"Hardcore" Women in Web3: What Projects Have They Created?

Compiled by: Xiang Xiang, flowie, Nian Qing, ChainCatcher

On the eve of this year's International Women's Day, a new report from BCGX, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and People of Crypto revealed a set of heart-wrenching numbers: only 13% of Web3 founding teams include women. Among the founder data, women account for only 7%. The report also found that Web3 startups founded by men raised nearly four times the funding of those founded by women, a gap larger than in other startup sectors.

In summary, compared to other industries, women entrepreneurs in Web3 are already scarce, and this industry seems to have a more severe discrimination against women, raising the barriers for women to enter the Web3 field. They have become a more low-key presence in this industry.

In fact, the Web3 space is not lacking in dazzling female entrepreneurs and powerful female leaders. The ChainCatcher joint data platform RootData has marked numerous female project entrepreneurs through the Collection of Web3 Projects Founded by Women, hoping to make "them" more visible through this collection.

The records in this collection are not exhaustive. If you know any shining women in the Web3 field who are not included in this collection, feel free to recommend them to us. Contact information is at the end of the article.

Song Xiaodong, Founder and CEO of Oasis Network

Twitter: @dawnsongtweets

Professor Song Xiaodong graduated with a bachelor's degree in physics from Tsinghua University and then continued her studies in physics at Cornell University in the United States. However, she later transferred to Carnegie Mellon University to study computer science and subsequently completed her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, focusing on computer security.

After graduation, Song Xiaodong served as a professor in the computer science departments of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of California, Berkeley, receiving numerous awards in the field of computer science, earning the title of "Mother of Computer Security." In 2019, she founded Oasis Labs, focusing on building scalable and privacy-preserving systems by combining dedicated computing chips and blockchain technology. Oasis Network officially launched on November 19, 2020, becoming the world's first decentralized high-performance blockchain network with privacy protection features and scalability.

Professor Song Xiaodong has also been dedicated to educating about blockchain technology, with the well-known open course DeFi MOOC initiated by her. Additionally, she and the University of California, Berkeley, launched ZKP MOOC and ZKP/web3 hackathons to provide academic and financial support to more young entrepreneurs.

Elizabeth Stark, Co-founder and CEO of Lightning Labs

Twitter: @starkness

Elizabeth Stark holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Brown University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. Before entering the crypto world, she was more of an academic, serving as a researcher for Yale's Information Society Project, a lecturer in computer science at Yale University, an adjunct professor at New York University, and an entrepreneur in residence at Stanford's StartX.

In 2014, Elizabeth Stark officially entered the crypto world by founding StartBitcoin.org; in 2015, she became a researcher at the cryptocurrency policy research organization Coin Center, advocating for good government policies regarding cryptocurrencies and other decentralized technologies; in 2016, she co-founded Lightning Labs.

Lightning Labs developed the software that powers the Lightning Network. Its open-source, secure, and scalable system enables users to send and receive funds more efficiently than ever before. It also offers a range of verifiable, non-custodial financial services based on the Lightning Network.

After starting her entrepreneurial journey, Elizabeth Stark did not sever her ties with academia, continuing to serve as a visiting scholar at Yale University's Information Society Project and teaching there. As a mentor for the Thiel Fellowship, she is also dedicated to supporting students under 23 who intend to drop out to pursue other projects.

He Yi, Co-founder and CMO of Binance, Head of Binance Labs

Twitter: @heyibinance

From the perspective of the global exchange landscape, Binance undoubtedly occupies a core position. As a co-founder and CMO, He Yi has played an indispensable role in the development of Binance.

Initially, Binance was not well-known, but He Yi successfully helped it gain the necessary market heat and user base through various marketing activities. By the end of 2017, just five months after its launch, Binance's trading volume ranked in the top three globally, with over 2 million users. Since then, Binance has surged ahead.

After Binance established a solid position as a leading exchange, He Yi began overseeing Binance Labs, leveraging Binance's resources to find, assist, and incubate more early-stage quality crypto projects and founders. As one of the largest venture capital firms in the industry by asset management scale, Binance Labs has invested in a large number of early projects in key verticals and has made significant contributions to accelerating Web3's entry into the mainstream.

