Crypto ownership among Norwegian women doubles, mirroring global trends

The number of women in Norway who own some form of cryptocurrency doubled during 2021, according to a new survey. 

The survey, conducted by Arcane Research and Ernst & Young found that the rate of female ownership of crypto assets in Norway surged from 3% in early 2021 to 6% by Wednesday, March 30 of this year. The online survey interviewed 1000 Norwegians aged 15 and older and was conducted in partnership with NORSTAT, one of the leading data collectors for market research services in Northern Europe.

Almost two-thirds of all female respondents said that they first purchased cryptocurrency in 2021. Up until this recent survey was conducted, the gender gap in Norwegian crypto ownership had been widening, with female ownership steady at 3% from 2019 to early 2021. Over the same period, male ownership increased from 6% in 2019 to 14% in 2022.

The survey also found that, overall, approximately 10% of the Norwegian population — which would equate to 420,000 people — now own some type of cryptocurrency, representing a doubling in overall Norwegian crypto ownership since 2018.

Norway isn’t the only country to witness increasing female involvement in cryptocurrency — Cointelegraph reported in December that a study by Australian-based cryptocurrency exchange, Independent Reserve found that the number of Australian women who invested in crypto had also doubled from 10% in 2020, to 20% by late-2021.

A 2022 survey in Turkey, released in March by KuCoin indicated a more even distribution between male and female crypto users in the country, with women accounting for almost half (47%) of all crypto investors and representing 63% of the “crypto-curious” demographic.

While the trend toward more equal participation in crypto is looking positive, there are still significant gaps in specific areas of the cryptocurrency industry. In the NFT sector female creators account for just 5% of all sales in the total market.

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Overall global ownership of crypto continues to grow. Approximately half of the German population has indicated that they are ready to invest in crypto, with women accounting for 53% of that total, according to a survey released last week from KuCoin.

As reported by Cointelegraph, Florian Döhnert-Breyer, the managing director of German crypto fund F5 Crypto stated that Germany will come to be seen as a role model for the wider adoption of crypto investing: "As the largest country in the EU with a notoriously risk-averse view of financial assets, Germany has a special role to play."

"The high number of women interested in crypto is particularly encouraging as this target group is, on average, less active in the financial market (e.g., stock market).”

Research by Grayscale from 2019 shows that women tend to be more risk-averse investors, a reason often cited as a partial explanation for the gender gap between the number of female and male crypto investors.