Crypto and AI need female executives
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Crypto and AI need female executives
The flow of talent serves as a barometer for the industry.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Alice, TechFlow
A recent trend in the AI world has caught my attention: an increasing number of female executives are stepping into the spotlight.
On December 30, Meta announced its $2 billion acquisition of Manus, bringing 90s-born COO CZ Chen into the public eye. With a bachelor's degree from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and a master’s from Columbia University, she began her career in 2018, working at Vanke and financial advisory firms before making her final leap to Manus in 2024—achieving financial freedom virtually overnight.
On January 9, during MiniMax’s IPO bell-ringing ceremony, standing beside 36-year-old founder Yan Junjie was a woman born in 1994—Yun Yeyi.
This 31-year-old COO now boasts a personal net worth of HK$4.8 billion.
Who is Yun Yeyi?
She studied electrical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, minoring in economics and mathematics. After graduating in 2017, she joined SenseTime, starting as a financing manager, then becoming assistant to CEO Xu Li, and later director of the innovation business unit—personally witnessing SenseTime’s journey from unicorn to Hong Kong-listed company.
In 2022, when Yan Junjie decided to leave SenseTime and found MiniMax, Yun Yeyi followed him without hesitation.
Her value goes far beyond loyalty.
According to MiniMax’s prospectus, Yun Yeyi oversees nearly all aspects of the company outside of core R&D: product development, commercialization, board affairs, operations, and management. Her annual salary is $1.479 million—higher than the combined salaries of all other executive directors—a figure that speaks volumes.
And it’s not just in China. Across the global AI landscape, women are playing increasingly pivotal roles.
Daniela Amodei, who majored in English literature, worked at Stripe and OpenAI before co-founding Anthropic with her brother Dario in 2021. As President, she leads day-to-day operations and commercialization, driving the market adoption of Claude.
Lila Ibrahim, former Intel executive, joined DeepMind in 2018 as its first COO, overseeing daily operations, partnerships, social impact, external relations, and government affairs.
Mira Murati, the Albanian-born former CTO of OpenAI, came to the U.S. on a scholarship at 16, moved from Tesla’s Model X team to OpenAI, and eventually left to found Thinking Machines Lab, now valued at $9 billion…
This scene feels eerily familiar.
Between 2017 and 2021, during crypto’s golden age, one standout feature was the rise of female CMOs and COOs.
The most well-known is Binance co-founder and CMO He Yi (now also Co-CEO), whose presence marked every strategic shift—from Shanghai to Tokyo, Malta to Paris, then Dubai—helping build the company into the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
Lisa Loud transitioned from Apple engineer to head of marketing for PayPal Canada, then joined BitMEX as CMO in 2017, helping it become the world’s largest crypto derivatives trading platform for a time.
Cynthia Wu, COO of Matrixport and former VP of product development at HKEX, brought traditional finance expertise into crypto financial services, helping the firm become one of Asia’s leading digital asset platforms.
…
Back then, crypto was the world’s financial focal point—and these women stood front and center under the spotlight.
But the tide receded. The protagonists changed.
Now, AI commands the spotlight. We see Daniela Amodei on Forbes’ billionaire list, and Yun Yeyi radiant at MiniMax’s IPO event.
At their core, crypto and AI share striking similarities—both are “cutting-edge yet grounded.”
The “cutting-edge” part lies in the technology itself: blockchain redefines trust mechanisms; AI redefines productivity. Both are foundational technologies capable of reshaping the world.
The “grounded” aspect shows up in founder profiles—mostly technical experts fluent in code but often unfamiliar with marketing, government relations, or public affairs.
This is exactly where female COOs and CMOs shine. They serve as bridges between technical geniuses and the outside world—able to engage deeply with engineering teams while telling compelling stories to investors and users.
Daniela Amodei translated AI safety philosophy into executable business strategy, enabling Claude to break through even in ChatGPT’s shadow. Yun Yeyi guided MiniMax from lab to consumer markets. He Yi long served as chief customer officer, personally answering user questions and building trust.
The more a product moves beyond pure technology and toward consumer-facing applications, the more evident the advantages of female executives become.
After all, PR and product success don’t rely on adversarial thinking—but on empathy.
From another perspective, capable female executives vote with their feet. They go where they can unleash their talents and create value. When they start leaving an industry, it signals declining commercial certainty.
The crypto industry today faces a clear problem: a lack of talent capable of turning technology into products the masses can embrace. Mass adoption and positive externalities remain empty promises. Observing any emerging sector reveals this pattern: only when female executives with technical understanding, business acumen, and storytelling ability begin to rise does an industry truly shift from tech-driven to commercially viable and mainstream.
Their emergence marks true industry maturity.
The AI sector has already undergone this transition. Female leaders like Daniela Amodei and Yun Yeyi are driving productization, bringing AI from lab algorithms into everyday life and commercial use.
As for crypto—if it can’t retain the “elite who speak human”—then it deserves to keep battling in the mud.
Talent flows are the ultimate industry indicator.
Where they go, value gets created. Where they leave, bubbles burst.
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