Are Tech-Driven Consumers the On-Ramp to Wider Crypto Usage?

Tech-driven consumers are usually the first to buy the latest connected device and the most willing to try cryptocurrency. Although they are just 15% of the overall consumer market, the decisions they make about technology are often a preview of what will define mainstream consumer behavior in the next few years.

If cryptocurrency becomes regularly available at merchants’ checkouts, it may be a trickle-down effect of the tech-driven consumers’ demand for that payment method.

In “Shopping With Cryptocurrency: Tech-Driven Consumers Drive Market Acceptance,” a PYMNTS and BitPay collaboration, we surveyed 2,333 consumers to gauge their use of technology and its influence on their interest in using cryptocurrency as a payment method.

• Twenty-four percent of tech-driven consumers are habitual cryptocurrency users, which means they use it at least 10 to 20 times a month.

• Twenty-six percent of tech-driven consumers are so eager to use cryptocurrency for shopping that they are willing to switch to merchants that accept it at the checkout.

• Thirty-nine percent of basic-tech consumers, who own fewer connected devices than tech-driven and mainstream consumers, buy cryptocurrency to make purchases.

To succeed at converting a broad cross-section of the consumer market into users of cryptocurrency as a payment method, merchants must pay attention to the different styles of tech usage among consumers and how that affects their willingness to use crypto at the checkout.

To learn more about how consumers’ level of technology usage influences their decisions about using crypto during the checkout process, download the report.