Crypto convos: Beyond the crypto bros — Victoria Harris from The Curve

Just a few years ago, crypto was too hot to handle for most people. Now, it’s being embraced by the financial establishment. Today, we talk to Victoria Harris from the Curve about rising crypto adoption and ditching the myth of the “crypto bro”.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Investing and involves the risk you might lose the money
you start with. We recommend talking to a licensed financial advisor.
We also recommend reading product disclosure documents before deciding to invest.
Everything you're about to see and here is current at
the time of record.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's a special week on Shared Lunch to mark the
recent launch of shes Is Crypto. We're going to be
diving into five conversations all about crypto, from how it's
evolving to what investors need to know in twenty twenty
five and beyond. Just a note though some of these
episodes were recorded earlier in the year, so some market
prices and movements may have changed today. In our second episode,

(00:40):
Brook Roberts Coco she is Ey's, talks to Victoria Harris
from the Coup and she asks her has crypto gone mainstream?

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Hey? Vic, so great to have you join us at
you know, late your time early esh.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
Ours, No, thanks for having me. You and Sophie have.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Set up you know, the Curve, this financial education platform
for women that's you know, all around the world, which
is really exciting. I'm really intrigued to understand what conversations
you're seeing happen around crypto. And your community.

Speaker 4 (01:12):
It's like with anything, right, the more the more mainstream
it becomes, the more in the media, the more in
the newspapers, like, the more interest there is, it's it's
around you more, you want to know more about it.
It's definitely getting a lot of a lot more interest
with our community. The other thing though, that really frustrates
me sometimes with any asset, any asset that does well, people,

(01:37):
you know, there's an increased talk about it, and when
something is doing not so well, no one really wants
to talk about it. And we've seen that exactly with
crypto and now as it's starting to become a lot
more mainstream, there is definitely more interest, more curiosity and
just just a more woman asking questions.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Really, are you seeing people pick it up as part
of the investing portfolio more at the moment, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:03):
There's definitely a lot more interest. I think as it
becomes more mainstream and easier for people to invest in,
there's also a lot more questions being asked, you know,
like you can buy crypto ETF now right like you couldn't.
You couldn't do that that long ago. And so for
someone who is you know, in our community and feeling

(02:23):
new to investing. Simplicity is key, and so if something
you know, if you're using shears ease to buy funds
and shares and then you have to go somewhere else
to buy this different asset, it creates that extra barrier,
the extra set of you know, extra word of learning
and understanding different platform and how you know a different

(02:43):
asset works and how to how to buy and sell
it something. So it just creates this, It creates a
bit more confusion, it's a bit more jargon, and so
people just don't really do it. So I think, you know,
making it easier for people to access you know, has
its pluses and minuses. But it also, yeah, creates a
lot more interest. It means people dab a little bit more.

(03:05):
People who you know might have not it's kind of
out of sight, out of mind and use. It's in
the headlines and everything, whre it's not in you know,
in front of them in terms of accessibility. So they
might have been like, you know what, I'll just I'll
leave that and come back to it another day, and
now being like, oh, you know what, I think I'll
just I'll just dabble a little bit and start building

(03:26):
my confidence and my understanding that way, but particularly with women,
I think with any with any investment, we take a
much more considered approach. We research things that we invest
in a lot more. We want to understand them a
bit more, which can sometimes be to our detriment because
we do that too much than swing too much the
other way. But it's the same with crypto as it

(03:47):
is with sheares. You know, women want to understand, you know,
how how it works and what moves it and the
supply and demand and all of that, and want to
understand what's going to drive the price higher in the future.
And so there is that maybe a bit more of
a slower adoption than you know, for men or for

(04:07):
people that have been in the finance world for a
lot longer.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Yeah, yeah, I I was just even reflecting on my
own journey. I was kind of crypto curious twenty seventeen,
twenty eighteen, So yeah, a few of us set up
a bit of a crypto club. We put a little
bit of money away each week. But at the start,
I just tried to buy bitcoin myself. I was like,
how do you do this? I had to find a wallet,
hide this key somewhere. I was likes you know.

Speaker 4 (04:32):
And how do I sell it? And like how do
I you know, how do I get out of it?
How do I actually withdraw money? Like all of that.
Like if you think about before She'sis came along, right,
like how hard and difficult it was to buy and
sell she Is And now it's it's so easy, it's
so simple, and therefore a lot more people do it.
And I think that's effectively what's happening with crypto at

(04:53):
the moment. With you know, crypto ETFs for example, that's
kind of one step, but you know, I genuinely think
and kind of two, three, five years time, it will
be part of a bigger part of people's portfolios because
more people understand what it is and it'll be easy
to invest in.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yeah, exactly, I mean that's what you know. We've had
thousands of people ask us, hey, can you please aid
crypto to your platform? And we are seeing more people
in the industry. Hey, you know you used to manage funds.
We're seeing fund managers now hold percentages of their portfolio
in cryptocurrencies or exchange traded funds. What do you do
when it comes to cryptocurrency? How have your views shifted

(05:34):
over the years.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
I was very cautious in the beginning. Naturally, that's just
my way of investing. I like to understand and know
what I invest in. And yes, I may have missed
the early early stages of crypto prices going up, but
I invested purely from an education for our audience point

