Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ep 60: Wealth as a Feminist Act: Digital Assets, Community, and Financial Education
0 Plays1 second ago
Women are stepping into new forms of financial power, and digital assets are opening the door. The founders of Eve Wealth, Sadie Raney and Elaine Asher discuss the misconceptions that keep women out of this space and the education and community that bring them in. They explain how long-term digital-asset investing sits at the intersection of wealth-building and agency, and why it may be one of the most overlooked tools for closing power gaps.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Owl Explains Hootenanny podcast series
00:00:06
Speaker
Hello and welcome to this Owl Explains Hootenanny, our podcast series where you can wise up on blockchain and Web3 as we talk to the people seeking to build a better internet.
00:00:17
Speaker
Owl Explains is powered by Avalabs, a blockchain software company and participant in the Avalanche ecosystem. My name is Silvia Sanchez, project manager of Owl Explains, and with that, I'll hand it over to today's amazing speakers.
Power Dynamics and Women's Increasing Control
00:00:34
Speaker
Hi everybody, welcome back. I have been thinking a lot about how power actually moves in our world. Not the kind of power that's super loud or performative, but the type of power that accrues quietly, that builds up through ownership, through wealth. And i think that we are living in a moment where women are on the verge of controlling more capital but than at any point in history. And yet we are still structurally underrepresented in the very asset class that has outperformed many other assets, which is crypto, digital assets, and i feel like there's a tension here. We have been told that money is complicated and that wealth building is something for later, something we'll do when we're ready or when we have more money or whatever that point feels safe.
00:01:22
Speaker
But what if we're already in the middle of of that shift and that participation is the only entry points to power? So today's conversation is not about trading tokens, about chasing hype, but more about redefining what it means to be a participant in a new financial era.
00:01:40
Speaker
One where wealth is intentional, community-driven, and deeply personal. It's more about stepping into ownership as an active agency, and that brings me to our
Introducing Eve Wealth and Founders
00:01:50
Speaker
guests. Today we have Sadie Rainey and Elaine Asher, they are the co-leaders, the co-founders of eWealth, a platform designed specifically to educate women on building wealth through assets, not by speculating, but by using clarity, education, this long-term strategy.
00:02:09
Speaker
They're not trying to build another exchange, but creating this new category, this community of wealth education and infrastructure. Today we're going to find out more about their projects, about who Eve Wealth is really built for, how they're approaching all of these changes in this new financial landscape. So let's get started. Thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having us.
00:02:32
Speaker
Great to be here. Great. So before we get into the actual mechanics of of the platform, I want to start at the center of your vision. When you imagine the person that you are building Eve Wealth for, not just demographically, but energetically. Who is she? What does she want? What challenges is she facing? What makes her say, yes, this is the path that I have been waiting for? I'll let you go first, Sadie.
00:02:58
Speaker
ah I actually wanted to just share a story ah and a success story that we already have, which I think illustrates one a target user of our platform. And it's a woman who i met at a women's retreat in France last year. And she was talking about crypto and talking about how she had heard crypto a couple of men talking about crypto and it just sounded very scammy and confusing and and she just wasn't, she had stopped looking into it. So I went over and I approached her and we got talking and I told her about what we were building with Eve Wealth and she got super excited. You know, she's later in her career, but not ready to, you know, fully retire yet and obviously has built wealth and doesn't ah have a crypto ah allocation. And so it was just a perfect fit for her to to become a part of EVE and really start learning about it. And so at our summit, this our first annual summit in April of this year, she was the master of ceremonies for our last day of the summit and did a really funny bit where she had she actually just read all the browser tabs that were open in her phone from the first day of the summit and all the topics that she needed to look up to learn more about.
00:04:14
Speaker
and then And that was in April. And in September, she texted me and said asked for the contact information for one of the tax speakers at our summit because she had gotten into yield farming and was paying for it for her new HVAC system with the with the gains she had had gotten from yield farming over the last five months and had some tax questions. So that to me is the perfect eve process ah Eve user, somebody who is financially savvy, who is established in their career, is very crypto curious, and doesn't know the safe place to learn, came to Eve, turned that into actually knowledge that she could put into practice and is now financially gaining from her her experience and and what she's learned from Eve.
00:05:04
Speaker
When I think about why we're building Eve, it's, and they say this a lot about entrepreneurs, like you build the thing that you wish existed in the world. This is something I wish existed in the world when I was first getting into crypto. And, you know, I was first introduced to crypto back when I was working at JP Morgan in the private wealth group.
