- Crypto ownership rates have remained stable despite market growth since 2022.
- CFI’s surveys show that even as Bitcoin nears a five-year high in 2024, ownership has not increased.
- Interest in future crypto purchases has risen, with 21.8% of respondents likely to buy, up from 10.6% in October 2022.
According to a new survey by the Consumer Finance Institute (CFI), crypto ownership rates have remained the same even though the market has grown after the end of the 2022 crypto winter. While Bitcoin and the rest of the digital assets have gained significant value, it does not seem to have affected the number of people who own digital currency, which appears to have stayed constant.
The CFI’s findings challenge the assumption that price increases automatically correlate with greater adoption of digital currencies. The study uses information gleaned from six surveys carried out from January 2022 to July 2024. The first two surveys were conducted as part of the CFI’s COVID-19 Survey of Consumers, while the remaining four were part of the LIFE Survey. Each survey was conducted among a nationally representative pool of 5000 people.
Intriguingly, during the sudden downturn in the market in 2022, the ownership of crypto tokens fell alongside the prices, which is exactly what one would expect. Yet, market recovery has been observed since October 2023, with ownership rates still remaining low.
Bitcoin price is used as a measure of CFI’s analysis and overall market performance. At the end of 2022, the prices fell down to a low point first, then recovered gradually through 2023, but soon they will be skyrocketed in 2024. Even with Bitcoin nearing a five-year high by mid-2024, crypto ownership has shown little sign of increasing.
Growing Interest in Future Crypto Purchases
The results of the LIFE Survey carried out in April 2024 showed that only 16.1% of the respondents reported owning digital currency, which is a figure that remained almost unchanged from the previous October. By the end of July 2024, there was a further slight decrease in the number.
Despite the stagnation of ownership rates, the surveys did record the increasing interest in the future purchase of crypto. According to the April 2024 LIFE Survey, 21.8% of the respondents were likely to buy digital currency in the future which was an increase from 10.6% in the October 2022 survey. Nonowners, in particular, demonstrated the most considerable increase in interest, with 13.4% saying they might enter the market, in contrast to just 6.9% in early 2022.
However, the ownership-interest gap indicates that many people do get interested in the crypto-domain but are still at the stage of watching the market stabilize before buying. It is possible that the new regulations, the uncertainty of prices, or the complexity of the transactions are the reasons that are preventing new investors from entering the market.
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