Key Takeaways
- Consumer confidence in cryptocurrency remains high: Despite recent volatility in the cryptocurrency market, a vast majority of consumers remain confident in the future of cryptocurrency
- Mainstream interest in cryptocurrency is growing: There is a huge appetite among consumers for greater expansion of crypto into their everyday financial lives – specifically, financial transactions.
- Banks can play a key role in driving crypto success: Banks stand to play a key role in driving crypto success moving forward. Three quarters of respondents indicated that they would be likely or very likely to purchase crypto from their primary bank if it were offered – representing a 12 percent increase over 2022.
- Traditional media lags in cryptocurrency information battle: When making crypto investment decisions, crypto-specific websites (48%) and social media (42%) were the sources favored most by consumers. These were followed by traditional resources including national media (36%) and financial advisors (34%).
Despite the tumultuous end to 2022 in the cryptocurrency industry, the majority of consumers remain confident in its future, with 75% of respondents indicating they are either very confident or somewhat confident in cryptocurrency, according to a survey by regulated blockchain infrastructure and tokenization platform Paxos.
Additionally, 72% of respondents expressed little or no concern about the volatility the crypto markets have experienced over the past year. Consumer trust in intermediaries for crypto holding remains high, with 89% of respondents stating they trust banks, crypto exchanges and/or mobile payments apps to hold their crypto.
There is a growing appetite among consumers for greater expansion of crypto into their everyday financial lives, specifically financial transactions. Paying for goods and services was the most desired use case for crypto (42%), followed by credit cards or loyalty card programs (38%) and sending money to friends and family (34%). Other top use cases included long-term investing (52%) and day-trading (36%).
The survey suggests there is an opportunity for banks and traditional financial institutions to deliver a better experience to their customers by leveraging crypto to diversify their product offerings.
Mike Coscetta, Head of Revenue at Paxos, said: “Despite fears that the rocky end to 2022 would have a chilling effect on consumer crypto adoption, this research shows that consumers are looking for more integration of crypto into their financial lives, not less.”
Three-quarters of respondents indicated they would be likely or very likely to purchase crypto from their primary bank if it were offered. Additionally, 45% of respondents said they would be encouraged to invest more in crypto if there were more mainstream adoption by banks and other financial institutions, with 40% of respondents saying they would be encouraged to invest more in crypto if more merchants accepted crypto payments.
Despite high-profile collapses and oversight issues stemming from the implosion of FTX and others, most respondents who had heard about and followed the bankruptcies of FTX and Alameda Research (57%) indicated that they plan to buy more crypto or do nothing as a result of the news.
When asked what resources they referred to when making crypto investment decisions, crypto-specific websites (48%) and social media (42%) were the sources favoured most by consumers. These were followed by traditional resources including national media (36%) and financial advisors (34%).
The survey also revealed that banks have key crypto opportunities with older consumers, with 81% of respondents aged 35-55+ saying they were very likely or likely to buy crypto from their primary bank, compared with 63% of respondents aged 18-34.
Paxos partnered with research firm Pollfish to survey more than 5,000 respondents via an online survey between 5-6 January 2023.
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