00:05:23
Speaker
And when I was there, i saw all of these alternative investments that had the capability for massive outsized returns that I didn't have access to because I couldn't write a seven figure check or i didn't know Mark Zuckerberg's college roommate to get in on the next hot deal.
00:05:40
Speaker
But I could invest
Democratization of Crypto Investments
00:05:42
Speaker
in crypto. That's one of my favorite things about it is that it really is democratized and open to anyone. All I had to do was figure it out. And I looked around and it was only men investing.
00:05:53
Speaker
And I kind of thought, well, you're no smarter than I am. I can figure this out. But it was really daunting to try to figure out crypto on my own and without a trusted resource. I didn't know where to go or where to start or who to trust because, as Sadie said, there were a lot of scammy people in the space and a lot of scams out there. And so I just dove in and started doing as much research and learning as much as I could.
00:06:18
Speaker
fast forward a few years when COVID hit, I had become the crypto expert among my friend group and especially my girlfriends and they asked me if I would do crypto and Bitcoin 101 Zoom sessions while we were all stuck at home. And I said, sure, I can talk about crypto all day long and I wasn't baking sourdough bread, so why not?
00:06:37
Speaker
And I must have done, you know, 12 or 15 of these sessions. And i logged on one day and there were 200 women, none of whom I had none of whom i knew. i didn't know any of them. Friends had told friends had told friends. And every woman on that call and the subsequent call and the previous calls all said the same thing, just like me. They didn't know where to start. They didn't know who to trust.
00:06:58
Speaker
And the third piece, which is really what we're building with Eve, is they didn't want to do it alone. It felt too daunting and too intimidating to go try to learn crypto by yourself. They wanted to do it with other smart people, especially smart women in community. And so that's really what we're trying to do is be a trusted resource for education to learn about crypto and then do it with other smart women.
00:07:22
Speaker
I love that. And I feel like when you sort of remember, oh, I wish I had this back then, i think it stops being just another product, but something that relate personally to and that I think is reflected in the type of quality that that you're offering. Because you're like, okay, how can I build this in a way that people don't make the same mistakes that I made in the past, that I can sort of condense all of this this knowledge and in a way, um yeah, like add a bit of of shortcuts and make the road a bit smoother, even though I made myself, um you know, like...
00:07:59
Speaker
even Even though in the in the process, I, like, bumped myself and in the road, kind of like when you're learning how to ride a bike, sort of having that that boost. So it's so interesting to hear how it started. Sorry, was just going to add, one of the other things that I think we're trying to do is ah ah something Sadie and I both have come across as we've been trying to educate our friends and girlfriends over the years, is crypto is still so do-it-yourself. It's very DIY. And women are busy. And women don't have time to you know, figure out how to...
00:08:32
Speaker
put assets on a ledger necessarily and they don't know how to rebalance a portfolio, they don't know which assets to buy. So we really wanted to take out the DIY nature and abstract away that complexity to make it super easy and simple for women to be able to easily invest in crypto.
00:08:51
Speaker
That's huge. That's huge. And it's all about the the practicality at the end of the day, because I think we're all super busy. And even if you have that desire to learn more about something, you're not necessarily going to spend hours and hours, but just, okay, how can I condense it? Of course, you got to put time into it, but like optimizing it, I think is key. And for listeners who may be thinking, okay, is Eve Wealth a brokerage? Is it an advisor, an exchange? How would you define the category that you're building? What is Eve Wealth in the ecosystem and what is it not? I can take a first stab at that and then Elaine can can make it sound better. It's her talent. um So what what we are really is true.
00:09:35
Speaker
twofold. We are an SEC registered robo advisor for crypto. So we we do have our SEC registration so that we can do managed portfolios for retail investors. um But the other part, the larger part of EVE is that we are a full platform where we have the community ah where people can join, they can read articles, they can sign up for webinars, they can sign up for events, they can engage in forums and discussions, they can tell us what they want to learn more about, what they want to see more articles and content about.
00:10:11
Speaker
um And then the the importance of having the investing platform within that is people can come into the community. There's no obligation to invest immediately. You can come in, you can learn, you can get comfortable, you can feel um ready to invest. And then within that platform, you'll be able to invest in a portfolio over the long term. So yeah. It, you know, it is an investment platform, but it has an entire community and education system built on top of that. And I think one of the things, you know, you asked what we are not, we are not
00:10:46
Speaker
a trading platform. We are not a meme coin casino. We really want to educate women especially about the role that crypto can play in your overall investment strategy and in your overall investment portfolio. And we want to teach people about the appropriate amount to invest in in crypto and in alternative assets.
