Most American Millennials Have Heard of Bitcoin: Survey
A survey has found that while many Americans are aware of bitcoin it is young Americans who are more likely to invest in it.
In September, LendEDU , a student loan refinancing market, asked 1,000 Americans whether they had heard of bitcoin. Of those, a vast majority – 78.60 percent indicated that they had. However, 21.40 percent of the respondents asked said that they hadn’t.
Unsurprisingly, younger Americans were more likely to have heard of the digital currency compared to older Americans. So much so, that 88.67 percent of respondents aged between 18 and 24 had heard of bitcoin. Yet, only 75.93 percent of those aged 55 and older had.
The report said:
It was a consistent trend that as respondents got older, their likelihood of hearing about bitcoin went down.
Interestingly, while a large percentage of Americans are aware of the cryptocurrency, of those 786 respondents remaining, 47.71 percent weren’t sure if it was true or false that owning the digital currency was illegal in the United States. Of those asked, 10.69 percent thought it was illegal while 41.6 percent stated that it was false.
It may be because of the negative connotations the digital currency has with the dark web that many believe it’s an illegal form of currency in the United States. Because of this, more probably needs to be done in order to challenge the fiat currency system to make bitcoin the first choice for consumers.
This may be reflective on why only a small number of respondents indicated that they currently own or have owned bitcoin in the past at 13.99 percent. The majority of consumers asked said that they don’t at 85.37 percent; however, when asked if they would invest in the currency in the future, a significant number – 54.58 percent – still indicated that they wouldn’t. Those that would rose slightly to 17.18 percent, giving some idea as to how the market will unfold in America.
A general theme from the LendEDU poll suggests that the younger the American is, the more likely they are to invest, own, and use bitcoin for transactions.
The report adds:
Many older Americans already have their minds made up that they will not be getting involved with bitcoin. As the years go by and younger Americans develop more spending power, you can expect bitcoin to become more and more prevalent in the American economy.
With bitcoin’s value continually rising over the last few days, reaching over $7,300 today, more consumers will hear about it as interest in the currency continues to grow.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
