A new report on how Indonesians use the internet, social media, e-commerce platforms, and mobile devices claims 11% of the country’s population owns some form of cryptocurrency.
The report, compiled by Hootsuite, We Are Social, and Kepios, cites data from GlobalWebIndex to report that 11% of people in Indonesia own some form of cryptocurrency, making the sixth country by cryptocurrency adoption. Per the report it lags behind the Philippines, Brazil, South Africa, Thailand, and Nigeria. In the Philippines, 17% of the population own some form of cryptocurrency.
On social media, users have pointed to Indonesia’s devaluing currency as a potential cause for such high cryptocurrency adoption. According to Investing.com the country’s inflation rate hit 82% in 1998 and while it dropped significantly since, over the last two decades it has been averaging 6.3%, which means that 100 Indonesian rupiah (IDR) in 200 are currently the equivalent of over 360.
Indonesia, 11% own #bitcoin. Impressive.
In in the Asian Financial Crisis, 1997, the currency devalued by 10x. So they get it.
As the 4th most populous nation in the world, 50% of 265 million people are under 30 years old. pic.twitter.com/SfTYKnm3yw— MIRA (@miiirac) March 23, 2020
Data from Statista that doesn’t yet include cryptocurrencies further shows that 50.8% of millennial Indonesians, half of the country’s millennials, also invest in gold. The precious metal has seen its price rise over 3% in the last 24 hours as the coronavirus pandemic affects the economy.
Responding to the report on social media, one user claiming to be from Indonesia revealed he believes the figures regarding cryptocurrency ownership may have be exaggerated, as they may be counting the 2017 bull run that saw BTC hit a new all-time high close to $20,000.
The user revealed that the country’s leading cryptocurrency exchange – presumably Indodax – held an airdrop event at the time that saw users create fake accounts with it to earn a bigger share of the funds being airdropped.
Whether the figure is accurate or not may be impossible to tell. In the cryptocurrency space one user isn’t tied to one cryptocurrency address, as security experts even advised users to create one new address per transaction to maintain their anonymity. Blockchain data shows that, in total, there are over 600 million unique BTC addresses.
Featured image by Nick Agus Arya on Unsplash.
