The cryptocurrency market has taken a serious hit in value, and trillions of dollars of wealth have been wiped away. But this has already happened many times since the advent of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. At the beginning of 2021, as the historic bull-run of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were off to the races, exactly one fifth of surveyed voters said they had invested money in three of the more well-known cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BCH), Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC).
Over three quarters of surveyed voters had not invested money in cryptocurrency, which is a substantial chunk of the population, and two percent were not sure. Among those who did invest in cryptocurrencies, American voters living in the East (22% yes/75% no), West (24% yes/72% no) and South regions (21% yes/76% no) took the lead, leaving those in the Central/Great Lakes region (12% yes/87% no) behind.
Some of the starkest differences among sub-groups were between men (28% yes/70% no) and women (12% yes/85% no). Generation Z (31% yes/65% no) and Millennials (34% yes/62% no) were most likely to be investing in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, while Generation X (18% yes/80% no) and Baby Boomers (5% yes/95% no) were least likely to do so.
The same was also the case with surveyed voters aged 18-24 (31% yes/65% no) and 25-34 (29% yes/66% no) who were more likely to invest in cryptocurrencies compared to respondents aged 55-69 (8% yes/92% no) and 70+ (0% yes/100% no). Hispanics (34% yes/64% no) were more likely to have invested in alternate currencies compared to White (16% yes/83% no) and African American voters (25% yes/74% no).
Weekly consumers of Walmart (28% yes/72% no) and Amazon products (36% yes/63% no) were more likely to purchase Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, while those who do not frequent these retailers were less likely to purchase cryptocurrencies.
Also, voters who lived in urban settings were more likely to invest in cryptocurrencies than those who lived in suburban or rural settings. Urban adults in large cities (36% yes/61% no) were much more prone to invest in digital currencies compared to their suburban (13% yes/86% no) and rural counterparts (9% yes/90% no).
Finally, politics: Democrats (22% yes/76% no) were slightly more likely to purchase digital currencies, such as, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin than Republicans (17% yes/81% no) and Independents (18% yes/76% no).
Surprisingly, nearly as many people (15%) have invested in altcoins, such as, Ripple, Chainlink, and Dash as they did in the "big three" of cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. Also, just as many survey respondents have not invested in altcoins as in cryptocurrencies. Just as the overall numbers were similar, the patterns among the sub-groups who purchased altcoins were very similar to those of the bigger cryptocurrencies.
Thus, altcoins were most popular with survey respondents younger than fifty (28% yes/67% no), with barely any interest among those aged 50+ (2% yes/96% no).
Altcoins were also much more popular with men (23% yes/74% no) than women (8% yes/87% no). Again, Democrats (19% yes/78% no) were slightly more interested in altcoins than Republicans (13% yes/84% no) and Independents (13% yes/81% no), while minorities-African Americans (22% yes/73% no) and Hispanics (29% yes/70% no) were much more interested investing in smaller and less known cryptocurrencies than were Whites (13% yes/85% no).
Weekly Walmart shoppers (21% yes/78% no) and weekly Amazon shoppers (29% yes/69% no) were more likely to invest in altcoins compared to those that never shop at the mega-retailers (8% yes/87% no and 3% yes/93% no, respectively). Not surprisingly, urban men (32% yes/65% no) were more than two times more likely, respectively, to purchase cryptocurrencies than their male and female counterparts-suburban men (12% yes/86% no), suburban women (3% yes/95% no), rural women (4% yes/92% no), and rural men (10% yes/89% no).
Cryptocurrencies are more than a fad! Even after the beating they have taken in the last month (we have been down this road before in the last few years) and the threat of SEC and IRS intervention, cryptocurrencies, such as, Bitcoin, Ethereum and even Dogecoin are bigger in value than some of the most recognized companies listed on the S&P 500. The blockchain technology and DeFi network that will be adopted by companies and individuals to create more secure, efficient, and faster transactions and contracts will change the world, no doubt. The big question is if the first examples (Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, etc.) of this new technology will end up like Beenie Babies or become the new gold-a true store of value and counter to price inflation?
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Zogby Analytics Poll Methodology
US Likely Voters
1/18/21 - 1/19/21
Zogby Analytics conducted an online survey of 873 likely voters in the US.
Using internal and trusted interactive partner resources, thousands of adults were randomly invited to participate in this interactive survey. Each invitation is password coded and secure so that one respondent can only access the survey one time.
Using information based on census data, voter registration figures, CIA fact books and exit polls, we use complex weighting techniques to best represent the demographics of the population being surveyed. Weighted variables may include age, race, gender, region, party, education, and religion. The party breakdown for this survey is as follows: 37% Democrat, 35% Republican and 28% Independent/unaffiliated.
Based on a confidence interval of 95%, the margin of error for 873 is +/- 3.3 percentage points. This means that all other things being equal, the identical survey repeated will have results within the margin of error 95 times out of 100.
Subsets of the data have a larger margin of error than the whole data set. As a rule we do not rely on the validity of very small subsets of the data especially sets smaller than 50-75 respondents. At that subset we can make estimations based on the data, but in these cases the data is more qualitative than quantitative.
Additional factors can create error, such as question wording and question order.
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About Zogby Analytics:
Zogby Analytics is respected nationally and internationally for its opinion research capabilities. Since 1984, Zogby has empowered clients with powerful information and knowledge critical for making informed strategic decisions.
The firm conducts multi-phased opinion research engagements for banking and financial services institutions, insurance companies, hospitals and medical centers, retailers and developers, religious institutions, cultural organizations, colleges and universities, IT companies and Federal agencies. Zogby's dedication and commitment to excellence and accuracy are reflected in its state-of-the-art opinion research capabilities and objective analysis and consultation.