Category: Surveys

Categories
Institutions Investing Surveys

Report: 84% of Institutional Investors Interested in Crypto, ETF Needed

A survey of more than 1,000 institutional investors from across the US, Europe and Asia found that most believe digital assets have a place in a portfolio and were interested in crypto-based products such as ETFs. 

Respondents to the survey, conducted by Fidelity Digital Assets in early 2021, included financial advisers, high-net-worth investors, family offices, and professionals working for hedge funds, pension funds and venture capital firms.

Over half (52 percent) were already invested in digital assets (predominantly Bitcoin and Ethereum) and nearly nine in 10 said they found crypto appealing, especially in terms of its high potential upside. 

Key barriers to investment in crypto cited by investors include price volatility (54 percent), lack of fundamentals to gauge appropriate value (44 percent), and market manipulation (43 percent).

Key Findings of Institutional Investor Research

  • 70% of all investors surveyed had a neutral-to-positive perception of digital assets;
  • 84% of US and European investors, and 90% of Asian investors, said they’d be interested in institutional investment products that hold digital assets;
  • 62% of US investors expressed a neutral-to-positive view about a potential bitcoin ETF;
  • Nearly eight in 10 investors surveyed felt digital assets have a place in a portfolio; and
  • 43% of investors surveyed identified digital assets as part of the alternative asset class.

Regional Differences in Crypto Investment

The research provides insights into how digital asset adoption varies by region: 

For the second year in a row, the survey found that European investors have a more progressive view towards digital assets than Americans when comparing the responses across all categories. Even so, Asian investors, who we surveyed for the first time this past year, are by far the most accepting of digital assets, with more than 70 percent of investors surveyed currently invested in digital assets.

Jack Neureuter, Fidelity Digital Assets

Compared to previous surveys, more US investors said they’d bought digital assets through an investment product in 2021 while 30 percent of US respondents said they’d prefer to buy an investment product in future – which the report speculates could signal investors’ hopes that a crypto ETF will be approved by regulators.

While investment products were popular among European and Asian investors, they were more likely to buy digital assets directly. 

Fidelity Digital Assets’ survey results reinforce the views of finance professionals surveyed by Deloitte earlier this year – 76 percent of those respondents said they believed crypto would be a strong alternative to, or outright replace, fiat money within the next decade. 

Another report released this month found that six in 10 multinationals are already using crypto and blockchain technology, although typically for transactional purposes rather than as investment assets.

Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News Surveys

Recent Poll: Half of Brazilians Want to Follow El Salvador’s Bitcoin Path

According to local financial news outlet Valor Investe, a new poll conducted by Sherlock Communications has found that almost half of Brazilians are pro-bitcoin.

Brazil May Follow Trailblazing El Salvador

In a study that included other South American nations, Sherlock Communications found that Brazilians were the biggest supporters of El Salvador’s adoption of bitcoin, with 56 percent agreeing with the republic’s approach.

Of those surveyed, 48 percent of Brazilians expressed a belief that their nation ought to follow suit and adopt bitcoin as legal tender – 31 percent agreed and 17 percent agreed strongly with the idea.

The nation appears to be confident in Bitcoin’s future – 23 percent believed that in the future, there would be many more Bitcoiners compared to only four percent who believed Bitcoin would have absolutely no future in the country.

The research showed that the reasons to invest in bitcoin were varied:

  • 55 percent used it as a portfolio diversifier;
  • 39 percent to guard against inflation and ongoing economic instability; and
  • 37 percent to keep up with technological trends and developments.

Bitcoin was comfortably the best-known crypto; 92 percent of those surveyed knew about it, compared to only 31 percent who knew about Ethereum.

Brazil Increasingly Crypto-Friendly

Even though 31 percent of those surveyed felt that crypto was progressing well in Brazil, 35 percent believed that the nation was lagging behind. That belief perhaps stems from rumblings all over South America of other countries looking to follow El Salvador’s example.

This is certainly an interesting perspective, considering Brazil has beaten many developed nations such as the US and Australia in establishing a bitcoin exchanged traded fund (ETF). Brazil has some 1.4 million bitcoin and crypto users, in addition to 21 bitcoin ATMs distributed nationwide.

The research suggested that adoption was partly linked to the availability of an ETF which “allows people to invest in a regulated way, allowing more conservative investors to experiment with the cryptocurrency”.

As expected, El Salvador’s moves were regarded as being a potential brushfire that could trigger a wave of Bitcoin adoption across Central and South America.

El Salvador’s experiment could become a big reference for Latin American countries on how to incorporate blockchain and cryptocurrencies to their economies and generate greater wellbeing [for] its citizens.

Luiz Eduardo Abreu Haddad, consultant for Sherlock

It’s evident that Brazil is marching forward within the crypto space, and even Visa appears to have taken notice of the momentum. Last week, it was established that the company is reportedly working to integrate bitcoin into its Brazilian payments infrastructure.

