From Instant Noodles To Blockchain: A Journey Of Self-Reliance And Systemic Change

Forbes

4 days ago

Gracy Chen is CEO of BitGet.
When I was nine years old, I learned what I thought was the most important skill I could master. I was wrong.
As a single mother, my mom worked all day, and then, on some evenings, she'd go to class. She was doing her MBA at Sichuan, the best university in Southwest China. Because she was busy with work and studying, I mastered the skill that I thought was most important: Boiling instant noodles without burning the house down. On other nights, we'd go out and meet with her classmates, and she'd tell me, 'This friend runs a huge chain of stores. This one runs the chain of restaurants we're going to have dinner in.'
Boil Your Own Noodles
Looking back, I realize my childhood was like a mini-MBA: master of basic autonomy.
Lesson one: If you want noodles, you'd better learn to cook them yourself. She didn't even teach me how to cook, but my mom did teach me the importance of three things:
• Independence
• Going after what you want
• That getting an education is essential
These lessons have driven me throughout my career and are responsible for my becoming CEO of Bitget, a company where we understand the importance of empowering women.
Crypto With Conscience
At Bitget, we have been committed to leading the crypto revolution among women. We know it starts from within. We're the only top 10 crypto exchange with a female CEO, and 50% of management at Bitget are women. Think about that for a moment: 50% women in management? In crypto? That's like finding a Bitcoin wallet that didn't get lost in a boating accident—rare, but glorious.
Blockchain4Her: From Mission To Movement
In January 2024, we launched the education initiative BlockChain4Her, with a $10 million commitment to scholarship and mentorship. We know that women are underrepresented in the crypto universe, but we want to rewrite the rules of inclusion in Web3. With Blockchain4Her, what began as a mission to empower hundreds of women has scaled into a global movement to educate thousands of girls and women.
Educating 300,000 Futures
Partnering with UNICEF and joining the Game Changers Coalition is our next step in doing that.
Again and again, research shows that educating women and girls is key to changing communities for the better and even to increasing a country's GDP. Doing so in the crypto space expands the opportunities for women's financial independence and has the potential for exponential impact. Currently, women and girls in low- and middle-income countries lose out on $15 billion in economic opportunities annually due to digital skills and internet access gaps. Blockchain has the potential to leapfrog infrastructure barriers; many young women in rural areas may never see a real bank branch, but they can access a crypto wallet on their phones.
Web3 is becoming increasingly important in our world. The U.S. government is in the process of passing a stablecoin bill to allow more global transactions to be settled in stablecoins on the blockchain. Every top university is offering blockchain courses now, even Harvard. All the most renowned universities are teaching their students about crypto finance, blockchain tech or Web3 entrepreneurship. If we want true equality, it is essential that women are given opportunities to learn about this new and paradigm-shifting technology.
Working With UNICEF
We'll be working with UNICEF over the next three years to build a curriculum and roll out a program that will be available to women and girls globally. We'll deliver blockchain education to 300,000 people across eight countries: Armenia, Brazil, Cambodia, India, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Morocco and South Africa. The curriculum will be deployed both online and in-person, using game-based learning on platforms like Agora. We understand that we can't always know what's best for different regions, so we'll be working with local teams to make sure the content is always relevant. Those teams will help shape delivery, select guest lecturers and translate materials as needed.
Starting this year, we will also be adding a blockchain pillar to the hackathons held in various nations, so that the women and girls we've helped educate and bring into the crypto space can build community with each other to amplify the impact of their understanding of blockchain and opportunities for financial freedom. And we'll be offering mentorship, internships and seed funding for youth-led projects.
Bitget and UNICEF both understand that educating and empowering women and girls—especially when it comes to STEAM—is key to building a better world for all of us. We want to bridge gender and economic divides by equipping adolescent girls, parents, teachers and mentors with blockchain literacy. But this idea runs even deeper, right down to the core values of the work all of us do.
Equity Is The Point
When I first discovered crypto, one of the things that most excited me was the egalitarian nature of the industry. Bitcoin was founded on the idea of peer-to-peer networks versus the traditional financial model, where a few people or organizations hold all of the power—a model that has been shown (by every financial crisis) to be enormously problematic. However, equity is at the very heart of the concept of crypto. And yet, we don't see that playing out. Despite crypto adoption being highest in emerging economies like Indonesia and India, few platforms are investing in long-term education or infrastructure in those places.
Companies in our industry must do more than innovate. We must lead with conscience. This isn't about 'being good people.' In crypto—maybe more than in any other industry—we know that a rising tide lifts all boats. The more we can drive mass adoption, the more we all succeed. At Bitget, we are committed to this. Our internal structures reflect inclusivity. Our Blockchain4Her initiative has been pushing for more equity, and our partnership with UNICEF on the Game Changers Coalition is the next step.
The tech industry is uniquely positioned to redefine access, equity and opportunity. The real question is: Will we collectively rise to the occasion?
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