Fewer Than 10 Percent Of Americans Invest In Crypto

A new study has discovered that when it comes to crypto, Americans just aren’t buying it.

In fact, of 2,001 American adults surveyed by Finder, only 7.95 percent have purchased a cryptocurrency.

The news is surprising since crypto has gained fame over the past year as a hot buy. Bitcoin hit an all-time high in December, reaching $19,000. One month later, Ethereum, a rival cryptocurrency to bitcoin, surpassed the $1,000 mark in trading for the first time.

Still, Americans aren’t quite ready to hop on board the crypto train. Why? For 40 percent, it’s simply because they are “disinterested or they think there’s no need.” For 35 percent, the risk is too high, while 27 percent find crypto too difficult to understand — and almost 18 percent think it’s a scam.

And with news of Securities and Exchange Commissions regulations and certain countries like China shutting down cryptocurrency exchanges, it’s no surprise that about 16 percent of respondents don’t want to get involved because they are waiting for the bubble to burst. And almost 6 percent are skipping crypto exchanges because there are too many fees involved.

For those that are buying in, the majority are millennials, with more than 17 percent claiming to have holdings, compared with almost 9 percent of Gen Xers and a little over 2 percent of Baby Boomers.

Men are also twice as likely to invest in crypto, with 11.86 percent reporting holdings in crypto, compared to only 4.27 percent of women. In addition, the average amount of bitcoin purchased by women is also much lower at $1,821.65, compared with men at $3,923.16.

And of those who did decide to invest, most bought bitcoin or ether, with more than one in two (54 percent) doing their own research in order to choose their coin or token. Two in five cryptocurrency holders look at their coin’s presence among news reports when making their decision, and 41.5 percent went with the coin that their friends made the most money from.