The Investor Office of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) recently published a report which reveals what Ontario’s residents think about cryptocurrencies and approximately how much money they have invested in them. The report’s findings are based on a survey of over 2,500 people conducted by the Innovative Research Group. Survey results show that most Ontarians “are approaching cryptoassets [cryptocurrencies] with caution.”
Moreover, the report mentions that very few city residents own crypto assets and those who own them have not spent a lot of money to obtain them. Per the Research Group survey, half of crypto holders spent less than $1,000 to acquire them and 90 percent spent less than $10,000.
Ontarians also seem to be confused about whether initial coin offerings (ICOs) are regulated, according to survey results. The report clarifies that “most ICOs are subject to securities regulation.” In fact, a regulatory framework for companies launching ICOs was recently introduced by Canada’s securities regulators. The write-up by the OSC explains how regulatory authorities plan to regulate crypto assets.
500,000 Ontarians Own Cryptocurrencies
Survey results further indicate that more than 500,000 Ontarians likely own crypto assets and that another 4 percent of the city’s residents previously owned cryptocurrencies, “but no longer do.” Additionally, 14 percent of adult males surveyed between the ages of 18-34 said that they own crypto assets.
There were many different reasons given by survey respondents about why they owned cryptocurrencies. 46 percent of respondents stated that they bought crypto assets because they were interested “in new technologies.” Moreover, 18 percent of survey participants said that “blockchain technology’s potential to prevent loss and fraud” was one of the main reasons why they acquired crypto assets.
42 percent of those surveyed noted that they invested in cryptocurrencies “in the hope of selling them at a higher price later.” Meanwhile, 1/4th or 25 percent of respondents said that they had obtained cryptos because “they wanted to make payments anonymously.” A number of people surveyed also said that they wanted to use digital currencies “to make international remittances.” Interestingly, 12 percent of survey participants revealed that they obtained cryptocurrencies “because they have low trust in banks.” Another 11 percent of those surveyed said they had “low trust in government” and it is what led to them acquiring crypto assets.
Acquiring Cryptocurrencies With “Cash Savings”
In order to buy cryptocurrencies, over half of survey participants said that they “used [their] cash savings” and 26 percent reported that they used their credit cards or other types of loan services. Notably, “more than 2 in 3 have paid back the money they borrowed in full” to acquire crypto assets.
Overall, survey results showed that 81 percent had heard of Bitcoin while only one of four respondents were aware of Bitcoin Cash. A smaller percentage of people surveyed knew about Ethereum’s Ether token and Litecoin (LTC), In fact, just 13 percent had heard of Litecoin and only 11 percent knew about Ether.
Although many people were familiar with cryptocurrencies, roughly only 34 percent of those surveyed appeared to have some understanding of the basic concepts related to Bitcoin. Respondents’ understanding of cryptos was assessed by giving them six statements about Bitcoin to which they were asked to respond with either ‘true’ or ‘false’.
The statements were reportedly quite basic, and even then, just 3 percent managed to answer correctly. One of the statements said that Bitcoin was a state-backed currency, which of course is false. However, surprisingly half of those surveyed thought that the flagship cryptocurrency was backed by the government.
