Several women who attended Miami's Bitcoin 2022 conference were harassed and say the conference didn't enforce its anti-harassment policies
For some women, inappropriate conduct from other conference-goers continued to haunt them online. — Miami's annual gathering of Bitcoin zealots began with a bull. Tweets: @wired , @do82nic , @mslopatto , @technollama , @morganmeaker , @jasonfugate98 , @gregarious , @ralexjimenez , @pardesoteric , and @basedkarbon Tweets: @wired : “The whisper network of women in crypto is 100 percent real. I'm not going somewhere that other women are warning me not to go.” For some women, inappropriate conduct from other conference-goers continued to haunt them online. https://www.wired.com/... Nicole Dobrow / @do82nic : As I've been saying, misogyny hinders Bitcoin adoption. Curious how sponsors like @CashApp will respond to ongoing reports of Bitcoin Conference's participation in, and indifference to, sexual harassment at their events. https://www.wired.com/... Elizabeth Lopatto / @mslopatto : “Another woman attended an after-party at the home of a prominent crypto investor, and later discovered that someone had slipped an AirTag into her bag at the party.” https://www.wired.com/... Andres Guadamuz / @technollama : Crypto is full of toxic cryptobros. Who knew? https://www.wired.com/... Morgan Meaker / @morganmeaker : Wow. A grim portrait of the misogynistic atmosphere at @TheBitcoinConf in Miami and what that says about Bitcoin bros. By my colleague @pardesoteric https://www.wired.com/... Jason Fugate / @jasonfugate98 : @RVAwonk I have certainly seen exhibits of absolutely zero self-awareness and empathy among crypto enthusiasts. It often feels like the modest reforms of recent years in tech around D&I have not touched crypto at all. https://www.wired.com/... Gregariously.Eth / @gregarious : This kind of crap is unacceptable and unlawful. Complete BS. Do better doesn't even scratch the surface. https://www.wired.com/... @ralexjimenez : Is anyone surprised by this? 😡 Miami's #Bitcoin Conference Left a Trail of Harassment For some women, inappropriate conduct from other conference-goers continued to haunt them online. #BTC #Inclusion #FinTech #FinServ https://www.wired.com/... Arielle Pardes / @pardesoteric : Last month, more than 25,000 people gathered in Miami for the annual Bitcoin Conference. Some women say they were harassed or assaulted while they were there. Worse, they say the conference did nothing to protect them. My story for @WIRED: https://www.wired.com/... Davis / @basedkarbon : This shit reflects poorly on our industry as a whole. It's not even the cyber bullying that's the problem imo...you don't post photos of ppl at conferences without their permission. That should be a given considering how much the community values privacy. https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Wired's reporting on Bitcoin 2022 lands in a familiar arc for male-dominated tech gatherings: a Girls Who Code study of young women in internships documented the same dynamic years earlier, and the women quoted here describe falling back on an informal whisper network precisely because the conference's written anti-harassment policy went unenforced on the floor.
The story also matters beyond the event itself: crypto's institutional push — Fidelity and other financial firms lobbying the SEC for Bitcoin-linked ETFs — runs through the same legitimacy contest with US lawmakers, and scenes of unchecked harassment at the industry's flagship gathering feed directly into that credibility problem.
First-order effects
- The Bitcoin Conference's organizers face direct reputational damage: attendees quoted by Wired say its anti-harassment policy exists on paper but wasn't enforced, and some women say the conduct followed them online after the event.
- Women in crypto are shown relying on private warning networks rather than official channels — the reporting quotes one attendee saying she won't go where other women warn her not to go.
Second-order effects
- Conferences competing for the same speaker pool now have a cautionary template: when allegations surfaced about DevTernity's founder creating fake female speaker profiles, big names like Kelsey Hightower pulled out — showing that enforcement failures cost events their headliners, not just their reputation.
- For the institutional side of crypto, every harassment story at a flagship event hands ammunition to the lawmakers already resisting Bitcoin ETF approval, raising the cost of the industry's mainstreaming pitch.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds across tech and crypto events, attendance decisions increasingly route through informal networks and public accountability rather than posted policies — pushing organizers toward independently verifiable codes of conduct or losing speakers and sponsors to events that have them.
- A culture that deters women participants compounds crypto's demographic narrowness, which in turn shapes how regulators, institutions, and the broader public judge whether the industry is maturing into mainstream finance.
The trend: Tech and crypto conferences are being pushed from paper anti-harassment policies toward enforced accountability, as speakers and attendees increasingly organize withdrawals and informal warnings when enforcement fails.