Our women in crypto countdown comes to an end. We’re closing out this series with a final five industry hard-hitters – but that doesn’t mean there aren’t many more women in crypto popping up daily.
Get inspired thanks to Kathleen, Carolyn, Alena, Ani, and Galia!
Kathleen Breitman
It’s no surprise why Kathleen Breitman is considered ‘crypto royalty. Known as one of the earliest entrepreneurs in the crypto industry, she currently operates as the co-founder of the software company Coase, which aims to lower transaction costs. Before Coase, she co-founded Ethereum competitor Tezos, an open-source blockchain that executes peer-to-peer transactions and deploys smart contracts. Tezos was wildly successful, with an initial coin offering that set a new record after raising $232 million. She also worked as a senior strategy associate for R3, Accenture, Bridgewater Associates, and the Wall Street Journal.
Carolyn Reckhow
This American blockchain enthusiast was best known as the Director of Operations at ConsenSys & Head of Operations. And if you’re not familiar with ConsenSys, it’s a blockchain apps production studio that builds decentralized applications for Ethereum. Even more impressively, Reckhow became the director of operations fresh out of grad school and managed to grow the company to 800 employees during her time there! Reckhow also worked as the Head of Operations & Client Services at Casa Inc. and is now the COO of Thesis, or the studio behind Fold app, Keep Project, TBTC project, Saddle Finance, and Tally Cash.
Alena Vranova
This Prague-based bitcoin business strategist started her career in finance as Head of External Business Development for Komercni Pojistovna and INSIA, one of the Czech Republic’s largest financial advisory networks. She founded SatoshiLabs in 2013 and continued leading one of the world’s most successful bitcoin companies until 2017. While at SatoshiLabs, she introduced the leading cryptocurrency hardware wallet Trezor, the first bitcoin mining pool SlushPool, and the first bitcoin map – CoinMap.org. She joined the Casa team as Head of Strategy and Business Development in 2018.
Ani Itireleng
Did you know that Ani Itireleng created Africa’s first blockchain-based funding platform? With a focus on women and minority groups, Ani aims to mentor, teach, and bring blockchain to Botswana, which she only got into after her son’s medical diagnosis. She also leads Satoshicentre, a fintech and blockchain co-working space in Gaborone. Driven by being a catalyst of change, she leads every day knowing that education is the key to adoption.
Galia Benartzi
Galia Benartzi co-founded cryptocurrency conversion company Bancor in 2017, the world’s first open-source protocol ensuring on-chain liquidity between any blockchain-based asset. Or, in other words, a standard for creating Smart Tokens™. Over $2 billion in token conversions have been processed via Bancor. Known as one of the leading women in crypto, Benartzi has been featured everywhere, from Forbes to Glamour magazine. She also invented the Automated Market Maker, a DeFi building block.
