Published
5 years ago on
July 27, 2018
“Bitcoin, the leading form of digital currency that has seen its price soar, crash and rise again in the past year, has made little headway with U.S. investors. According to a Wells Fargo/Gallup poll, just 2% of investors say they currently own bitcoin, and less than 1% plan to buy it in the near future. While most investors say they have no interest in ever buying bitcoin, about one in four (26%) say they are intrigued by it but won't be buying it anytime soon.â€This is actually quite startling. As 2% of those surveyed only own Bitcoin, one can call to question to true decentralisation of the currency. Though this is something that has been debated all year. A small minority own the majority of Bitcoin, therefore we can expect that the 2% reached by this survey, are probably a part of that demographic. The really worrying part is that according to Saad, less than 1% actually have an interest in going on to purchase Bitcoin. Of course, 26% seem to be interested in investment but don’t plan to buy any time soon. Well, let’s say Bitcoin hits $20,000.00 at the end of the year, I assume after this, even less investors will show an interest on the basis that prices have shot up and therefore, Bitcoin is no longer affordable. The reason for this, lack of willingness to explore Bitcoin investment seems to be down to perceived risk. According to the research, 75% of participants found Bitcoin investment to be Very Risky, 23% of participants found Bitcoin investment to be Somewhat Risky, 2% of participants found Bitcoin investment to be Not Too Risky and >0.5% of participants found Bitcoin investment to be Not Risky at All. We can safely assume that the >2.5% who found some or no risk in Bitcoin investment, are a part of the 3% of participants who have either already invested in Bitcoin, or intend to do so soon. These findings are quite surprising. Whilst they can’t be generalised across the USA, the findings do suggest that actually, Bitcoin really isn’t as popular as one might first expect within the United States and that moreover, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies still face a big challenge with regards to breaking into the United States. With perceived risk as very high, adoption will be impossible and therefore, stigma needs to be broken before we can see a real change and a surge in crypto within the USA.
