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Sydney, March 3: A new research from Toluna found that more than fifty per cent of Australians were hesitant to invest in cryptocurrency compared with other countries.
The survey which picked the brains of 9,000 people across 17 countries found that fifty two per cent of Australians (500 individuals) say they would never invest in crypto, compared with only one in ten surveyed globally.
While one in three Aussies or 34 per cent think crypto is just hype with 65 percent admitting that they were aware of the currency but did not fully understand the asset class.
More than half of the Australian respondents believed that cryptocurrency was an ongoing project with no guarantee of success with the same number of respondents also vowing to never invest in it.
Those who lived in developing APAC (Asia-Pacific) countries were most familiar with cryptocurrency and reported that they planned to set aside 22 per cent of their investable assets for crypto.
While forty six per cent of people in these countries were currently invested in crypto, followed by 39 per cent in Latin America.
The biggest investors in developed countries were from those living in the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region.
Age also plays a role in forming perceptions, with over half (53 per cent) of Gen-Zs (aged 18-24) surveyed globally believing cryptocurrency will become an upward trend in the long term compared to 22 percent of Gen-Xs (aged 41-56) and 38 percent of boomers (aged 57-64) who think crypto will soon crash.
The survey respondents came from North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), and Asia-Pacific (APAC), in the countries of Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Philippines, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, UAE and Brazil and were between the ages of 18 and 64 years.
Other key findings include:
- Respondents currently view cryptocurrency as risky and volatile, with fear of the associated risk (43 per cent) (44 per cent of Australians) and an overall lack of understanding of cryptocurrency (40 per cent) (34 per cent of Australians) recorded as the main reasons why potential investors are hesitating to invest in cryptocurrency.
- While a third of respondents were current owners of cryptocurrency, six in ten in that group showed a lack of familiarity with their crypto asset.
Attitudes around cryptocurrency differ dependent on age
- The study found that older respondents were more skeptical about crypto and regard it as ‘hype,’ while younger respondents were more positive about crypto becoming a genuine currency in the long term.
- Over half (53 per cent) of Gen-Zs (aged 18-24) surveyed believed cryptocurrency will become an upward trend in the long term compared to 22 percent of Gen-Xs (aged 41-56) and 38 percent of boomers (aged 57-64) who think crypto is hype that will soon crash.
- Cryptocurrency is most popular amongst younger decision-makers from developing countries. In these countries, 42 per cent of Gen-Zs have already invested in cryptocurrency, which rises to 44 per cent in Millennials aged 25-40.
- Overall, Gen-Zs and Millennials are less cautious towards crypto and treat it as a form of currency, Gen-Xers are more likely to treat it as a form of investment.
- Forty one percent of millennials think crypto is more of an investment than a means of payment, and a third think now is a good time to buy crypto – a contrast to just 11 percent of Boomers.
- Almost a third of Boomers (32 per cent) think crypto facilitates illegal activities, closely followed by 27 percent of Gen Xs.
Developed versus developing countries – the cryptocurrency divide:
- The global survey found that developing countries were more receptive and carry a much more positive sentiment towards cryptocurrency than richer, developed countries. This is especially true in Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Latin America. The most receptive countries to cryptocurrency were Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, and India.
- Sixty two per cent of respondents in Latin America believed cryptocurrency was a long-term upward trend, compared to 15 per cent in North America.
- Twenty percent of respondents in developed APAC countries (34 per cent of Australians) thought crypto was just hype that would crash soon, compared to 49 per cent of those in developing APAC countries who said they thought it was a long-term upward trend.
Reasons for and reasons against investing in cryptocurrency:
- Forty one percent of people in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand said they had invested in cryptocurrency because of its potential for short-term growth.
- A third (33 per cent) of those in Thailand and Malaysia said they had invested in cryptocurrency to diversify their overall investment portfolio.
- Developed countries were more likely to view cryptocurrency as high-risk, including over half (51 per cent) of respondents in APAC developed countries, 38 percent of respondents in EMEA, and 34 per cent of those in North America.
- Those surveyed in developing countries were much less likely to see cryptocurrency as a risky investment (25 percent) compared to those in developed countries (42 per cent), and therefore place greater trust in the digital currency (32 percent versus 14 per cent of respondents in developed countries) and were much more likely to invest in cryptocurrency (41 per cent in developing countries versus 22 per cent in developed countries)
- The overall outlook for crypto investment was much stronger in developing countries, with 75 percent of investors expecting to increase their proportion allocated to investable assets for cryptocurrency investment versus 57 per cent in developed countries.
Crypto-mania in Latin America
- Out of the developing regions, Latin America showed the strongest growth potential, along with the highest trust and lowest perceived risk of crypto.
- Nearly half (49 per cent) of respondents in Latin America view cryptocurrencies as more of an investment than a means of payment, with 45 per cent believing that it could be easily converted to cash. This is in comparison to just 16 percent of respondents in EMEA and the developed APAC countries who think cryptocurrencies can be easily converted to money.
- Only 16 per cent of those in EMEA (and 18 per cent in developed APAC countries) think cryptocurrencies can be easily converted to cash.
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