2021 saw many Americans jumping into the crypto space. In fact, according to a new report from Grayscale Investments, more than half of Americans owning crypto began trading just this year.
Grayscale Issues New Report Detailing Crypto Ownership
It can be said for many reasons that 2021 was the era of crypto. One of the main reasons is because assets like bitcoin and Ethereum hit all-time highs, with the former reaching $68,000 per unit in November and the latter spiking to about $4,700 per unit. In addition, this was also the year in which a bitcoin ETF was unleashed on the public. While it is based on futures technology rather than physical bitcoins, many analysts and traders believe this is a solid step forward for the crypto arena.
Interest has really grown this year per data from Grayscale. As many as 1,000 individuals were surveyed between the ages of 25 and 64. Approximately 55 percent of the holders said that they garnered their first crypto sometime this year, while only about 26 percent of the participants said that they had held crypto units prior.
In a statement, Grayscale mentioned:
Investors are eager to buy, a sentiment reflected by the recent all-time high in November 2021, placing bitcoin closer to $100,000 than it is to zero.
In addition, the report suggests that most crypto holders prefer to use apps like Coinbase and e-Toro to purchase assets.
The news stemming from the report is both positive and negative. It is good because it shows that the crypto world is getting much stronger and more popular. With so many people investing in crypto and viewing bitcoin, for example, as “digital gold,” it can be argued that digital currency is on the verge of hitting a thousand mainstream bells at once.
At the same time, the fact that numbers have grown this much within such a short period – likely because prices are surging – suggests that many traders still suffer from FOMO or fear of missing out. They saw the spiking prices and felt that they needed to get in quickly before prices spiked too high for comfort. This is not always good considering bitcoin and other assets are extremely volatile, and thus super-high jumps can quickly be followed by super-low drops.
We’re Still in the Early Days
Michael Sonnenshein – the CEO of Grayscale – seems to agree, and thinks the data is not entirely representative of the industry considering it’s still so new. He commented:
While it is encouraging to see attitudes towards crypto continue to evolve, it’s still the early days for this industry. It’s incumbent on all of us to remain focused on educating the investing public, so investors across generations and demographics can access this once-in-a-generation opportunity.
At the time of writing, bitcoin has incurred a bit of stumble and is trading for around $50K.
