A recent survey organized by Dutch banking group ING suggests that the percentage of European consumers that own cryptocurrencies is likely to almost triple in the future.
The ING International Survey aims to provide a better understanding of how people around the world spend, save, invest, and feel about money; it is carried out several times a year. This online survey, which focused on cryptocurrencies, was most recently carried between March 26th and April 6th.
14,828 people across 15 countries (about 1,000 per country) were surveyed; these countries were: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA, and Australia.
However, since 13 out of these 15 countries are in Europe, we are going to focus on the answers given by the European respondents.
It is worth keeping in mind that Bitcoin, which is the oldest and most well-known cryptocurrency, reached almost $20,000 around mid December 2017, but had dropped to about $7,000 around the time this survey was conducted.
Now, let’s take a look at some of the more interesting findings from the European consumers:
- 66% (77% of men and 55% of women) said they had heard about crypto. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, those already using mobile banking are more likely to have heard about crypto than those who don’t.
- 35% said that they thought that crypto was the future of spending online.
- 32% said they thought that crypto was the future of investment.
- Only 15% said that they would be willing to receive their take-home pay in crypto.
- 70% said that they found gold and cash to be less risky than crypto.
The most interesting and surprising finding was that although only 9% of Europeans said that they already “own some cryptocurrency”, a much larger number (25%), or one in four, said they “expect to own cryptocurrency in the future.”
Featured Image Credit: “Bitcoin Crypto Coin Stock Photo” by “Crypto360” via Flickr; licensed under “CC BY 2.0”