Categories
Crypto News DeFi Surveys

New Report: 58 Percent of Multinational Firms Are Using Crypto

A new report from PYMNTS (Payment News & Mobile Payments Trends) has revealed that almost six out of 10 multinationals are using at least one form of cryptocurrency and, to some extent, blockchain technology for transactional purposes. 

Why Are Firms Using Crypto?

PYMNTS, in collaboration with global financial technology firm Circle, surveyed executives at 250 multinational businesses and 250 financial institutions. It seems utility is what matters most for global companies, which are six times more likely to use cryptocurrencies for transactional purposes rather than hold them as investment assets.

More than half (58 percent) of multinational firms already use or plan to use crypto to facilitate cross-border payments, and 93 percent of financial institutions believe business customers would use cryptocurrencies for both investing and transacting – and that some of them are far more interested in using cryptos than holding them. 

Bitcoin and Ethereum Lead Crypto Adoption

Naturally, bitcoin is the preferred cryptocurrency for most businesses with 34 percent of firms using it. But stablecoins and altcoins are also seeing a surge in interest as 29 percent of firms report using stablecoins like USDT (Tether) and USDC. Ethereum is the most coveted and compelling currency for some multinationals – 24 percent of them are using ETH and 21 percent say they are interested in exploring its potential use cases.

It seems cryptocurrencies are heaven-sent solutions for global firms as they eliminate some of the challenges of cross-border transactions, such as banking hours and regulations. Instead, blockchain payments are fast, secure and low-cost, all key factors for crypto adoption.

What Are the Challenges of Crypto Adoption?

While cryptocurrencies and blockchain compensate for what traditional banking and financial institutions lack, they do have their challenges:

  • Low Throughput – Compared to payment giants like VISA or Mastercard, BTC and Ethereum mainnet TPS (transactions per second) are low. Bitcoin currently handles up to 4-6 TPS while Ethereum handles around 15 TPS. There are faster and higher TPS blockchains out there, yet BTC and ETH are the most popular among institutional investors.
  • Lack of Organisational Awareness and Financial Resources – A barrier to widespread adoption is the lack of financial resources to implement blockchain tech. Another obstacle is the lack of understanding among institutional leaders and organisations about the crypto space.
  • Reputational Problems – The crypto and DeFi (Decentralised Finance) world is full of malicious actors (fraudsters, hackers, and scammers) that stain the image of crypto. While the DeFi industry has benefited from widespread institutional adoption and other assets like NFTs, scammers have taken advantage of newcomers. There are dozens of scams out there, including influencers asking followers to send them BTC, fake trading websites, Ponzi schemes, exit scams and more.
  • Regulation – While the crypto and DeFi worlds were originally meant to be decentralised, crypto-friendly regulations are required if institutional adoption and crypto businesses want to grow. In Australia, the lack of clear regulation has become a major problem for the crypto community and local crypto companies. Blockchain Australia and industry-related partners have called for a better, updated framework for the crypto scene.

These hurdles are certainly challenges for financial institutions and global firms, but industry leaders are working on enhanced and powerful ecosystems to boost crypto adoption and institutional capital.

These challenges haven’t stopped institutions from diving into cryptocurrencies. As Crypto News Australia reported a week ago, global crypto adoption is up 880 percent over the past year.

Categories
Crypto News Surveys

76% Believe Crypto Will Replace Fiat Currency Within 10 Years, Survey Reveals

The 2021 Global Blockchain Survey, conducted by multinational accounting firm Deloitte, has revealed that 76 percent of people believe crypto will be a strong alternative to, or outright replace, fiat money within the next decade.

Deloitte surveyed more than 1,280 finance professionals from Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the UK and the US. The surveys were conducted between ​​March 24 and April 10 at the height of the recent surge in the crypto market.

Table from Deloitte report about the future of digital assets.

Mainstream Adoption

Fully 81% of finance professionals surveyed agreed that the technology is “broadly scalable and has achieved mainstream adoption”. This was certainly reflected in the Chainalysis report last week that highlighted a meteoric 880 percent rise in crypto adoption in the past year. According to yet another survey, conducted by Fidelity Digital Assets last month, 70 percent of institutional investors have plans to buy crypto in the near term.

Obstacles to Global Acceptance and Use

But it’s not all rainbows and lollipops. Many finance professionals also highlighted a number of major obstacles that need to be overcome before there is global acceptance and use of digital assets. For example, 71 percent had concerns about the cybersecurity of digital assets; 63 percent were worried about regulatory barriers; 62 percent raised concerns about financial infrastructure; and 59 percent were worried about the privacy of digital assets.

