U.S. Investors Divided on Outlook for Cryptocurrency: Survey

[MaluWang]

Americans are split almost evenly on the topic of whether or not cryptocurrency represents a promising investment class with a bright future.

A new Clovr research report sampling over 1,000 American adults found that roughly even segments of the U.S. population have strongly positive and apprehensive, bordering on hostile, views toward crypto assets, even as the total percentage of the population that is aware of cryptocurrencies continues to grow steadily. The report gathered responses to a number of questions from 1,004 Americans aged between 18 and 80 via Amazon‘s Mechanical Turk platform. The average age of survey respondents was 36.05, with a standard deviation of 11.86 years.

The survey shows that crypto awareness is longer a small niche, with 76 percent of the people surveyed professing their knowledge about it, and a further 20 percent indicating that they “sort of” know what cryptocurrency is. While these figures look good, a cursory dive into the data shows that the 76 percent drops to 62 percent when asked if they would be comfortable to explain what cryptocurrency is to others.

According to the survey, 69.8 percent of people expressed uncertainty about the cryptocurrency market while 28.1 percent are hopeful about crypto adoption and positive movement in the market. While 31.5 percent are excited about its usage, another 32.9 percent are confused, which is an almost even split.

A possible reason for this could be the fact that many people first experienced cryptocurrency as a speculative asset during last year’s record-breaking bull run, which made some see crypto as a means to get rich quickly. The bear market of 2018 soon followed, however, and burnt many fair-weather investors, coloring its perception by the general public. This is also reflected in the reasons given for investing or not investing in cryptocurrency, with 51.6 percent of respondents saying they would invest because of the possibility of outsized investment returns and 58.1 percent saying they would not invest because the crypto asset class is too risky.

The report also shows that crypto investment still remains an overwhelmingly male-dominated activity, with 43 percent of surveyed men having invested in a cryptocurrency before, against 23 percent of women. Unsurprisingly, millennials also led the generational statistics of cryptocurrency investors, with 41 percent of surveyed millennials responding affirmatively to the question, compared to 24 percent of Gen X respondents and 18 percent of baby boomers.

The main takeaway from the survey is that the subject of cryptocurrencies is still one of uncertainty and ignorance among many Americans, with many people possessing little more than a superficial understanding of what cryptocurrencies are.


Source: https://www.ccn.com/u-s-investors-divided-on-outlook-for-cryptocurrency-survey/