00:11:08
Speaker
and the importance of diversification and the, you know, maybe dollar cost averaging in slowly over time. like those are all and investment tools that we want to to educate women about.
Investing vs Trading in Crypto
00:11:20
Speaker
So this is not a trading platform or a place to come and, you know, try to catch the next big hype cycle. It's really about growing wealth over the long term and the role that crypto can play in that strategy. Oh, I was just going to add to that, what Elaine pointed out about it not being trading is such an important thing for people to learn in crypto. And in crypto is amazing because it gives access. But what happens with that easy access is it really blurs the line between trading and investing because people can download an app and they can just go and they can buy and sell and buy and sell. And, you know, they they're not thinking about fees. They're not thinking about, you know, tax implications. They're not thinking about anything because they're really kind of feeding into the hype and the excitement. And, and they're thinking that they're investing, but what they're actually doing is really just trading. And so, and you you can't do that in traditional securities. You can't just hop on and buy and sell. I mean, you can, if you're a day trader, but as a retail trader, that's much, much harder to do. So we really wanted to teach people better habits for investing for the long-term dollar cost, averaging buying and holding and having a diversified portfolio and why those things are better. you know, and really get people away from that stress inducing, hyped up trading in these markets, watching things go up and down because that's not investing and that's not what we want to to help people do. And that's a huge distinction because, I think that the lines can be so blurry. Or even when you tell people that you're working on a crypto company, that am regardless of your role, they think that you are trading, that you're gambling, they're going to make them lose money, or that you're sort of recruiting them for some sort of MLM. I have gotten so many weird reactions also like at the dinner table. and And it's fun because I feel like it's a pivot to also...
00:13:18
Speaker
started the educational process and it kind of reminds me of a meme like there won't be a second date but at least he knows what an nft is or what a cryptocurrency truly is like this type of a thing um and if you're like in a way this is also something that I am guilty of because when you're like, oh, this is a really cool technology or this type of of industry. And you see this need, you see this void. And especially in for women, which leads me to to my next point, because here on the podcast, we talk a lot about the importance of society. Clearing misconceptions, creating the right context for real participation in these emerging financial systems. So when you're looking at Eve Wealth's mission, do you think that you're spending more energy helping women unlearn these misconceptions, these myths that have kept them out of digital assets and investments or on actually building the the infrastructure and this context that allows them to confidently step in? And how do you see those two forces working together?
00:14:20
Speaker
I mean, the short answer is both. You know, for for better or worse, our industry does not have the greatest reputation. And, you know, one of the the curses of decentralization is there's no head of PR for crypto. There's no head of marketing for Bitcoin. And sometimes you wish there was. So we do spend a lot of time debunking myths. that you know I've been marketing various ah crypto asset management products for almost you know over nine years, and I've heard the same myths from day one that still persist today. Oh, it's bad for the environment. Oh, it's just used for drug dealers and terrorists. And so I think you know we do have a whole section on our site about myth-busting
00:15:00
Speaker
And once you once you provide the facts and the data and explain that, no, in fact, Bitcoin mining encourages renewable energy usage and there are a million other cryptos that don't use the energy that Bitcoin does and explain things like that in a simple, um digestible, easy, straightforward way people get it and understand it. So yes, we are we do spend a lot of time debunking myths, but that's part of our our mission is to explain to people that this is not the big, bad, scary thing that they might have heard about. um And then on the infrastructure side, again, it goes back to trying to abstract away the complexity and make it approachable and less do-it-yourself DIY.
00:15:43
Speaker
and And I will add that we've we've spent a lot of time and energy, i mean, combined, Elaine and i have talked to thousands and thousands and thousands, without exaggeration, women and and men who are interested in crypto and are afraid to dip their toe in. And a lot of it isn't so much unlearning, but meeting them where they are. And women...
00:16:10
Speaker
we like to say women are risk aware. We're not risk averse. We just, we look at risk in a very, very different way and we evaluate it in a very different way. And like it or not, I mean, my when my parents got married,
00:16:25
Speaker
legally my mom did not have a right to have a bank account of her own. And it wasn't until after my parents were married that that ah regulations were passed that guaranteed women the right to have a bank account. And so that, you know, i it's not like my mom raised me to be timid when it came to money, but I think I naturally absorbed a lot of her ah feelings that maybe having access to the financial system was a privilege and not ah not a right. And so, you know, we really have to think about that mindset when we're talking about investing and approaching investing, because coming to a woman and saying, you need to do this, you're missing the boat, that is not at all effective. It really makes people shrink away. So we really have to sort of
00:17:13
Speaker
unlearn our own behaviors and trying to get somebody to get involved and realize, okay, we have to meet them where they are. we have to show them that crypto has a lot of interesting aspects and promise. And it is easy to understand once you get in and get over that first initial curve. And this is something you do want to get invested in, but it it takes it takes a different mindset for sure.
