A survey conducted in the UK recently reveals that two out of every five investors initially know little or nothing about cryptocurrencies. Moreover, they admitted to seeing the sector to be “non-existent or poor” before their investment.
The survey exposed the ignorance of the British crypto investors’ knowledge, motivations, and exposure regarding crypto investments.
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Two in every five (36%) of the people that invested their money (retail crypto investors) in the country confirmed that they had a poor understanding of the sector.
They thought the sector was “non-existent or poor” when they invested initially. However, with time, 21% of crypto holders among the investors still rated low on their knowledge about the sector.
Oxford Risk, a commercial software firm, conducted the survey. They focus on the products for financial service firms and managers.
While still small, with 1,038 respondents, the survey research was reported to show the demographic profile of the United Kingdom.
The survey indicates that FOMO drove the demand for crypto assets adding to the low literacy on crypto investments. 35% of the respondents accepted reading about increasing crypto prices, while 15% confessed their family and friends persuaded them to invest.
UK Investors Are Uncertain About The Future Of Cryptocurrencies
Greg B Davies, the Oxford Risk head of behavioral finance, said:
“The concern is that too many people are buying blind without knowing what they’re doing and are being influenced to invest by rising prices and other people encouraging them to have a go. That is worrying if people have substantial amounts invested in cryptos and do not understand what they have bought.”
However, a reasonable minority are still not sure about the future of the crypto market. For example, 45% of respondents indicated that they are not aware that the crypto price will continue to rise.
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32% opposed the price increase prediction, while 24% believed firmly that it would happen. 21% regardless of the price prediction, plan to either increase their crypto holdings or buy it as a first-timer this year.
It is good to note that most investors invested a relatively small amount of funds into cryptocurrencies. However, 81% bought a bit of the digital asset to see what will come out of it.
76% invested a little, say less than 5% of their savings for 41% it is less than 1%. However, 7% of the investors staked up to 20% of all their assets in digital crypto, while 10% staked over 10%.
The sturdy made by UK’s Financial Conduct Authority shows that 2.3million adults within the country as of June 2021 are crypto holders. This number of investors was formally 1.9million last year.
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Aside from the increase in the number of crypto investors, the FCA discovered that median holdings had also risen to $420 (£300) from $370 (£260) in 2020.
This uprising was associated with the increased awareness levels. For example, 78% of adults in the UK had admitted hearing of crypto as against 73% in the past year.
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Like Oxford Risk, the FCA also pointed out the discouraging level of crypto understanding among investors. They emphasized that many consumers are yet to understand the technology and crypto industry at large.
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