Categories
Crypto News Surveys

Report: Global Crypto Adoption Up 880% in Past Year

For those paying attention, it is self-evident that crypto has taken off over the past 12 months. Few, however would have predicted the sheer extent and velocity of adoption. According to a recent Chainalysis report, global adoption is up an incredible 880 percent over the past year.

Crypto adoption over past 12 months. Source: Chainalysis

Top 20 Countries Identified

Overall, Vietnam emerged as the clear leader in crypto adoption. It is worth noting that most of the eager adopters are developing nations, suggesting that crypto’s use case is perhaps more readily understood in such regions.

Top 20 in crypto adoption: Chainlysis

Three main trends were identified in the report.

Trend 1: Global Crypto Adoption is Skyrocketing

Adoption has truly skyrocketed since the beginning of 2020, as reflected in the quarter-by-quarter growth chart below. Interestingly, the report notes that the reasons for adoption differ around the world.

Emerging markets tend to turn to crypto to preserve their savings in the face of currency devaluation, send and receive remittances, and carry out business transactions. By contrast, in developed markets, it is driven more so by institutional investment.

Crypto adoption, quarter by quarter. Source: Chainalysis

Trend 2: Emerging Markets Embrace P2P Platforms

Several countries in emerging markets, including Kenya, Nigeria, Vietnam and Venezuela, rank high largely due to enormous transaction volumes on peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms (adjusted for purchasing power per capita and internet-using population). The primary reason for doing so is that they often lack access to centralised exchanges.

Trend 3: China and US Dip in Rankings

Last year, China ranked fourth while the US ranked sixth. This year, the US ranks eighth while China ranks 13th. The main reason for both dropping is that their P2P trade volume weighted for internet-using population declined dramatically – China from 53rd to 155th, while the US fell from 16th to 109th. China’s decline is no doubt linked to regulatory clampdowns over the past six months in particular.

Crypto Gone Mainstream

In years to come, 2020 may well turn out to be the year that crypto went mainstream. Following a sharp correction in March along with other growth assets, crypto picked up steam towards the second half of 2020 and officially became entrenched in mainstream consumer consciousness.

It’s not just ordinary investors taking charge, as a recent survey by Fidelity Digital Assets revealed that 70 percent of institutional investors are interested in buying cryptocurrencies in the near-term. In addition, a 2021 survey of financial advisers found that 26 percent will recommend crypto to their clients within the next year after half had clients who had inquired about crypto in the preceding six months.

Retail investors initially led the charge and institutional investors followed suit, pushing crypto to new highs. Financial advisers lacking insight into the digital asset space run the risk of falling behind. In the past, it might have been a career risk to advocate crypto exposure to one’s clients. In the near future (or perhaps even now), it may be a career risk not to.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Investing Surveys

Report: 26% of Financial Advisers Will Recommend Crypto This Year

More than one in four financial advisers say they will recommend cryptocurrencies to their clients in the next year, according to just-published results of a survey commissioned in March.

Almost half (49 percent) of advisers said clients had inquired about investing in cryptocurrencies over the past six months.

Results of the 2021 Trends in Investing survey, conducted by the Journal of Financial Planning and the Financial Planning Association (FPA), and supported by Onramp Invest, were released this week.

Client Base Demands Knowledge, Access and Advice from Advisers

The FPA is the principal membership organisation for certified financial planners, professionals, educators and financial services professionals. Onramp Invest is a technology company providing access to crypto assets for registered investment advisers.

Onramp Invest CEO Tyrone Ross commented:

It is clear from these results that we’ve reached an inflection point in the wealth management space. Advisers are now faced with a client base that demands knowledge, access and advice from their adviser[s] on cryptoassets.

Tyrone Ross, Onramp Invest CEO

The survey received 529 responses from financial advisers of various backgrounds and business models. Cryptocurrencies were first added to the survey in 2018 when 1.4 percent of advisers indicated they were either using or recommending them to clients. That figure fell below 1 percent in 2019 and 2020 but jumped to 14 percent in 2021.

Survey results suggest that investors are concerned about the effect of tax reform on their portfolios, with 40 percent of advisers indicating clients had asked them about this topic, up from 27 percent in last year’s survey.

Youth Leads the Way in Crypto Investment

Last month’s CNBC Millionaire survey showed 47 percent of the world’s millennial millionaires have more than 25 percent of their wealth in crypto. The survey sampled 750 investors with at least US$1 million in investible assets, and indicated that more than a third of cashed-up millennials have at least half their wealth in crypto. Australian millennials are no different, as Crypto News Australia recently reported that this cohort is more interested in crypto than real estate.

Categories
Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Cryptos Investing Surveys

Nearly Half Of Millennial Millionaires Have At Least 25% of Their Wealth in Crypto

The crypto boom has created wealth for young early adopters and according to a new survey, nearly half of millennial millionaires have at least a quarter of their money in crypto.

