Discussions surrounding crypto and blockchain technology are more prevalent than ever, with new use cases, regulatory oversight and businesses working in the sector emerging daily. Nevertheless, the past year has seen hugely exciting developments in the world of crypto, including over $17 billion worth of trading in NFTs, new all-time-highs for both Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as countries such as El Salvador adopting Bitcoin as legal tender.
At the beginning of 2021, Wirex and the Stellar Development Foundation worked together to release their first report, The Future of Money: Cryptocurrency Adoption in 2021, looking at crypto user spending habits, attitudes towards crypto and use of the alternative currency. After overwhelmingly positive feedback from the industry thanks to the unique insights it provided, Wirex and Stellar have once again teamed up for a second report, based on a subsequent survey understanding crypto habits and adoption further.
Building on last year’s report, this year, we’ve expanded the number of survey participants to nearly 10,000, surveyed members of the general population as well, and focused on 4 separate markets that represent varying levels of socioeconomic development and cultural attitudes. We’ve pulled this into a report dispelling a series of myths about crypto awareness and usage, including that:
- Crypto is out of the norm
- Only millennial males use crypto
- Crypto is purely for speculation
- Crypto is only for the rich
- If everyone knew about crypto, they’d all use it
With our 2021 report showing such a positive outlook for crypto, it’s hardly surprising that our findings were even more certain this year. Our results clearly show that crypto awareness is higher than ever, with demographic information revealing a growing segment of women using crypto, as well as older adults – especially in emerging markets. One of the key takeaways from the report is that crypto is not just for speculation, and in fact has real utility for sending money to/from emerging markets. Nevertheless, many people still question the long-term viability of crypto, meaning the results of this research could not be released at a better time.
There is a huge amount of information and findings to be explored within the thousands of responses, through which Wirex and SDF are endeavouring to increase awareness and education of businesses and consumers about the utility of blockchain, especially for cross-border transactions. Over the coming weeks, Wirex plans to expand on the report within their ‘Research’ centre on the blog, creating infographics and thought leadership articles from key stakeholders that focus on specific areas of the research, such as crypto adoption within emerging markets, crypto’s use beyond investments, and the intersections between crypto, age and gender.