(05:57):
of view as well. I was like, they were asking
me question and I was like, Okay, well I need
to actually go through the motions and go through the
process and so I actually know what I'm talking about.
And so we invested a little bit in I think
twenty twenty two and bitcoin and ethereum, and then almost
got a little not a little nervous, but double my money.
And I was like, oh, okay, awesome, I'm going to

(06:18):
sell and sold in twenty twenty four and it's not
gone on to do you know, miles better. So it's,
you know, pretty bad idea to sell at the time. Behindsight,
it's great, but yeah, I mean it was, and I
haven't gone back in, so for me, it's yeah, I
guess I come back to like, I like to understand

(06:39):
and know what I invest in and have as good
line of sight as I can possibly have of the
future growth of that asset or that investment. You know,
I'm very familiar with investing in property and really very
familiar with investing in stocks, and so there is just
so many things to invest in nowadays. I kind of
have taught myself not to get two phase by any

(07:02):
missed opportunities too much, because there's always a new opportunity
around the corner. There's always going to be a new
company coming out of the woodwork, or you know, a
market cycle that happens that therefore prices are really attractive again.
And so yes, I've kind of would have sold way
too early in terms of my crypto, But I think

(07:23):
there is place for cryptocurrencies and portfolios. Don't get me wrong.
I just think what scares me is when people get
excited and get hyped up and put way too much
and don't understand the risks. And so that's our whole
thing that we've been educating about. Is like I had
a friend come up to me a few years ago
and she was like, I've just sold my business. She

(07:44):
had this fashion business and I've just sold it. I
don't know much about investing, but I want to. I
want to put it all on this crypto and I
was like, oh no, no, no, please don't. I was like,
do you know the risks I do maybe spirited around
And I think that's key, right, comes back to the
age old saying of diversification. It's like, yes, there's a
there's a place in for crypto in many portfolios for

(08:07):
people if they want that level of risk, but make
sure that it's balanced with other things so you're not
putting everything in that because it is a volatile that
st It does go up and down, and we've seen
it and I can't count the number of headlines where
you know, cryptos up, crypto is down.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
For me, I've been on that same journey with being
like on my investing journeys, you know, at the start
and especially when you're in the market so much and
everybody's talking to you about all these investments. Here, I've
got to get into that that's a winner or you know,
and then just like actually boarding a portfolio over time
with you know, Maltzi can afford. You know, it statistically

(08:43):
pays off. My kid's portfolios do better than mine often,
you know.

Speaker 4 (08:47):
Yeah, yeah, It's it's also I feel like with crypto
there's this mentality of like a trading mentality, like you've
got to get in, get out, get in, get out,
you know, and it's kind of I think this like,
I think it's also really important that you know, when
we invest in stocks and when we invest in funds,
and you know, we do invest for the long for

(09:09):
the long term or for a long period of time,
because there is that volatility. Yet for crypto, for some reason,
it's just you know, it's it's still got that perception
of a short term when or you get lucky or
you put money in and it goes up straight away,
and it's like no, no, it's still it's still a
high risk asset. And so if you are going to
invest in it, you know, you should be taking that

(09:30):
long term view, if that makes sense.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
So yeah, yeah, as a scene and yeah, it completely agree.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Speaker 4 (09:38):
Yeah, I guess the other thing that does scare me
with cryptos I think that for people, you know, particularly
new to investing, that you know, I would just hate
someone to invest in something that they thought was a
lot more safer than it is and and not understand
the true risks. But I think it's getting there, and
I think it's quite interesting when you have such a deregulated,

(10:02):
you know, asset that's becoming more regulated and therefore, you know,
like it's quite quite unintuitive. But when platforms like yourselves
you continue to make it easier for people to invest in,
it's going to you know, it's going to take time
in terms of education and understanding, but it's quite it's
quite neat to see something else that people can get

(10:22):
excited about and invest in, and you know, new type
of technology, and you just had a new addition to
a lot of people's portfolios because you know, sometimes it
gets were boring talking about bonds and property and you
know you're gonna get sick of talk about the same thing.
So it's nice to have a kind of wool. It's
not really a new asset, but yeah, it's become a

(10:42):
lot more.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
Popular, you know. I was just reflecting on our crypto
club we set up years ago, and we just put
a little bit away every week, and I remember so
at the start, i'd track it a bit and it.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Was like ooo, and I was like, oh, you know.

Speaker 3 (10:55):
And it's like but you know, consistency has kind of
paid off over time. But also learned that to ride
that rollercoaster. Early on, I was like, Oh, who knows
what's going to happen next week, you know, but look,
this is you know, it's amount that I can afford,
and you know we'll see a longer term So.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
Great for a volatile as set like it's just so
it just gives you such peace of mind. You know,
you're not looking at like when it's gonna go when
it's gonna go down, You just like kind of set
and forget.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, yeah, cool, all right, We'll let you get some sleep.
But thank you so much for talking to us today,
Thanks Brooke.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
Crypto is generally considered a high risk investment.

Speaker 4 (11:41):
It's not suitable for everyone, especially if you're uncomfortable with
the potential of losing some or all of your investment.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
For more of the national crypto and it's specific risks,
check outs Chess dotting z, Slash Crypto, Cheesus Crypto has
offered like she is Is Crypto Limited, and certain stream stan