eagleton, Co-Founder and COO at Intellabridge

 

Maria Eagleton

 

Maria is the co-founder and current Chief Operating Officer of a publicly traded blockchain company called Intellabridge, a Mastercard-incubated company that offers savings accounts with stable 10% annual returns to individuals, corporations, and nonprofits.

 

Maria is responsible for developing and implementing the overall operational management of the organization, including public filings with the Toronto Securities Exchange Commission, budget management, and human resources.

 

Maria has an educational background in International Finance and teaches “Operational Management” at the Unit Business School. Maria has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and Authority Magazine.

 

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31. Caroline Hughes, Co-Founder and CEO at Lifetise

 

Caroline Hughes - Lifetise

 

Caroline Hughes is co-founder and CEO of Lifetise, an award-winning consumer Fintech company which helps people plan how to afford major life events, like buying a home or having children. Now building the world’s first fintech metaverse to help consumers understand and access financial products across TradFi and DeFi.

Caroline has been named as a Senior Leader and Rising Star of Fintech on Innovate Finance’s Women in Fintech Powerlist in 2020 and 2021.

Lifetise graduated from Accenture’s Fintech Innovation Lab in 2019 and the Mayor of London’s Business Growth Programme in 2021 and has been named as a Top 50 UK Fintech by Business Cloud.

Caroline is a mentor for early-stage start-ups, a regular speaker at finance and tech industry events, and the host of the Money & Me podcast.

 

32. Charu Sethi, Chief Marketing Officer at Unique Network

 

Charu Sethi

 

Charu Sethi is the Chief Marketing Officer of Unique Network, an NFT chain for Polkadot and Kusama. Charu has over 13 years experience in tech marketing across infrastructure, services and software, with 4 years of experience in the blockchain industry. Charu has worked for companies like IBM, helping build out their blockchain adoption marketing for Asia Pacific for enterprise blockchain solutions. 

At Unique Network, Charu spearheaded the community focused fundraising events like Polkadot Crowdloans and a public token sale round resulting in total fund raise of $11 million in public sale and over $12.3 million in total $DOT committed.

Charu is also deeply engaged with enterprise organisations including Twimbit and Ecosystm in Singapore helping with their adoption of web3.0 technologies. 

Charu has been highlighted amongst 11 inspiring women in Crypto alongside industry leading influencers.

 

33. Laura Tuppurainen, Head of Marketing at Silta Finance

 

Laura

 

Laura is a creative marketer with a passion for building meaningful brands. Her career has taken her from the international marketing of a global corporation to working with a portfolio of client projects in a digital agency before landing in Web3.

Prior to joining the Silta project, Laura led the marketing of the blockchain consultancy TX – Tomorrow Explored. Now, she is directing the marketing and communication efforts of Silta Finance, a project which is bridging decentralized finance to sustainability-driven infrastructure developers.

She believes that if DeFi can be driven towards projects with real-world impact, decentralization has the power to build a better, more sustainable world.

 

34. Sasha DiMarsico, Head of Communications and Co-Founder at Banxe

 

Sasha DiMarsico headshot

 

Sasha has more than 10 years of experience throughout her career and draws on her cross-industry background in her role as Head of Communications and Co-founder of the next-generation financial platform, Banxe.

During her time working as a Community Manager at Microsoft, Sasha always knew she wanted to make a difference in the world of tech.

The industry inspired her to continue to pursue a career in tech, throughout her roles in the marketing, real estate, and financial industries. Technology permeates almost every aspect of everyday life and Sasha saw the difference this could make to the financial world.

Whilst working in the real estate industry before embarking on a career in crypto and fintech, Sasha experienced first-hand the challenges her clients faced when liaising with traditional banks and needing quick transactions.

During this time, she discovered faults in the banking systems which further inspired her to fix these issues and embark upon a career in fintech. As a frequent traveller, Sasha also found the faults in accessing personal assets abroad, such as expensive overseas ATM charges. Having experienced these problems, Sasha has been able to bring this knowledge and passion to her role at Banxe.

Democratising cryptocurrencies has always been a top priority to allow anyone access to crypto and fiat currencies worldwide, as well as opening more possibilities for women in crypto.

Coming into a previously male-dominated industry, Sasha is very passionate about influencing more women to go into the world of crypto.

She is calling for women to have the freedom and access to be a part of the financial community across the globe and to inspire other women not to be deterred from pursuing a career in crypto and other male-dominated industries.

 

35. Sarah-Diane Eck, Founder at Lum Network

 

Sarah-Diane Eck, Founder at Lum Network

 

Sarah-Diane Eck is the Founder of Lum Network, a trusted & transparent decentralized rewards system that leverages quality content with crypto and loyalty tokens. Boasting a triple degree in Business & Management (HEC Paris), Engineering (AgroParisTech) and Corporate Law & International Tax (Panthéon-Assas), Sarah-Diane has been involved in the blockchain and startup community for several years and helped many entrepreneurs to launch and develop their web3 and NFT projects.

She wants to promote the development of blockchain with concrete uses as well as to promote talents in the world in tech and startups as well as opportunities for women to be engineers (being herself). She also made a successful exit in the blockchain industry.

Sarah-Diane is also the Vice President of France Digitale, a French general interest association that brings together digital entrepreneurs and investors (venture capitalists and angel investors)and it is considered as the most representative professional organization of the sector.

 

36. Meytar Zehavi, Podcast Host and Founder & Community Manager at Queen of NFT

 

Meytar Zehavi, Podcast Host and Founder & Community Manager at Queen of NFT

 

Meytar Zehavi is a Content Creator, Podcast Host, and Founder & Community Manager of Queen of NFT. Coming from a tech background with military service in an elite technology unit, Meytar boasts over 6 years of experience in the cybersecurity, hi-tech and general technology industries.

A daughter to a stage actor, Meytar has been on and off stage from an early age, and loved performing and making people smile, laugh and feel. Combining her dynamic background in performing arts and technology, Meytar uses her expertise to create content, lead and make waves in the technology, and specifically the crypto/NFT space.

Ambitious, curious, and owing to a never-ending passion for computers and technology, Meytar uses her passion for performing arts, experience in script writing in Los Angeles and New York, to create educational content about NFT trading, investments strategies and the technology behind it all.

Interviewing experts and leading voices in the field on her Instagram Channel, she created a platform to question these leaders and for the community to hear and learn together from their knowledge and expertise.

Today, Meytar has quickly become one of the top influencers in the Israeli NFT space, and a leading speaker and panel moderator in multiple NFT conferences across the world.

What began as mere curiosity about the investment opportunities, and innovative technology of the NFT and crypto space, led Meytar to realize the lack of women in the crypto communities, as well as the need to create positive leadership and a safe space for people to grow and interact.

She went on to establish Queen of NFT, an exclusive invite-only dedicated Women in NFT community that acts as a network and support group for all women interested and active in the space.

Today, in addition to her work In the NFT space, Meytar also hosts her own show called “It might work” (in Hebrew) on Screenz.live, where she interviews different people about success, skills and approach. They discuss skills such as storytelling, marketing and branding, as well as mental health and emotion control.

 

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