Jinglan Wang, Co-founder and CEO of Optimism

Twitter: @jinglejamOP

Jinglan Wang's initial interest in the crypto world was sparked by the MIT Bitcoin Club, and to better understand Bitcoin, she decisively chose to switch to computer science. Since 2015, Jinglan Wang has been deeply engaged in research on Ethereum's scalability. In 2019, she co-founded the non-profit research organization Plasma Group, which is the predecessor of Optimism.

Optimism is an Ethereum L2 solution that utilizes optimistic rollup technology, significantly reducing costs and transaction times while retaining Ethereum's security advantages. In March 2022, Optimism achieved a valuation of $1.65 billion, successfully entering the ranks of crypto unicorns. In June of the same year, it officially launched its governance token OP and initiated a large-scale airdrop, causing a stir in the crypto community.

Elena Nadolinski, Founder and CEO of Iron Fish

Twitter: @leanthebean

Elena Nadolinski graduated from Virginia Tech in the United States and was recognized as a rising star in computer science by the White House at a young age. She interned at Microsoft and was hired as an engineer by the popular startup Tilt, later working in software development at Airbnb.

After the Ethereum-Google event in 2017, Nadolinski developed a strong interest in the crypto world, reading numerous white papers and engaging with founders, protocol developers, and engineers. She began participating in hackathons and meetups, asking questions, providing solutions, and making friends. Subsequently, Nadolinski chose to pursue entrepreneurship full-time and founded Iron Fish.

Iron Fish is a Layer 1 blockchain designed to be a universal privacy layer for all Web3. Iron Fish uses zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARK) and the highest industry encryption standards to enable users to conduct completely private transactions, becoming the true SSL layer for all blockchains.

Gloria Zhao, Bitcoin Core Maintainer

Twitter: @glozow

(Although Gloria Zhao is not strictly an entrepreneur, her experience as one of the representatives of the Bitcoin project is equally "hardcore.")

Gloria Zhao was born in California, USA, and graduated in 2020 from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in computer science. She is also a researcher at Brink, a non-governmental organization in the UK that supports Bitcoin development. In 2020, Gloria Zhao was awarded the first scholarship by Brink. Since then, she has been actively involved in Bitcoin Core, primarily responsible for the mempool and validation code.

In July of last year, Gloria Zhao became the sixth developer with commit access to Bitcoin Core. Since Bitcoin's inception in 2009, only 17 people have ever been granted code modification access, and Gloria Zhao is the first woman to hold this privilege. According to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal, Gloria Zhao is the most likely candidate to succeed as the chief maintainer of Bitcoin.

Natalia Ameline, Elena Sinelnikova, Co-founders of Metis and CryptoChicks

Twitter: @Natalia_Ameline @ElenaCryptoChic

Left: Elena Sinelnikova, Right: Natalia Ameline

Natalia Ameline and Elena Sinelnikova are the two co-founders of the Ethereum scaling solution Layer-2 Optimistic rollup network Metis, and they are also the founders of the non-profit international women's blockchain education center CryptoChicks.

Elena Sinelnikova holds a master's degree in computer science, specializing in blockchain, cybersecurity, and full-stack programming. She is also the head of a software development team, a blockchain educator, and a blockchain advisor for projects such as MaxGapPlus and Jupiter Vision.

Natalia Ameline is a senior financial executive with multi-industry experience, holding master's degrees in computer science and business administration, as well as CPA/CMA accounting qualifications. She specializes in strategic financial planning, decision support, operational management, and change management. Natalia Ameline began her career as a financial analyst at Unilever, later joining the globally renowned shipping company Pitney Bowes, where she worked for 18 years, rising from financial manager to senior financial executive and global director of business analysis. In addition to being a co-founder of Metis and CryptoChicks, Natalia Ameline is also notably the mother of Ethereum founder Vitalik.

Kathleen Breitman, Co-founder of Tezos

Twitter: @_kathleenBreit

Kathleen Breitman graduated from Cornell University and, in 2014, published the Tezos white paper with her husband Arthur Breitman, officially launching Tezos in October 2016. Prior to that, Kathleen Breitman served as a senior strategic assistant at R3, a blockchain consortium composed of nearly a hundred financial companies, and held positions at Accenture, Bridgewater Associates, and The Wall Street Journal.

