Data from a new report by global cryptocurrency exchange Gemini suggests that 2021 was a breakout one for crypto in Australia and other key regions.
Gemini’s upcoming Global State of Crypto Report, which surveyed nearly 30,000 adults across 20 countries (including 1,200 Australians), found that more than two in five crypto owners in Australia first began investing in crypto in 2021.
However, while Australia’s crypto adoption rate is similar to western nations such as the US and the UK, it does lag behind in terms of adoption in comparison to other APAC countries surveyed.
That said, maybe this big new slice of crypto adoption happening across South Australia and Victoria from July will get the ball rolling further.
Key findings for Australia from the Gemini report
• Of the Aussies surveyed, 43% first started investing in crypto in 2021.
• Australia had the lowest female-to-male ratio of crypto investors in the Asia Pacific region (27%).
• However, nearly half (47%) of non-crypto owners in “developed” regions (including Australia, United States and Europe) who anticipate buying crypto this year are women.
• More than half (53%) of non-crypto owning respondents in Australia believe that fear of losing money was a big barrier to crypto adoption.
• The majority (81%) of Australian crypto investors choose to hold their crypto investments for the long term.
• More than half (54%) of Australian investors surveyed view crypto as a good way to diversify their assets.
• Australia’s crypto adoption rate of 18% is comparable with that of the UK, US and Germany.
• But other Asia-Pacific nations, such as Indonesia (41%), Singapore (30%), Hong Kong (24%), and India (20%) appear to be taking to cryptocurrencies at a greater rate. (And that’s despite ongoing regulatory uncertainty in some of those regions.)
‘The future of money’
Incidentally, for those who don’t know Gemini is one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges, and was founded by the Bitcoin billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
The global takeaway from their company’s latest global research report is that the number of crypto owners hugely increased last year – with Indonesia, Brazil, the UAE and Singapore leading the way in terms of crypto-investor share among the general population.
Encouragingly, crypto growth in India, a potentially massive market, has increased significantly compared with 2020, as well.
The report did also highlight uncertainty over crypto regulation and lack of education as being two of the biggest impediments to the mass adoption of crypto.
But for many global citizens, including those surveyed in hyperinflation-affected Latin American countries (59%) and Africa (58%), crypto is regarded as “the future of money”.