CNBC Millionaire Survey Findings

According to the CNBC Millionaire survey, about 47% of millennial millionaires have more than 25% of their wealth in crypto. The survey sampled 750 investors with at least $1 million in investible assets, and showed that more than a third of millennial millionaires have at least half their wealth in crypto. Australian millennials are no different, as we recently reported that aussies are more interested in crypto than real estate.

The younger investors were more intellectually engaged with the idea even though it was new. Older investors and the boomers were largely saying, ‘Is this legit?’

George Walper, president of Spectrem Group

Older millionaires are far less likely to invest in crypto due to a lack of interest or an inability to understand it. The survey shows that 83% of American millionaires have none of their wealth in crypto, and only one in 10 keeps more than 10% of their wealth in crypto assets.

Generational Gap Opens Wider on NFTs

The generational divide is at its largest with regards to non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The majority of millionaires say they don’t know what NFTs are, and regarding millennials a third of them are saying they are an “overhyped fad”. The other two-thirds are saying NFTs “are the next big thing”.

Nearly half of millennials surveyed own NFTs, and 40% say they don’t currently own an NFT but have “considered” it. In comparison, 98% of boomer millionaires say they don’t own any NFTs and aren’t considering acquiring any.

US Millionaires Plan To Sell Stocks and Cryptos Before Tax Time

The survey also showed that 69% of US investors with more than US$1 million expect higher taxes under the Biden administration, specifically higher capital gains tax and business tax. This could push investors to sell their investments before the tax hikes come into play. According to the survey, 19% of participants plan to do this.

Businesses Should Be Prepared For New Buyers In The Market

The importance of crypto to young millionaires could shift the wealth management industry as private banks, brokers and wealth management firms scramble to cater to a new, crypto-heavy clientele. Businesses that wish to capute this new market segment must therefore cater to their needs.

We see more and more providers offering access to crypto investing. It’s changing fast.

George Walper, president of Spectrem Group

And as younger millennials become home owners, businesses need to adapt to their needs to survive. Some Aussie buyers are even using crypto as house deposits.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Cryptos Data Investing Surveys

40% of Australian Millennials Prefer Crypto Over Real Estate

As Australians become increasingly interested in alternative investments, a recent survey by international cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has found that 40 percent of millennials prefer investing in digital assets over real estate.

More Than a Million Millennials Will Buy Crypto in the Coming Year

The findings arrive on the back of a global property market boom elevating house prices to record levels across most Australian capital cities.

Other findings of the report include:

  • 40% of millennials and 31% of Gen Zs believe crypto is a good alternative to property
  • 20% of crypto investors view crypto holdings as being useful in saving for a home or investment property deposit
  • On average, Australian crypto investors have 12.5% of total assets in cryptocurrencies
  • 10% hold more than 25% of total assets in digital currencies
  • Just under 25% of investors are long-term HODLers

As real estate investment becomes increasingly elusive, the report notes that up to 4 million Australians will be buying cryptocurrency in the coming 12 months, a third of whom are millennials. Up to 67 per cent of this group were found to believe that digital assets are a good alternative to an investment property. We also saw recent survey results that 49% of Money Invested into Bitcoin Would Have Gone into Stocks with over 62,000 answers, shows the percentage breakdown of investor capital by markets that was invested into cryptocurrencies..

Kraken Optimistic About APAC

Jonathon Miller, Kraken’s Australia-based managing director, says that cryptocurrency adoption in Australia is growing at a rapid pace with the bulk of demand rather unsurprisingly stemming from millennials and other younger generations. Miller notes:

Australians maintain some conservative attitudes towards investment. Property has been a cultural norm and high on the wish list for most investors, but as affordability continues to be an issue we’re seeing more young people look for other options to grow wealth.

Jonathon Miller
Jonathon Miller, Kraken Australia MD

Miller maintains a positive outlook for the broader Asia-Pacific region and confirms what many have long suspected, that youth is undoubtedly leading the way in crypto adoption:

We’re confident that as more investors look to diversify their portfolios and seek investment opportunities outside of the traditional offerings, we’ll see cryptocurrency come into its own in APAC.

Jonathon Miller

In related news:

Categories
Cryptocurrencies Data Surveys

Survey Shows 49% of Money Invested into Bitcoin Would Have Gone into Stocks

A recent Twitter survey by Michael Saylor, with over 62,000 answers, shows the percentage breakdown of investor capital by markets that was invested into cryptocurrencies.

In other words, this means that the 49% money would have been invested into the stock market, if cryptocurrencies was not an option. With 22% into Gold, 19% into Property and the remaining 10% into Bonds.

Some investors replied, such as Spencer Schiff, Son of Gold Investments Advocate and Crypto Critic Peter Schiff stating the money would have gone into Gold and Silver.