- The proportion of women among active cryptocurrency users increased from 17% to 21%, and female activity grew faster than male activity across all age groups.
- Female spot trading activity tripled in 2025, raising women’s share of total spot volume from 3% to 5%.
- Bitcoin leads female crypto activity, with a greater focus on a long-term and hold-first mentality which also makes women less reactive to market volatility.
For years, cryptocurrency adoption has primarily been measured through the lens of overall user growth: new wallets, growing volumes, expanding markets. But behind those numbers, the composition of who participates has been quietly changing. New data from CEX.IO, drawn from a sample of more than 3 million users in more than 150 countries, reveals that female participation in cryptocurrencies is not only growing but accelerating at a pace that outpaces the broader market.
Women in particular are moving more actively from passive holding to active trading, but a long-term orientation and holding through volatility rather than reacting to it remains the most popular approach.
What follows is a detailed analysis of where that growth is coming from, what female users are actually doing with their wallets, and what their behavior might indicate about the evolving nature of crypto participation in general.
1 in 5 active cryptocurrency users is now female
In 2024, approximately one in six users (17%) who made a financial transaction on the crypto exchange was a woman. Today, that number is closer to one in five (21%).
What makes this figure more surprising is the pace behind it. Female user activity grew more than twice as fast as male activity during the same period: more than 70% year-on-year growth for women, compared to 33% for men. In particular, women consistently outperformed men across all age groups.
The age group of 35 to 50 years stands out as the most active. Women in this group represent the largest proportion of female crypto operations and represent the core of female crypto engagement.
But the group advancing the fastest is the youngest: women between 18 and 25 more than doubled their activity year after year. Some of that acceleration reflects a lower starting point, but still, young women are entering cryptocurrencies at an increasing rate and are getting there faster than their male peers.
Women doubled their financial footprint in crypto, and trading fueled the trend
Women-driven financial volume on crypto exchange grew by more than 118% in 2025, surpassing men’s volume with a 99% growth rate during the same period.
Spot trading played an important role in this increase. The proportion of female spot traders increased by around 12% almost 13% in 2025. It may seem modest, but the volume’s story is more impactful. Female spot trading volume tripled year on year. As a result, the share of women in the total volume of spot trading increased from approximately 3% to more 5%.
Among male spot traders in particular, activity is increasingly concentrated in the 25-35 age group, suggesting that younger men are leading trading behavior. But among female traders, the 35 to 50-year-old group continues to be dominant, both in activity and volume.
Meanwhile, the overall share of spot trading within female crypto activity has also grown, rising from approximately 22% to 31% feminine volume. This indicates that women are increasingly using trading tools as a more important part of their crypto journey.
Women in Crypto are BTC first and stick more to their original plan
Among female users, Bitcoin is the digital asset that is interacted with the most by volume, which represents 37% of female financial activity. The female ranking of the top five assets is: BTC, USDT, ETH, USDC, XRP, with Bitcoin clearly in the lead. Among male users, the order is slightly different: USDT, USDC, BTC, ETH, XRP, and stablecoins account for almost half of financial activity. This gap points to a more purchase and retention orientation among female userswhile male activity leans more towards active rotation between assets.
That long-term mentality is also shown in how users respond (or rather do not respond) to market turbulence. When high-impact events hit the market and total spot volumes increase, users show noticeably smaller spikes in both activity and volume. This does not mean that they are passive, but rather less reactive to noise and acts as a stabilizing force in the market.
Despite a clear preference for Bitcoin, women are actively exploring beyond it. Among the major altcoins, the assets that saw the largest increase in female interest in 2025 include AAVE, SUI, XRP, SOL, and ETH.
Conclusion
Female adoption of cryptocurrencies over the past year was broad, spanning all age groups, outpacing male growth in both activity and volume, and deepening in engagement as more women moved from passive holding to active trading.
This trend is not unique to cryptocurrencies and a similar shift is occurring in traditional finance. The Fidelity investigation found that 7 out of 10 women own investments in the stock market, 18% more than the previous year. Charles Schwab 2025 Survey found Millennial women are starting to invest earlier than previous generations, supporting the trend of younger women becoming more involved in cryptocurrencies.
The behavior patterns are also similar. Bitcoin-first thinking and lower reactivity to market volatility mirror what researchers have documented in traditional markets for decades: women trade less, hold their positions longer, and tend to do better as a result.What makes cryptocurrencies distinctive is the rhythm. A four percentage point increase in the female share of active cryptocurrency users in a single year is a steeper trajectory than traditional finance has typically recorded. As female participation continues to grow, it can bring considerably different energy to a crypto space that has sometimes been defined by its excesses.
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