Mainstream adoption of crypto a decade away, survey finds

Cryptocurrencies will be universally adopted in 10 years and overtake traditional investments, according to a survey carried out by crypto exchange Bitstamp.

The survey found that 88 percent of institutional respondents and 75 percent of retail investors believe that crypto will see mainstream adoption within a decade.

80 percent of institutional respondents and 54 percent of retail investors believe that crypto will overtake traditional investment vehicles within that time frame as well.

The comprehensive survey included over 28,563 investors from 23 countries across North American, Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. The 28,000 investors included 5,450 senior institutional investment strategy decision-makers and 23,113 retail investors.

Nearly 54 percent of retail investors said they would use crypto to shop online, while 45 percent feel crypto is very new and will grow over the next five years. For institutional investors, nearly 63 percent trade or invest in crypto more than two times a week, while 54 percent have more than 30 percent of their portfolio invested in crypto.

Julian Sawyer, CEO of Bitstamp, said in a statement that cryptocurrency is now at the forefront of mainstream investing.

“We’ve seen interest propel in the years since the pandemic, and crypto is now part of the wider conversation in global macro-economic matters. Our survey shows something we have advocated over a long time: talking about survival of digital assets is firmly over – the question is now about evolution.”

When it came to trusting crypto as an asset class, 71 percent of investment professionals and 65 percent of everyday investors stated that they trust crypto. However, when compared to trust in property ownership, shares and stocks, crypto is trusted less.

Of retail respondents, 67 percent believe crypto is trustworthy, while 11 percent said it was untrustworthy. For decentralised finance (DeFi) investment vehicles like stablecoins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain networks, trust levels were roughly 60 percent across institutional and retail streams.

Bitstamp’s survey suggested regulation remains a barrier to crypto investing. Nearly half of retail investors and more than a third of institutional investors consider crypto to be unregulated.

In March, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order to address a regulatory framework for digital assets.

Meanwhile, trust in crypto at a global level is primarily being driven by developing countries and unstable economies, where trust in the traditional financial system is low.

In emerging economies, 79 percent say crypto is more trustworthy compared to 62 percent of more developed financial markets, Bitstamp found.

Last year, El Salvador officially adopted Bitcoin as legal currency, while the Central African Republic followed to become the second country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender last month.