BTCX Women & Bitcoin Podcast: Freedom, Identity, and Balance in a New World – with Fati Hakim

In our latest podcast episode, we meet Fati Hakim, CEO and co-founder of First Block, a Web3 and blockchain consultancy grounded in decentralization, innovation, and human freedom.

Fati’s life story is as powerful as it is insightful. She fled Afghanistan as a child and had lived in nine different countries before the age of eleven. Her upbringing was marked by constantly shifting borders, loss, and the repeated erosion of trust. Clothes, money, and belongings were lost — and so was faith in the system.

When she first heard about Bitcoin, she was instinctively drawn to the aspects that speak to borderlessness and freedom. A technology that doesn’t require trust in a single person, institution, or state. A currency not tied to national borders, physical cash, or heavy assets like gold — and one that offers true financial freedom to people in exile, under oppression, or excluded from traditional systems.

A New Way to Live and Create

Over the years, Fati has seen people in her network discover Bitcoin — and in doing so, unlock a new kind of financial freedom. People who no longer have to “sell their time for money,” but instead can live and create — not just to survive, but to contribute meaningfully and make the world better.

Fati also discusses AI, Web3, and the importance of owning one’s identity. We live in a time where innovation is moving at the speed of light — and we must begin to ask: What steps do we need to take now? At its core, Web3 is about ownership — of value, of data, and of the self. And regardless of how much central power, legislation, or control attempts to slow it down — Bitcoin, AI, and Web3 will happen anyway.

Female Leadership in a Masculine-Coded World

But this world isn’t always easy to navigate — especially not as a woman. Fati shares her experience as a female leader in the blockchain space. She was initially drawn in by the creativity, decentralization, and ideals of freedom, but soon found that her way of thinking and leading was often seen as “difficult.”

When she could no longer stand behind the direction of a project and felt it conflicted with her inner compass, she realized: the feminine within us cannot continue to execute what we’re not aligned with. She began speaking with other women in the industry who had faced the same challenges.

The Cora and the Figure Eight ♾️

From those conversations, The Cora was born — an initiative seeking to bring balance to how we build companies and shape society at large. Their philosophy is symbolized by a figure eight: a natural flow where the feminine leads with intuition, care, and holistic thinking, followed by the masculine stepping in to execute

But the key to long-term, sustainable success — something many fast-moving companies overlook — is the ability to loop back into rest and reflection. To not get stuck in constant forward motion that forgets the essence of why we began in the first place.

It’s hard not to compare this process to the creation of life itself. We need both forces — without them, we build systems, and people, that serve only themselves, with no regard for the world around them.

Bitcoin – A Balancing Force?

At the end of the conversation, Fati poses a powerful question: Could the discovery of Bitcoin be quietly restoring this balance in the world?

A system that allows for both creativity and structure. That is built on both innovation and responsibility. And that, by its very nature, challenges us to rethink value, freedom, and collaboration.

Don’t miss this powerful episode – a personal, technical, and existential journey into what it truly means to be free.