According to a report by exchange Bitstamp, more than 10,000 retail investors and 2,000 institutional decision-makers in Europe – to be precise in countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and England – have invested in cryptocurrency.
To be precise, this was 52% of the respondents for the survey, which numbered 23,000 retail investors and 5,000 institutional decision makers. The survey was conducted between May 19 and June 6, 2022.
Crypto winter does not stop investors in Europe
As for institutional decision-makers, however, it was 31%, or 2,000 out of 5,000 people surveyed.
What is interesting about the report is that these figures emerged precisely during the so-called crypto winter, making it clear that many investors were not intimidated by the period.
In fact, the percentage of retail investors who said they had invested in cryptocurrency in Europe would even go up: from 45% in April 2021 to 52% today.
This is not in line, however, with Bank of America’s July 2022 report, which shows that cryptocurrency users have dropped by 50% in recent months.
This confirms that confidence in the future of the industry has remained high, but it has still had a small impact. In fact, the percentage of investors who consider cryptocurrency a reliable investment has dropped from 54% in April to 52%.
The percentage, however, varies from country to country: in the UK it fell from 52% to 42%, while Germany saw an increase from 56% to 63%.
Education in cryptocurrency is holding back consumers
The report also found that education is still an issue holding investors back from entering the market: one in five (21%) respondents in Europe said they would like to invest in cryptocurrencies, but do not know enough about them to get started. The highest percentage was in the UK, where it rose from 25% in April to 31% today.
Perhaps also because of this data, companies like Revolut, Binance, or Coinbase invest in education and offer courses, not only free but thanks to which customers can also receive rewards by answering quizzes or watching videos.
Bitstamp itself decided to launch a guide on cryptocurrencies to provide consumers with the necessary knowledge.
Regulation of the cryptocurrency world
Continuing to delve deeper into Bitstamp’s report, the market, according to respondents, is still not regulated enough. Thinking so was 23% in April, while now it is 26%.
The largest increase among countries in this metric was in Spain, where 34% of consumers said the industry is not regulated enough.
The analysis of more than 2,000 senior decision-makers at institutions such as banks and investment platforms found that the number of companies planning to increase their investments in cryptocurrency rose from 28% in April to 31% today.
Cryptocurrencies as a payment method
The survey also dissected consumers’ habits of using cryptocurrencies as a payment method. Adoption would continue apace, with 47% of customers saying they would feel comfortable paying for everyday items such as groceries in cryptocurrency, up from 40% in April.
The largest increase was in Spain, where nearly two-thirds (61%) said they would feel comfortable paying for groceries with cryptocurrency, up from 49% in April.
Bitstamp Global CEO Jean-Baptiste Graftieaux said thus:
“Despite recent market challenges, the latest Crypto Pulse survey shows that investors still want to know more about crypto. It is therefore essential for companies to take the lead in providing credible, well-researched education content to empower the everyday investor, so they can make the best decision for their money in the market. At Bitstamp, we believe that education is certainly the way forward to driving mainstream adoption of crypto. We are on a mission to continue setting the standard in both these areas in the years to come, so crypto continues its trajectory to becoming mainstream in the next decade.”
More research on cryptocurrency investing
A few months ago Broker Chooser also conducted research among its clients to find out which financial products had been most popular in 2019- 2021, including cryptocurrencies.
And compared to years past, traditional assets have lost some of their appeal, making way for cryptocurrencies.
Source: https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2022/09/01/europe-more-than-50-of-investors-have-bought-crypto/