According to a study from Finder.com, only eight percent of Americans invest in Cryptocurrencies. Although it does represent a massive jump from a one percent ownership in 2016, the study aims to find out why over 92 percent do not, or choose to not, invest in cryptocurrencies.
To effectively find out why a large percentage of Americans choose not to buy cryptocurrencies, we break out the statistics from Finder.com’s survey.
Only 16.7 million people in the United States own any form of digital currencies, which is approximately eight percent of the population. The most popular choice is, not surprisingly, Bitcoin (BTC), owned by over five percent of the American people.
In second place is Ethereum (ETH), which enjoys an ownership rate of 1.8 percent, or around 5.8 million people. A significant number of participants also own Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, and Cardano, but the percentages are all less than one percent.
Why Most Americans are not Investing in Digital Currencies
A Questionnaire was prepared for the 92 percent Americans who did not purchase any cryptocurrencies, and this is what they had to say.
Based on the answers, many people have valid reasons to not invest in cryptocurrencies. Case in point, we further take a close look at the answers and reason why American’s might feel this way:
- There is no need or they are uninterested (39.7 percent): Many people simply do not see the need or purpose of cryptocurrencies. A reason for this might be that the US Dollar, and many other global currencies, have been historically stable. If Americans faced a Venezuelan-like crisis, they would probably find the need to use cryptocurrencies. With the current system working fine, many would not wish to move to a different currency system.
- It’s too high-risk (35.3 percent): The Volatile nature and prices of cryptocurrencies have been covered in detail by the mainstream media outlets. Popular news outlets had a field day when BTC lost over half its value in January, a month after Bitcoin reached an all-time high (ATH). Putting this into perspective, the top five cryptocurrencies have all lost over ten percent in the last 48 hours. Such volatility represents a considerable challenge towards mainstream adoption, as the average person wouldn’t invest that can give losses within hours. Most importantly, 35 percent of Americans do not want to lose any money on cryptocurrencies.
- It’s too complicated to understand (26.8 percent): As it is with any new technology, education of blockchain and cryptocurrencies is practically absent in daily news coverage and conversations. A big obstacle with many new technologies is educating the public. For example – Even after years of the smartphone, people still may not know every feature of it. Education about cryptocurrencies, with all the negative news published around it, shall be a hard and slow path. News coverage of price, instead of the underlying technology, is partly why people know little about digital currencies.
- It’s a scam (18.4 percent): The only situation that may get the “centralized” in decentralized. An increasing number of scams involving significant cryptocurrencies, and ICOs, is a major people why people believe the whole of cryptocurrencies to be a scam. This is possibly a reason why regulation could be required for fully integrating cryptocurrencies in everyday life. All major media outlets, like Twitter, Snap, Facebook, and Google have banned cryptocurrency ads, and countries around the world are forming independent or government controlled bodies to protect investors.
- It’s a bubble (16.6 percent): Many people with a significant disposable income may have lived through the dot-com bubble, and hence, may be extra cautious about cryptocurrencies. With the market having more than 1,600 different coins, not all of them shall survive, and many more shall plummet to zero. As of now, it’s difficult to tell where the long-term value lies at this point.
- It’s too difficult to use (11.4 percent): There is certainly a long way to go before cryptocurrencies become as easy as using a credit card. However, there certainly have been advancements and integrations with big firms to make this process easier.
- There are too many fees (5.8 percent): This percentage represents people who are unaware of cryptocurrencies beyond bitcoin, as the problem of high fees is more of a bitcoin-specific problem than a cryptocurrency problem. Still, over 5.8 percent of Americans view all of the cryptocurrencies as similar to bitcoin, and hence millions of people shy away from investing, citing high fees.
However, a Jump of Seven Percent in a Year is Positive News
As mentioned earlier, seven percent of the population, or 12 million after 2016 people adopted and invested into cryptocurrencies. Slowly but surely, people are opening up to investing, as cryptocurrencies are gradually becoming more accessible and easier to buy. Bitcoin’s solutions for slow transactions are gradually being reported in the mainstream media, and this increases investor confidence. As time goes on, the perception that cryptocurrencies are a scam and are in a bubble could naturally take care of themselves, and regulatory clarity could help keep volatility in check.
The post Over 92 percent of Americans do not invest in Cryptocurrencies: We find out why appeared first on BTCMANAGER.
Author: BTCManager.com
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