00:17:37
Speaker
Ask yourself, what's a wallet for? Bank cards, train tickets, spare change, maybe even a picture of your cat Fluffy. But what about a wallet that does more?
00:17:48
Speaker
Meet Core, the native crypto wallet for Avalanche. Mobile, desktop, however you work, it works around you. There's no messing around with exchanges. Upload funds directly from your bank account or Venmo just as easily as sending a PayPal transaction.
00:18:05
Speaker
You've probably got enough passwords to remember already, right? Log in with your Google or Apple account. No seed phrase memorization required. It's that easy. With multi-chain compatibility, Core lets you view and manage assets across Avalanche and other supported networks, all in one place.
00:18:23
Speaker
Pretty awesome. Then, there's a whole world of crypto apps and tools to explore, direct from your wallet. Get the wallet that does more. Download Core today. I think one of the most exciting things about crypto is...
00:18:38
Speaker
It's a whole new financial system that at its core ethos is open, permissionless, available to anybody. And this is why Sadie and I are so passionate about getting more women into this space is because we don't want to see this new financial system written without women having a voice or at
Vision for Women's Role in New Financial Systems
00:18:59
Speaker
the table. The traditional financial system in Wall Street was built by men for men, and we see that every day.
00:19:06
Speaker
And now we're at the dawn of a new financial system, and we just really want to make sure that women are part of that because it is open to anybody. And that's huge. And i think I loved a your point earlier about how it's not just being oh risk averse or risk loving. Like it can't be just this huge separation, but just this awareness. And I think it's also sort of biological, the fact that we tend to be a bit more cautious in general and also have like that eye for for detail i think even you notice when you're buying eyeshadow palette that you take your time you compare the shades and then you ask a man and they're like oh this looks the same you know i think that you gotta meet women where they're at and be like explain it in a way where you feel finally safe enough to be like okay i'm going to participate in this i'm going to buy this um
00:19:59
Speaker
If you're so careful with maybe buying something, checking all the reviews online, I think you're going to be even more aware, not necessarily scared, just more risk aware when it comes to investing, though when it comes to participating in in the crypto markets. was going to say women women want to know as much as possible about an investment before making an investment decision.
00:20:20
Speaker
But actually, that makes them better investors over the long term because once they have built conviction, they stay the course and they stick to their plan. They don't panic sell. They don't YOLO like a lot of the men we know. um So over the long term, women are actually better investors.
00:20:36
Speaker
That's such an interesting way to to see it. and and i And I agree with that. And the statement, and we believe building wealth is a feminist act. I would love for you to expand on that because, and I know we touched on this earlier, but what does it mean for wealth building to be a feminist act? How can participating in digital assets contribute to closing not just the wealth gap that we see, but but the power gap that we have? i mean, I'll start. It's because...
00:21:04
Speaker
Money is power and crypto and digital assets, in my opinion, are a huge generational wealth creation potential event. And that's why we don't want women to miss out on it. Because when women have more money, we do good things with it. We support our communities, our families, philanthropies, charities, each other. We invest in more women entrepreneurs. And so that, is in my mind, growing women's wealth is a feminist act because money equals power. And, you know, i live in San Francisco in Silicon Valley and I have seen it repeatedly where men make money and turn around and funnel it right back into more men. And it's this cycle that keeps repeating. And unless we figure out a way to break the cycle, it's going to keep going. And crypto really is, i and my opinion, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to break that cycle because it's one of the few investments that has this massive upside potential that is open to anybody. It's open to women. And that's one of the reasons I'm so passionate about trying to get more women um to step in.
00:22:10
Speaker
And I'll add to that. i love that. It is power and it is also freedom. So money is freedom. And, you know, I, every time I see ah a movie where it shows a woman stuck in a situation, for example, cable girls, I was watching that recently where the one woman with the abusive husband's trying to leave and she gets, ah you know, she goes to the bank to take out some money so she can flee and the banker calls her husband and that's the end, you know, and,
00:22:38
Speaker
bad things happen to her. And, and, and the whole time I'm thinking, ah, you know, if it was modern day and she had a cell phone, she could, you know, she could get some crypto and stockpile that, and then you, you can get away. And it, and it really does mean freedom in a lot of areas where women just don't have access to traditional financial systems or their husbands control their money and they, they don't have the ability to be in a system that allows them to get away. but having access to crypto it actually gives them financial
Crypto as a Tool for Financial Independence
00:23:10
Speaker
freedom. Absolutely. And i think that framing changes everything because wealth isn't just personal, but but it's systemic, it's cultural. It's about having that representation in the financial future that's being built right now. But if we include...
