Andrew Tate’s new token is a reminder of crypto’s ‘bro’ problem

Tate is just one of numerous celebrities who have seized on memecoins as a way to promote their brand and to make money. Tate began promoting his coin on June 11, and shortly after, it reached a market capitalization of over $217 million.

I AM FREE.

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 3 YEARS I CAN LEAVE ROMANIA.

THE SHAM CASE IS FALLING APART.$DADDY X THEREALWORLD GLOABL TOUR LOADING –

Will you be there? https://t.co/9TN9VyfzRh pic.twitter.com/LieZl7OF9F

— Andrew Tate (@Cobratate) July 5, 2024

The so-called masculinity influencer launched the currency to dethrone rapper Iggy Azalea’s $MOTHER, “for the patriarchy.” “We’re bringing the Gs back make me a f***ing sandwich females,” he added. And he’s succeeded in doing so: It currently trades at a value five times greater than Azalea’s, according to CoinGecko data.

Tate’s views do not reflect those of the entire cryptocurrency world and some of those who purchased his token are likely driven by profit-seeking rather than ideology. Nonetheless, popularity of Tate’s coin points to the crypto industry’s lingering problem with misogyny.

While some elements of crypto have been hostile to women since its inception, the current market revival has been based in part on appealing to the mainstream. This includes the institutional investors who are gaining access to the market via the spot Bitcoin ETFs, and members of Congress, who are making strides towards regulation. So, must the “crypto bro” evolve in order for the industry to be taken seriously?

The unwavering ‘crypto bro’

The term “crypto bro”—an echo of the “tech bro” term long used to decry obnoxious elements of Silicon Valley—gained traction during the 2021 crypto bubble. The phrase doesn’t have a precise definition, and can describe everything from hackathon-loving blockchain geeks spouting lore, to far-right libertarians who view crypto as a way to defy government control. In any case, the term reflects the uncomfortable truth that it was an industry created by men, for men. Indeed, a 2021 survey shows only 5% of users globally were women. 

As a female reporter coming to the industry in 2024, I’ve encountered “crypto bro” culture firsthand. And I should add, it has some upsides: As a woman, one walks directly into the bathroom at conferences, strolling past the queue patiently checking X. But despite conducting well over 100 interviews this year, I’ve yet to speak to a female founder. There’s perhaps one exception in Azalea, but her bid to become crypto’s matriarch swiftly triggered a counteroffensive from Tate.

There are, of course, an abundance of women who have built successful companies and careers in crypto. To name just a few: He Yi, co-founder of Binance, and co-founder of the Tezos blockchain, Katherine Breitman. Caitlin Long, the founder and CEO of Custodia Bank for digital assets. The CEO of Yuga Labs, the company behind the infamous Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT, is Nicole Muniz. At Coinbase, Alesia Haas and Emilie Choi claim the roles of CFO and COO, respectively. Mary-Catherine Lader leads Uniswap Labs as COO.

These women have made it in crypto, but they are much an exception. The industry is “deeply entwined with masculinity,” writes Professor Alexis Henshaw. Why? The best answer may be risk tolerance. It’s believed men are more likely to be accepting of riskier investments, and crypto is a more volatile asset. 

But Professor Dan Cassino, a researcher of crypto and masculinity at Fairleigh Dickinson University, says it runs deeper than this. Crypto is marketed as a way for individuals to demonstrate stereotypically masculine traits, he argues. This includes, “mastery of complex systems, defiance of existing power structures, all in service of a heroic narrative that ends—in the telling of the people selling the crypto—with getting rich,” he says. That is, provided they display the masculinized traits of loyalty and perseverance.

This phenomenon is exemplified in a video posted by one Wall Street Wolverine amid the 2021 crash. The crypto influencer looks into the camera and commands: “Gentleman, here we invest with balls. Here, we HODL…Crying here? Get your f***ing money and put it in a Santander fixed-term savings account.”

Cassino is surprised it’s taken until now for Tate to launch a coin. His audience—young men who value traditional masculinity, but feel that they’re falling short of it—is the same audience disproportionately likely to buy crypto, he says. Tate has calculated that if he can sell his “Hustler’s University” to his fans, he can sell them on crypto.    

Young men moving to the right

Unlike in previous cycles, thanks to the ETFs, institutional investors have now moved into the market. As a result, the industry no longer relies solely on the wallets of young men. Despite this, retail investors are still setting the industry’s tone. While surveys suggest that female adoption is rising, in 2024, the crypto bro “certainly still exists,” says Cassino.

Today, just 6% of crypto CEOs are women. And users are still disproportionately young men. The most recent adoption stats—taken from Norway—show that men are still more than three times as likely than women to own crypto, and 70% of users are under 40. In March, the Financial Times reported that custodian Copper served sushi off two naked models in a private event at a crypto conference. Meanwhile, as celebrities keep their distance, Elon Musk and Donald Trump have emerged as the industry’s figureheads. And now, there’s Tate’s global DADDY tour to look forward to. 

And in light of broader shifts in the political landscape, the perseverance of the crypto bro makes sense. A recent report found that young men have become more conservative since 2014—around the time when crypto started gaining popularity—and are the only U.S. population group to do so. “Despair” and “disillusionment” with established politics were popular words used among survey respondents. Facing a society where gender roles are influx, and women are more likely than men to attend college, some are looking to Tate and crypto’s promise of financial freedom to revive notions of traditional masculinity.

Memecoins and the boys

Usurping the role NFTs played in the previous cycles, memecoins have dominated the tone of the current market revival. Memecoins merge finance, internet trends, and gambling, and investors flock to the highly speculative, tongue-in-cheek assets during viral moments. And young men form the “basis” of this craze, says Cassino. While the crypto world once revolved entirely around Bitcoin, many newer adopters have instead embraced the likes of DOGE, PEPE and SHIB (and now DADDY). This reflects an ongoing desire to join a community bonded by shared risk, and united with a middle-finger-up to the system, any system—even crypto itself.

There is no data on the gender divide of memecoin investors. However, as high-risk and anti-authority investments, the coins share similar appeal to memestocks. Thus, enthusiasts for the latter can be considered a proxy for memecoin hobbyists. Nathaniel Popper’s recent book The Trolls of Wall Street retells the memestock saga where “degenerates” on Reddit pulled off the GameStop trade that shook Wall Street. A tale of institutional defiance to some, Popper unravels a different story, one of socially isolated and chronically online young men failing to prosper by traditional means, and thus looking for an outlet. 

The memestock mania shares similar characteristics to the Tate superfan with young men seeking a community to push back against a perceived threat masculine identity. But does crypto need to shed its bros to be taken seriously? Cassino believes that if the watering-down of bro culture resulted in the proliferation of gray suits, crypto may lose its appeal, morphing into any other financial instrument. But then, would anyone be interested in it? “You could argue that without the crypto bros, there isn’t much left,” he says. 

Crypto’s unique selling point is the community that surrounds it. Community is never a bad thing, particularly one that allows men to bond. The challenge crypto faces is how to retain its culture while broadening its membership. Arguably the crypto bro fell out of favor due to bad actors like Sam Bankman-Fried and Changpeng Zhao. But now, with both behind bars, the industry has a chance to rebrand degeneracy as inclusivity, and to remind the public that its existence came about as a response to the failure of broader social and economic systems.