Reese Witherspoon and Gwyneth Paltrow Push for Crypto Sisterhood

“We have watched a lot of these bros get together and earn a lot of money,” Ms. Paltrow, the actress and founder of lifestyle brand Goop, recently told an online audience of 5,000 people in an event by BFF, a cryptocurrency social community targeting women and nonbinary people.

BFF was launched this year by entrepreneurs Brit Morin of the digital media company Brit + Co, and Jaime Schmidt, who founded the natural personal care company Schmidt’s Naturals. Some celebrity members, including the model and entrepreneur Tyra Banks and fashion designer

Rebecca Minkoff,

are personal contacts or friends of the founders, Ms. Morin said. BFF, which is free to join and funded by Ms. Morin and Ms. Schmidt, plans to make money by issuing its own NFTs, Ms. Schmidt said. NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, signify ownership of unique digital assets traded on the blockchain.

“We deserve to be in the space just as much,” Ms. Paltrow said.

Women lag behind men in investing overall, and crypto exchanges say women currently make up less than a third of their users. Total asset value for cryptocurrencies spiked to more than $2 trillion last year, up from $260 billion in 2020, making it a growth market as well as a volatile one—bitcoin’s price hit an all-time high of $68,991 in November. At 10 a.m. Friday it was trading at $39,293.

Some fans have questioned stars moving from production companies and e-commerce into unproven financial products, and it’s not always clear whether a celebrity’s social-media posts about a crypto product are pure enthusiasm or paid promotion.

Ms. Paltrow, Ms. Witherspoon and Ms. Kunis are not currently paid spokeswomen for any crypto brand, their representatives said. Ms. Witherspoon and Ms. Kunis both have business ventures involving NFTs, and Ms. Paltrow did a bitcoin promotion for the digital payment service Cash App last year.

For some celebrity-entrepreneurs, crypto represents a new way to build their brand and potentially make money from fan loyalty, wrapped in the language of female empowerment.

With crypto, they say, women can right gender imbalances in investing and shape the next chapter of the internet, an arena whose rules have been written mostly by men. More broadly, they’re campaigning for women to help build a new, decentralized internet based around digital currency, commonly dubbed web3.

Last year, hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion posted “Bitcoin for Hotties,” a video on social media that explained how cryptocurrency works and was part of a series of general investment-themed spots she did as a paid spokeswoman for Cash App. In the crypto video, she encourages her audience members to do their research and notes that viewers could lose money. “With my knowledge and your hustle, you’ll have your own empire in no time,” she adds. “I’ll see you at the top.”

Randi Zuckerberg,

sister of

Meta’s

Mark Zuckerberg

and a brand adviser for the cryptocurrency exchange OkCoin, has spoken about the 101s of crypto investing on her YouTube channel and tweeted about wanting to make the digital currency community “fun.” In recent weeks, she posted videos of herself singing crypto-inspired lyrics to popular songs like Adele’s “Hello” and Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” (Sample lyric: “Hello? Can you hear me? A decentralized exchange lets you convert from A to B.” )

Ms. Zuckerberg owns nearly 200 NFTs, almost entirely from women-led projects, according to a representative, who said Ms. Zuckerberg has business relationships with several crypto and NFT companies.

Hollywood agents say they are talking about crypto with their clients. At WME, a top talent agency that represents A-list stars, agents have sought out or been approached by more than 100 clients in efforts to strategize about how to expand their brand in a future world built on a crypto economy. To make money, celebrities can put holdings in crypto, issue their own releases in the digital marketplace or get paid for their endorsements.

“A lot of our talent really do believe that web3 is the future—if you want to be involved in that space, you need a long-term strategy,” said Kate Lonczak, an agent in the company’s digital strategy group.

Paris Hilton, who said she has invested in crypto since 2016, described people in Hollywood and entertainment approaching her for guidance, calling her “Crypto Queen” and looking for tips on getting into the field. “They’re just asking for advice,” she said in an interview. “ ‘How do I get in this space? What is it?’ ”

Ms. Hilton, who sells her own NFTs and has investments in crypto projects, is not a paid representative for any crypto brand, a spokesman said.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chair

Gary Gensler

has characterized cryptocurrency markets as the Wild West of investing, saying the asset class is rife with “scams, fraud and abuse” and needs more investor protection. This week the White House released an executive order directing some federal agencies to examine issues around digital currencies.

The SEC has long warned about celebrity investment pitches, including those focused on crypto. The agency in 2017 said celebrities touting initial coin offerings may be breaking the law if they don’t disclose that they’re being compensated for their endorsement.

Many celebrities stress that they’re not financial advisers and their aim is only to educate. “We have a responsibility…once you learn about something to share knowledge, to welcome people,” Ms. Witherspoon said on the podcast NFT Now, a news and analysis show about the digital assets.

“This is simply about encouraging women to take little risks, explore and get educated and get in there and try it out and participate,” Ms. Kunis, known for the TV series “That ’70s Show” and films including “Black Swan,” said in an interview. “If you don’t like it, that’s cool. Don’t just say, ‘Yech, I don’t get it.’ ”

Ms. Witherspoon and Ms. Kunis are some of the influential Hollywood figures rolling out projects around NFTs. Others showing support for NFTs include actress Eva Longoria, who asked her

Twitter

fans for suggestions on which NFT to buy next. “Looking for women-led projects!” she wrote.

Hello Sunshine, Ms. Witherspoon’s company, recently announced a partnership with the World of Women NFT collective to create film and TV content around its characters—a diverse array of 10,000 personas, like Woman #5362, who has green skin and a bandit mask, or Woman #2108, who sports white hair and a countrified grain stalk between her blue lips. World of Women NFTs can sell for more than $20,000.

For Ms. Witherspoon, the push is all about discovering and promoting women in this growing space, said Sarah Harden, chief executive of Hello Sunshine. “We’re not touting crypto trading at all, we are talking about elevating female artists and creators,” she said.

Ms. Kunis has “Stoner Cats,” an adult animated short series whose stars include the actress, her husband Ashton Kutcher and Chris Rock. It can only be viewed by people who have purchased from the show an original NFT artwork costing roughly $1,000.

In some cases, it can be hard to tell whether celebrities are being paid or profiting from their proselytizing. TikTok megastar Charli D’Amelio and her family thanked crypto exchange Gemini for her birthday present on Instagram last year. The item was not labeled as an ad, though it included the hashtag “GeminiPartner,” which Gemini said indicates a promotional post. The gift was crypto currency, according to a person familiar with the offering.

Some of these crypto-enthusiasts say they just don’t want women to miss out on the next big thing, if not the next sure thing. Ms. Kunis said women should not buy NFTs expecting to make money. “Just do it because you love it,” she said.

—Paul Kiernan contributed to this article.

Write to Ellen Gamerman at ellen.gamerman@wsj.com