Sandy Peng, Co-founder of Scroll

Twitter: @SandyPeng1

Sandy Peng graduated from the University of Cambridge and obtained her master's degree from the London School of Economics. She previously worked in research at the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and began working in Web3 project investments in 2017, having previously worked on gaming and product projects. She is currently responsible for non-technical work at the Scroll team.

In early 2021, Sandy co-founded the Ethereum scaling project Scroll with Ye Zhang and Haichen Shen. Recently, Scroll completed a $50 million financing round at an $1.8 billion valuation, with investments from Polychain Capital, Bain Capital Crypto, and others.

Kathryn Haun, Founder and CEO of Haun Ventures

Twitter: @katie_haun

Kathryn Haun graduated from Stanford University and worked for the U.S. Department of Justice for ten years. In 2014, she created one of the first cryptocurrency working groups in the U.S. government. In 2017, Kathryn left the government to join the board of Coinbase, where she met Chris Dixon, and later left Coinbase to join a16z as a general partner in the crypto department, co-launching and expanding one of the world's earliest and largest dedicated crypto venture funds.

After working with many entrepreneurial and outstanding builders, Kathryn Haun founded her own crypto investment firm, Haun Ventures, in 2022, aiming to help founders build the next generation of the internet. She has raised $1.5 billion to support the development of Web3. According to RootData, Haun Ventures has made 12 investments since its inception, with a portfolio including star projects like OpenSea and Aptos.

Morgan Beller, Partner at NFX, Co-founder of Diem

Twitter: @beller

Morgan Beller graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor’s degree in Statistics and Information Science. She is a co-founder of Libra and served as the strategic lead for Novi, the digital wallet used for the Libra payment system at Facebook. She initially joined Facebook in 2017, where she was responsible for Facebook's strategy in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and decentralized technologies. Previously, she worked at Medium, leading the acquisition of Embedly and playing a key role in developing Medium's subscription strategy. Beller also served as a partner at a16z and was a product manager for buyer experience at eBay.

In 2020, Morgan joined the venture capital firm NFX, focusing on startups as a partner and head of the crypto investment fund. According to RootData, NFX has a portfolio of 24 projects, including star projects like Celestia and Sui.

Cheryl Liu, Co-founder of Deeper Network

Cheryl Liu is an excellent serial entrepreneur, graduating from the University of Wyoming in the United States, and holds a Ph.D. in Mathematical Structures. Before entering the blockchain field, she worked in education and founded an offline school, gaining rich entrepreneurial experience. It wasn't until she encountered blockchain that she founded Chain Quan Technology Consulting Co., Ltd. in 2017, beginning her journey in the blockchain field.

Cheryl Liu is also the marketing partner and co-founder of Deeper Network. Deeper provides enterprise-level firewalls, privacy protection, and ad-blocking features as Web3 infrastructure.

Marina Guryeva, Founder and CEO of Neon Labs

Twitter: @mariaveirug

Marina Guryeva has been actively involved in the blockchain field since 2015, serving as a director for the startup CyberFund, which invests in blockchain; she later joined the blockchain-based social network Commun in 2019, leading the community-operated social network.

In 2021, Marina founded Neon Labs, dedicated to bringing Solana's scalability and low transaction costs into the Ethereum ecosystem. Before entering the blockchain industry, Marina Guryeva had extensive experience in market public relations and strategic planning.

Leah Wald, Co-founder & CEO of Valkyrie

Twitter: @LeahWald

Leah Wald is an economist specializing in asset management. She graduated from the University of Haifa in Israel and studied international economics and Chinese at Peking University. She later pursued master's degrees in international politics and economics at Georgetown University and Pitzer College, as well as a master's in management at IE Business School.

After graduating from IE Business School, Leah Wald worked in NGOs, the World Bank, and asset management. In August 2020, Leah Wald founded Valkyrie, an asset management company focused on digital asset economics, and became a board member of Cypherpunk Holdings, a crypto investment company listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange, in October 2021.

Additionally, Leah Wald is a contributing writer for Forbes and co-authored "Super Wave Theory: The Rogue Waves of Financial Markets."

Linda Xie, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Scalar Capital

Twitter: @ljxie

Linda Xie is the co-founder and managing partner of Scalar Capital. Previously, she was an early employee and product manager at Coinbase, responsible for building internal tools, including compliance, fraud, and financial systems. Before joining Coinbase, she was a portfolio risk analyst at AIG and also served as an advisor for 0x. Linda holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of California, San Diego.

