Gallup Survey Finds Only 2 % Americans Own Bitcoin

Gallup, the American research-based Management consulting company on Friday released figures of a poll it jointly conducted with the American bank Wells Fargo, showing that only 2 percent of investors in the U.S actually own bitcoin while 26 percent are said to be interested in it.

The survey that focused on US investors with stocks, bonds or mutual fund holdings greater than $10,000 was held from May 7-14 this year. The survey found that a whopping 72 percent of investors who already know about the crypto said they “have no interest in ever buying Bitcoin.”

The survey reveals that 96% of investors have heard of the cryptocurrency but “only about three in 10 investors (29%) say they know something about digital currencies.” The respondents who stated that they had little knowledge about the crypto stood at 67 percent.

The survey also found that Bitcoin’s high susceptibility to fluctuations made it “more popular as a high-risk/high-reward investment than as an online currency — although acceptance of Bitcoin for electronic payments is growing,” this despite the original idea for the enterprise being its potential as a form of “electronic cash.” The survey notes that 23 percent of respondents believed that Bitcoin was “somewhat risky” while 75 percent were of the view that the crypto was actually “very risky.”

When looked at through the lenses of gender demographics, the survey reveals that young men were more likely to express familiarity with cryptocurrencies than any other group. The survey concludes that “investors with less than $100,000 in investments (who tend to be younger) are more likely to be familiar with the innovation than those with higher asset levels.”

Analysts are pointing out a discrepancy between The Gallup/ Wells Fargo survey results and those of a similar survey released earlier this year by Finder.com. The first survey had claimed that up to 8 percent of Americans, representing 26 million people, owned one form of digital currency or another.