According to a recent survey, about 8 percent of Americans have purchased some sort of cryptocurrency. Of those who haven’t purchased cryptocurrencies, almost 8 percent of them reported that they plan to do so in the future.
As one would expect from a high-technology product, men are nearly three times as likely as women to have purchased cryptocurrencies. Generationally, over 17 percent of millennials own cryptocurrencies, versus around 9 percent of Gen-Xers, and just over 2 percent of baby boomers.
Survey participants gave a large number of reasons for why they weren’t buying cryptocurrencies. Among those were that cryptocurrencies are too complicated to understand, too difficult to use, were too high risk, or that people just weren’t interested.
Those answers, too, saw some pretty significant differences in opinions between men and women, and among different generations. More men seemed to think that cryptocurrencies were in a bubble, were too high risk, or were a scam, while women were more likely to think that cryptocurrencies were too complicated, or were just not interested. Baby boomers were most likely to say that they were not interested in cryptocurrencies, whereas millennials were most likely to say that cryptocurrencies were too complicated or too difficult to use.
Not surprisingly, Bitcoin was the most popular cryptocurrency among survey participants, with more than three times as much Bitcoin being purchased as second-place Ethereum. Bitcoin Cash came in third, just ahead of XRP in fourth.
Overall, the survey provides some very valuable insights into people’s thoughts about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Despite the fact that 60 percent of Americans have heard of Bitcoin, only 8 percent have actually purchased cryptocurrencies. Much of that may have to do with the continued perception that cryptocurrencies are too difficult to use or understand.
Thankfully, products such as Bitcoin IRAs exist to ease much of the burden of understanding Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies that investors might otherwise face. Working with CoinIRA and our trustworthy custodians, interested investors can learn everything they need to about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies so that they can put their minds at ease and harness the long-term potential of Bitcoin to grow their retirement savings.