40% of people worldwide own or have bought cryptocurrencies

A Consensys – YouGov 2024 Global Survey on Crypto and Web3 shows that nearly half of the world’s population has interacted with cryptocurrencies. The study that sampled 18,652 adults across Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe, revealed that up to 40% of people worldwide own or have bought crypto.

Additionally, developed countries are trailing the emerging markets in crypto, Web3, and blockchain adoption. An excerpt of the findings reads:

A majority of respondents in Nigeria (73%), South Africa (68%), the Philippines (54%), Vietnam (54%), and India (52%), either currently own or have owned cryptocurrencies in the past. On the other hand, less than 1 in 3 respondents in Japan, Argentina, Canada, France, Italy, and the UK own or have purchased any cryptocurrencies in the past.

~Consensys – YouGov 2024 Global Survey

Africa and Asia also dominate in the number of users confident of investing in crypto in the next year. Nigeria (93%) and South Africa (77%) lead in that metric with their Asian counterparts, the Philippines (59%), India (58%), and Indonesia (54%), completing the top 5 nations.

On the other hand, many European, Canadian, Japanese, and South Korean respondents expressed pessimism about investing in those assets. Meanwhile, those in the Americas and Turkey remained non-committal on the matter.

Crypto adoption is still facing significant barriers

The report also found that there are challenges bedeviling the sector despite the significant strides made in mainstreaming cryptocurrencies’ usage. The key ones, it says, are market volatility and scams. Sharp price swings and perceptions of aiding illicit activity characterize the crypto sector, dissuading many would-be investors from it.

Another major challenge is the lack of information on digital assets. Per the survey, many potential investors have a poor grasp of concepts such as decentralization, blockchain, Web3, and where to start their crypto investment journeys.

The knowledge gaps tend to increase with age and are also higher among female respondents. This reality highlights the need for more education about onboarding crypto and Web3 platforms safely. 

Such interventions could benefit adoption where the will to invest is high, but inadequate knowledge discourages many from the crypto markets.

Crypto assets are clean

This report ends on a positive note by revealing that many of the survey’s participants see cryptocurrencies as environmentally clean. That’s particularly true for Asian, African, and LATAM respondents. However, their European, Japanese, and Korean counterparts say they are bad for the environment.

The crypto sector has drawn criticism from detractors who’ve for long labeled it environmentally unsound. Their anti-crypto campaigns claim crypto’s carbon footprint, water, and electricity demands are unsustainable. But it has always fought back with its statistics countering that narrative. It will be heartening therefore for the many projects dotting this space to know that its many reports give it a clean bill of health.