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What do cryptocurrencies smell like? Ozone, salt and algae, according to Binance’s new “CRYPTO” fragrance.
Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, but the company faces serious challenges. The company and its co-founder, Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty to money laundering charges and agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines to the US Department of Justice. Since then, Binance has laid off two-thirds of its employees and suffered a financial crisis decline 75% in trading revenues.
Meanwhile, Binance’s marketing department is tackling a different kind of problem (one with a lower risk of fraud). To celebrate International Women’s Day, Binance has launched an amazing campaign to get women into the cryptocurrency space through the power of…fragrance.
“I think the point of this is to be irreverent, to be fun, and to try to push the boundaries,” Rachel Conlan, director of marketing at Binance, told TechCrunch. “Although there are always some people who might be upset, we are confident that this opens up the discussion in the right way, and on top of that, we had an all-female team working on this.”
Binance Excited The fragrance was posted on X yesterday and received hundreds of responses, many of which said the same thing: “Imagine the smell.” The phrase is derived from raunchy 4chan memes, but like Pepe the Frog, the joke has been reappropriated among cryptocurrency evangelists.
You might think that “CRYPTO” – also referred to as “Eau de Binance” – would smell like the last day of a tense hackathon where no one had time to shower. Or maybe it smells like Sam Bankman Fried’s prison cell. But this is the stereotype that Conlan is trying to work against to make the cryptocurrency space seem more inclusive.
The actual scent is described as follows: “This fragrance opens with refreshing notes of ozone, salt and algae, evoking the essence of a refreshing and invigorating breeze. The heart notes reveal a luxurious blend of oud, mandarin and precious woods, while the base notes of amber, wood and musk provide a warm, musky and earthy scent that exudes sophistication.
Say what you want about “Eau de Binance,” but it beats the cryptocurrency industry’s contribution on International Women’s Day in 2022, when Bain Capital Crypto announced its new investment team by enthusiastically deploying a group of seven men. But even as more women enter the industry, the cryptocurrency space is struggling to eliminate the stench in the men’s locker room. The Boston Consulting Group found that only 7% of web3 founders Of women, among the top cryptocurrency startups, 27% of employees are women. Which The gender disparity extends For crypto investors too.
Binance has manufactured around 100 bottles of the fragrance, and it’s not actually for sale – instead, women can taste the scent at pop-ups in a mall in Dubai. It seems like a stretch that getting a CRYPTO perfume sample while shopping will change a woman’s mind about investing in digital assets. But Conlan sees revitalization as cheeky. The absurdity of the fragrance is supposed to attract people (“imagine the smell”), while the basic promotion is that the first 5,000 women to complete a beginner’s course on Binance Academy will earn $25 in USD.
In a conversation with Conlan, I asked her if she was concerned that the campaign might seem to flatten women and stereotype them, implying that women are only interested in highly feminized things like perfume and shopping. I told her that I don’t wear perfume, and I don’t know many women who do. But Conlan points out that perfume is more culturally prevalent in Europe and the Middle East, where she lives.
“The last thing I want for this is to be condescending. What I want is to be cynical,” Conlan said. “We frame a lot of crypto as being made by bros, and it’s a very male-dominated space. So it’s about being a little bit sarcastic and provocative with things that are satirical, and borrowing from the rules of the perfume industry and the beauty industry, for things that attract attention.
If this is truly as satirical as Conlan says, then the success of the satire depends on what Binance is actually mocking. Is this fragrance a real attempt to get women to learn more about finance, and if so, what does this marketing strategy say about the company’s view of women? When it comes to gender diversity in finance, the solution isn’t as simple as a spray bottle of essential oils. But the messages get so muddled that the idea of coded perfumes can seem more like patronage than funny.
“We really wanted to play with emotion with this,” she said. “What does the memory of your first step into cryptocurrency evoke and make you feel?”
It’s hard to get past the idea that what women really need to overcome sexism in tech is a whiff of Eau de Binance. But Conlan’s intentions ring true, if easily misinterpreted.
“We don’t just do this once a year when we announce a new data point or a new campaign,” she said. “This is something we are very passionate about as a company, and something we feel strongly will make the industry better. The more women we bring on board to work professionally here, the more products will be designed with men and women in mind.”
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