There’s only one way the price and popularity of the progenitor of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, is going since the COVID-19 lockdowns- up. But a recent survey conducted in the UK reveals that just 10% of the sample population owned Bitcoin (BTC), with London residents having the most exposure to it.
As the cryptocurrency market began to skyrocket after the easing of the Coronavirus lockdowns, market research company, Opinium and AltFi, a news agency, conducted a study to understand the public’s perception of crypto assets.
The survey was conducted on a sample size of 2000 UK citizens. They were asked about their opinion of the COVID-19 lockdowns and how it affected their personal financial condition. The majority replied that they had given up on physical assets and started to move towards cryptocurrencies or digital assets, such as Bitcoin.
The research, when contracted to Bitcoin and other digital currencies, the results were rather surprising. It depicted that out of all the participants, only 200, or 10% owned Bitcoin. So, what does it mean? Is there still room for expansion or have digital assets not grown in the UK at all?
Despite the number of participants invested in Bitcoin being minute, the results are positive and can be interpreted as year-on-year progress. A comparable survey from 2019 revealed that an even smaller percentage (5.3%) of the sample size owned Bitcoin or any other digital asset.
AltFi’s survey also revealed that the crypto market in the UK was dominated by two platforms, Freetrade, and Revolut. Apple Pay and Google Pay were the other two preferred platforms as 28% of crypto holders used either one of them.
London Residents Have Most Exposure to Digital Assets
It was almost predictable that most crypto-asset holders are Londoners. Being one of the most significant financial cities in the world, London, the capital of the UK, was most exposed to Bitcoin. Out of all the London participants, 25% responded that they owned BTC or other cryptocurrencies. So, it can be concluded that 1 in every 4 Londoners has exposure to digital assets.
Plymouth turned out to be the least open city towards Bitcoin as only one respondent purchased any virtual asset. The organizations’ studies confirmed another obvious notion- the younger generation, regarded as being more “tech-savvy”, is more inclined to allocate their funds in Bitcoin. Around 20% of the respondents in the 18-34 age bracket have already invested in digital currency. The percentage of BTC investors slumps to just 1% for participants aged over 55 years.
A report from JPMorgan, the investment bank, also stated a similar result. It revealed that the investment approaches of the younger and older generations had significant differences during the Coronavirus pandemic. The older population preferred to invest in a safer and physical asset, i.e., gold. On the other hand, the younger population were more aggressive in their investment approach, with most tending to go with Bitcoin and other crypto-assets.