00:23:25
Speaker
everybody else at the table not just the crypto grows i think that's when that shift actually happens when wealth becomes that identity that agency when it shows up in real lives in real decisions and it empowers women to have more more ownership and not just of of their assets of their identity but i think um as a whole when you're not forced for example to stay in in relationships know when the man is the sole breadwinner of the family and the woman is forced to stay in these cycles i think we've seen that so many um now but when women have not just access to the infrastructure but education about how to use it when they know how to interact with these pro with these protocols that's where we can we can see the change. um And if we were to zoom out, let's say five to 10 years, what is your vision for if Wealth? Not just the platform, but the impact. What does success look like to you in terms of women's participation in digital asset investing and what changes in the financial landscape when that happens? Yeah, I want i want millions of women to make millions of dollars by investing in crypto. I mean, that is that is one of the main reasons that I'm doing, why I'm here and what we're doing. you know, the statistics are pretty abysmal, especially in the United States. Less than 10% of U.S. women have invested in crypto. And, you know, five to 10 years from now, I want that to be over 50%. Because, you know, as I said, I really do think this is a new financial system being built, and I want women to have an equal share of that.
00:25:04
Speaker
you know i think and I'll let Sadie speak to to our plans for EVE, but you know we're starting the United States, but we absolutely want to go global, and move to Canada and Europe. and really grow a community of smart women learning together, supporting each other, and growing wealth.
00:25:22
Speaker
Yeah, ah I'll add that the most recent billionaires list, I think, had less than 14% females on the list, so for sure want to see that number change but You know, ah success in five 10 years to me is Eve events all over the world, Eve communities all over the world where Elaine or I or whoever else can go and drop into one of those and we're not talking.
00:25:49
Speaker
because we've built communities of people who are educated about crypto and they're no longer needing our help because they're they're now educating other people and growing their wealth together. And, you know, we have some of our millionaire success stories who are leading sessions and leading other women down the same path that they went down. And, you know, we have created a community that's going to continue to create itself and grow. I love that, thank you. and I hope to also see those numbers changing, to see more women included on on these big lists, not just um as as billionaires, not just as and founders, but even on on the micro level as well, when women can truly have more participation in in this market. Because I think um we have had unfortunately, the majority of history
00:26:43
Speaker
women being underrepresented and it's time to change. And I think it's also an exciting time to to be alive, not just to witness that change, but to be part of that, to empower other women to to join this and to have people like you building these types of of ah product of of of protocols of communities.
Connecting with Eve Wealth
00:27:02
Speaker
um And where can people get involved? Where can our listeners check out more of what you're building? How can they discover Eve Wealth join the community? Yeah, we are just evewealth.com. Please come check us out. Sign up. We're currently offering a 30-day free trial.
00:27:19
Speaker
And we have a bunch of great webinars coming up. We have one next week um and one the following, talking about how to think about crypto in your overall investing strategy and your other investments. um and So, yeah, EveWealth.com. You can find me and Sadie. I'm Elaine at EveWealth.com. We welcome feedback. We welcome outreach. We want to partner with people, other smart people, do webinars with. Anyone who wants to join our journey and mission of trying to educate women, we would welcome it. I'm also on Twitter at E Asher SF.
00:27:52
Speaker
So you can find me there. And same here, Sadie at ewealth.com. And I'm more active on LinkedIn than Twitter. So you you can definitely find me there. And I'll just reiterate what Elaine said. we We would love feedback. We love meeting people in the community. We love answering questions. So we're very accessible and looking forward to growing the community.
00:28:16
Speaker
Thank you both so much for joining us on the podcast once again. And to our listeners to check out evewealth.com because what we have explored today is more than a platform, but it's a movement, it's community, and also the view of wealth as participation not just as accumulation but as sovereignty and what Sadie and Elaine are building is not just access but it's agency it's change and it's also an invitation to stop waiting for permission and start being the architect of your own financial future so once again thank you both for the work you're doing thank you for your time with us and thank you to our listeners and we'll see you next time
00:29:00
Speaker
We hope you enjoyed our Hootenanny. Thank you for listening. For more hootful and hype-free resources, visit owlexplains.com. There, you will find articles, quizzes, practical explainers, suggested reading materials, and lots more. Also, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to continue wising up on blockchain and Web3. That's all for now on Owl Explains. Until next time.