Okcoin hires former Facebook spokesperson Randi Zuckerberg to grow female user base

Cryptocurrency exchange Okcoin has announced Randi Zuckerberg — the sister of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — will be joining the platform’s brand advisory council in its aim to bring more women into crypto.

In a Thursday announcement, Okcoin said that in addition to hiring Zuckerberg, the exchange would be committing $1 million in an attempt to reach a 50% female user base by 2025. Zuckerberg was the former director of market development and a spokesperson for Facebook until she resigned in 2011, moving on to start her own social media firm in addition to founding the Zuckerberg Institute — a program aimed at educating business leaders, entrepreneurs and students.

“Crypto and this new era of wealth creation should be open to everyone,” said Zuckerberg in a video promoting her move to the crypto exchange. “I’ve joined Okcoin’s advisory council to support that mission and bring more women into the world of crypto.”

Had so much fun filming this video (complete with a cameo from my toddler) and over the moon to be working with @Okcoin to get more women into the crypto space https://t.co/FtURPcFcSt— Randi Zuckerberg (@randizuckerberg) December 2, 2021

With the hiring of Zuckerberg, Okcoin will have many women in key leadership positions at the exchange, including CEO Hong Fang as well as head of content and brand Mandy Campbell. Fang told Cointelegraph last year the crypto exchange had seen a significant influx of women in 2020, with 50% of female users to the platform in the first quarter being new.

"Historically, women and other marginalized groups have been locked out of the traditional financial system,” said Fang on the $1 million commitment. “Cryptocurrency is turning this norm on its head through the wealth-creating opportunities created by decentralized finance, but we're still seeing lower adoption among women.”

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Founded in 2013, Okcoin is one of the world’s oldest crypto exchanges and has steadily expanded to serve customers in more than 190 countries. Though its headquarters are based in the United States, the exchange secured regulatory approval to operate in Malta and the Netherlands in July.