A survey recently conducted by analytics firm Harris Insights found that 41% of Americans aren’t interested in investing in cryptocurrencies, as they claim nothing could get them to put their money in the market.
According to Fortune, the survey was commissioned by cryptocurrency app Gem, which was looking to understand what could sway investors into the cryptocurrency ecosystem. While 41% turned their backs on crypto, 50% revealed they would be willing to invest.
The survey polled 2,000 adults in the country, and further revealed only 8% of Americans already invest in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin. Per Fortune, the figure is seemingly minimal as, in comparison, 52% of Americans own stocks.
Another interesting insight revealed those who earn over $100,000 per year are less likely to invest in cryptocurrencies, as only 6% own crypto. 11% of those earning between $50,000 and $74,900 per year revealed they own cryptocurrencies, while the percentage decreases to 7% for those earning less than $50,000 a year.
Commenting on the findings Gem founder and CEO Micah Winkelspecht stated:
We find that younger people with less income are more willing to put money in crypto. My guess is that crypto is of the digital age. And the younger generation is of the digital age and used to doing everything on the internet.
Winkelspecht theorized lower income households may be more prone to invest in cryptocurrencies in part due to a “get rich quick” mentality. According to him, the cryptocurrency ecosystem is “still in its Wild West phase,” and those who have more money have more to protect, and as such aren’t willing to risk it.
Out of those who revealed they would invest in cryptocurrencies, most noted they haven’t done so because of a lack of “understandable basic information,” with 20% adding understanding cryptos could motivate them to put in their money.
Curiously, a survey conducted by IW Capital found that 38% of the UK’s crypto investors don’t “understand” cryptocurrency, and that a third believe the market is in a bubble that’s going to burst in the near future. Presumably as a result, only 5% of those surveyed by IW Capital made “financial gains” from their crypto investments.
Backing Winkelspecht findings that point out younger audiences are more interested in cryptocurrencies, a June survey found 21% of UK millennials would rather put their money in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin than in real estate, an investment they deem “high risk.”
These studies notably come at a time in which bitcoin, the flagship cryptocurrency, is starting to recover from a months-long bearish trend that saw its price plummet from a near $20,000 all-time in mid-December, to about $6,370 at press time.
