Most Americans remain wary of cryptocurrencies due to safety concerns

A new survey by Pew Research revealed that the majority of Americans who know about cryptocurrencies consider the current methods to invest and interact with them “unsafe and unreliable.”

Cryptocurrencies remain an obscure niche for most Americans and recent events seem to have sowed more distrust toward the industry among the average person.

Survey results

Only 17% of American adults said they have invested in or used cryptocurrencies, compared to 16% in August 2022.

The survey was conducted with 10,701 participants in March and revealed that 88% of U.S. adults have heard of cryptocurrencies. However, roughly 75% of them consider crypto investing and trading unsafe.

Meanwhile, only 2% of American adults are extremely confident in cryptocurrencies and only 4% are very confident. Adults somewhat confident in cryptocurrencies made up 18% of the sample size.

Age, Gender & Race

The survey noted that age groups were a significant factor in the answers gathered, with those aged above 50 more likely to be skeptical of cryptocurrencies.

Based on the data, 85% of the people above 50 years of age considered crypto unreliable, compared to 66% of those under 50.

According to the survey, young men are the predominant crypto user in America, with 41% of men aged between 18 to 29 having invested, traded, or used cryptocurrencies. Comparatively, only 16% of women in the same age group answered similarly.

Overall, women are more skeptical of investing and trading in cryptocurrencies than men — 80% of women were not confident in crypto, compared to 71% of men.

Furthermore, race also showed disparities in attitude toward crypto, with Asian, African American and Hispanic adults more likely to get involved in crypto than White adults.

Based on the data, 24% of Asian adults have bought, traded, or used crypto, compared to 21% of African American and Hispanic adults and 14% of  White adults.

Income and Impact

According to the survey, people from upper and middle-income groups were more likely to invest in cryptocurrencies than lower-income groups.

Roughly one in five upper and middle-income group adults had bought or traded cryptocurrencies— 21% and 19% — compared to 10% or about one in ten from lower-income groups.

The vast majority of American adults — 69% — who bought cryptocurrency still hold some, while 31% no longer hold any digital assets.

Those from lower-income households are more likely to sell their holdings during times of stress, with 43% of such respondents no longer holding any crypto.

Almost half of the respondents — 45% — said their crypto investments have performed worse than expected, while only 15% said they performed better than expected.

However, for the majority of investors — 60% — crypto investments did not affect their personal finances negatively. Meanwhile, roughly 20% said the investments helped their personal finances, while 19% said they experienced a negative impact.