Women Underrepresented in the Metaverse

Author: Rachel Martin

Image: https://unsplash.com/photos/5UHFPbvBBzY CC0

Despite the burgeoning worlds of NFTs and the metaverse being called an opportunity for equality and democracy, and a chance to create the inclusive and diverse reality that we do not often experience in physical day-to-day life, the crypto gender gap is evidence that maybe that goal is not being reached just yet.

Based on a study released this week by the research firm ArtTactic, women account for only 16% of the NFT market. These findings are based on primary and secondary market sales on Nifty Gateway in the past 21 months. Overall, male artists account for 77% of all primary and secondary sales, at $258.3 million, and the only known woman artist to break into the top ten list was Grimes with her sales at $8.9 million, which pales in comparison to the likes of Beeple (Mike Winkleman) whose sales are over $50.8 million.

Further studies show that twice as many men as compared to women invest in cryptocurrency at all (16% of men vs 7% of women according to a study conducted by CNBC and Acorn in partnership with Momentive).

With cryptocurrency and NFT sales focused largely on a younger market of buyers as compared to traditional methods of investing such as real estate, stocks, and mutual funds, it does indeed seem in some ways to be on the path to creating a more equal world. Further, based on the same CNBC study, people of all races are equally likely to own cryptocurrency.

However, much like the traditional art world, women are having a difficult time breaking through and the cutthroat world of sales is replicated on these online platforms. The names making the sales are typically well-known big named artists as opposed to new artists. Predominantly white males have dominated the NFT market this far, collaborations and collectives are seemingly the next phase of this movement. Overall, $90.6m, or 23% of sales on Nifty Gateway, have so far been raised through collaborative projects.

Importantly, ArtTactic was the first to release a research report on the NFT art market in May 2021, and they are continuing to carry out important work to bring awareness to various aspects of diversity that may be overlooked in this brave new world.

The same questions exist regarding diversifying the NFT market as the real world. With the lofty goals to bring people together on a truly equal playing field, we will see if the metaverse could indeed be the solution.

You can read more about their digital art market reporting here:

https://arttactic.com/?fbclid=IwAR1KR73EcQfeiqAqiQSaaxoxYPFhIVOf92SXny9x3lpSnKSqWO hz4HaLrLY

If you are interested in supporting females in the art world, ARTESSERE’s ArtChips platform offers Purple ArtChips, allowing buyers to buy a share in female produced NFT art with multiple benefits. For more information, visit: https://artessere.com/artchips