In 2017, Linda Xie co-founded Scalar Capital, a hedge fund focused on crypto assets, with Jordan Clifford. According to RootData, Scalar Capital has invested in a series of star projects, including YGG, Aztec, dYdX, and Aleo.

Galia Benartzi, Co-founder of Bancor

Twitter: @galiabenartzi

Galia Benartzi is a serial tech entrepreneur. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature from Dartmouth College and a Master’s degree in International Economics from SAIS, Johns Hopkins University.

After graduating from university in 2005, Galia Benartzi co-founded the smartphone social gaming company Mytopia; in 2010, she founded Particle Code for cross-platform development technology for mobile applications, which was later acquired by Appcelerator. In 2013, she moved from Silicon Valley to Tel Aviv, serving as a venture partner at Founders Fund, supporting and investing in local tech development in Israel. In March 2017, she co-founded the decentralized on-chain automated market maker (AMM) network Bancor. Galia Benartzi is also a founding member of Powder Mountain and is passionate about distributed technology, women's empowerment, natural health, and plants.

Rebecca Liao, Co-founder and CEO of Saga

Twitter: @beccaliao

Rebecca Liao studied economics at Stanford University and attended Harvard Law School, being a lawyer with many years of experience. She served as the Director of Business Development and Head of Asia for the B2B unicorn Globality and worked on technology policy in the U.S. Clinton administration. She also co-founded Skuchain (with an annual transaction volume exceeding $5 billion, recognized by the World Trade Organization as one of the top three blockchain companies in trade and supply chain finance) and served as an advisor and former COO.

Rebecca is currently an advisor for Sommelier Protocol, where she is designing a DAO for the project. She is also a researcher for Stanford's Law, Science, and Technology Program, producing and hosting the global-public-policy podcast.

In early 2022, Rebecca founded Saga, a protocol that reimagines the interaction between developers and end-users with blockchains, focusing on scalability, sovereignty, and ease of setup, making launching dedicated blockchains as simple as deploying smart contracts.

Grace Wang, Helena Gagern, Co-founders of Salsa

From left to right: Helena Gagern, Grace Wang

Salsa is a Web3 messaging platform that personalizes emails and in-app messages using on-chain data. Users can personalize their announcement experience, and community administrators can send secure messages using a wallet-to-wallet messaging protocol.

The two co-founders behind the company, Grace Wang and Helena Gagern, are both women. Grace Wang studied at the University of Pennsylvania and later worked in software development and management at Palantir and Primer AI; Helena Gagern graduated from University College London and is a serial entrepreneur with rich experience in software development and product design.

Imge Su Cetin, Founder & CEO of Defy

Imge Su Cetin is a data scientist dedicated to predicting global migration patterns for the IOM Global Migration Data Analysis Center in Berlin using online search data and social media data. She attended the University of California, San Diego, where she specialized in applied data science and statistical analysis, mastering statistical and analytical tools and software.

Imge Su Cetin joined the Deep Decarbonization Initiative (D2I) as a researcher in 2019, a program co-founded by the Jacobs School of Engineering and the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego; in 2020, she joined the International Organization for Migration (IOM - UN Migration) as a data scientist; in April 2021, she officially founded the investment trend data platform Defy.

Séraphie de Tracy, Co-founder & CEO of Cohort

Séraphie de Tracy holds a Master's degree in Management from HEC Paris and a CEMS dual degree. She has extensive experience in corporate SaaS services, having served as Chief Operating Officer, Vice President of Growth Operations, and Sales Director at the fintech company Stratumn, as well as a Senior Strategic Manager at AXA Global P&C, one of the largest insurance companies in the world, and a consultant at Roland Berger, a top global strategy consulting firm.

In May 2022, Séraphie de Tracy founded the NFT-based digital engagement platform Cohort and serves as CEO. Cohort is a Web3 SaaS solution based in France that uses NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to help brands create innovative experiences and products without any technical or significant time commitments. By integrating with platforms like Salesforce and Shopify, Cohort eliminates adoption barriers with a "no-code, no-crypto, no-wallet" solution, making Web3 accessible to all brands and customers.

This list is still being updated. If you know any shining women in the Web3 field who are not included in this article, feel free to recommend them to us (contact the editor of this article → WeChat ID: Jiayifan510)