Why have so few people invested in cryptocurrencies?

If cryptocurrency — or, at the very least, bitcoin — hasn’t appeared in your web searches or newsfeed recently, you may very well be living under a rock. Bitcoin’s price exploded in the last quarter of 2017. Starting that year off at a (now) modest $953.56, bitcoin reached an all-time high of $20,089.00 on December 17th.

Finder recently commissioned a survey of 2,001 American adults to gain insight into what the nation thinks of cryptocurrency. Surprisingly, only 7.95 percent of American adults report actually purchasing a cryptocurrency – the obverse being that 92.05 percent don’t own any.

How is it that something directly affecting not even 1 in 10 of us has made its way into everyday conversation?

If crypto is so talked about, why hasn’t everyone bought it yet?

Of those who haven’t purchased crypto, 7.76 percent say they have plans to purchase crypto in the future. The reason from 40.01 percent of those who haven’t yet purchased crypto, representing more than 90 million Americans, is because they are disinterested or they think there’s no need. This reason is followed by 35.02 percent who say that the risk is too high, 27.04 percent who find it too difficult to understand and 17.97 percent who say it’s a scam.

While plenty of crypto proponents might disagree, 16.12 percent are waiting for what they think is a bubble to burst. A further 11.40 percent find it too difficult to use, and 5.75 percent think that there are too many fees involved.

The most common cryptocurrencies purchased

It comes as no surprise that the most popular cryptocurrency by far is bitcoin, with an estimated 5.15% of Americans we surveyed owning an average of $3,453.89 in the coin. Runner-upis Ethereum, with an estimated 1.80 percent of people owning an average of $1,243.42.

How do people decide which digital coin to buy?

Of those who own cryptocurrency, more than one in two (54.09 percent) chose their particular coin or token because they did their own research and it came out on top. These same crypto owners are twice as likely to have completed their own research than rely on the coin’s social media sentiment or presence (27.04 percent). Two in five (40.25 percent) cryptocurrency holders appear to have factored in their coin’s presence among news reports when making their decision, and 41.51 percent simply followed the crowd and selected their coin because a peer made money off of it.

Who buys more cryptocurrency – men or women?

Men are more than twice as likely than women to hold cryptocurrency. Of those surveyed, 4.27% of women said they own cryptocurrency. Compare that with 11.86% of men who said they had holdings in crypto. The average estimated amount of bitcoin purchased by women is also considerably lower at $1,821.65, compared with men at $3,923.16.

Of those who don’t own crypto, 6.28% of women and 9.47% of men have plans to purchase it in the future. Even though men are more likely to hold crypto, they are also more cautious, with 23.98% claiming it’s a scam and 23.27% saying it’s a bubble, compared with 12.77% and 9.93% of women, respectively, who say the same. Women appear to be less interested in cryptocurrency than men are: 44.07% of women say there’s no need for crypto or they’re disinterested, compared with 35.32% of men reporting the same.

The generations cryptocurrencies are most popular with

It appears that crypto is very much a millennial’s game, with 17.21% of millennials claiming to own crypto, while only 8.75% of Gen X and 2.24% of baby boomers say the same. Of those who haven’t purchased crypto, 11.52% of millennials, 10.30% of Gen X and 3.81% of baby boomers plan to purchase in the future.

Millennials who haven’t purchased crypto are more likely to find it too complicated to understand or too difficult to use when compared with the other two generations. The proportion of millennials who find it too complicated to understand comes in at 31.18%, compared with 26.43% of baby boomers and 25.61% of Gen X.

Meanwhile, 14.89% of millennials, 11.94% of baby boomers and 9.01% of Gen Xers say it’s too difficult to use. Our survey also finds that 45.62% of baby boomers, 35.05% of Gen X and 37.36% of millennials who have no holdings are disinterested in purchasing crypto.

If it feels like everyone is talking crypto these days and you’re not yet on board, you’re not alone! Most of us — 92.05% in fact — haven’t yet jumped on the cryptocurrency bandwagon.

Methodology: This research is from a survey of 2,001 US adults commissioned by finder.com and conducted by Pureprofile in February 2018.

A survey by Finder.com finds that 92.05% of Americans haven’t invested in cryptocurrency yet — and drills down to find out why ?