Consumer confidence in crypto remains high despite fallout from FTX

A new study by blockchain infrastructure company Paxos shows that crypto owners view cryptocurrency as an investment and want mainstream financial service providers to offer products and services that support it.

Top 5 reasons respondents are interested in crypto

According to the survey released on March 7, three of the five most desired use cases for crypto involve everyday financial transactions, such as payments and money transfers.

The top 5 reasons respondents said they are interested in crypto are for money transfers (34%), day trading (36%), credit card and/or loyalty rewards (38%), to pay for goods or services (42%) , and as a long-term investment (52%).

40% of respondents noted that they would be motivated to invest more in crypto if more merchants accepted it as payment.

The study found that card companies such as Visa and Mastercard also have the potential to benefit from crypto’s widespread use, as respondents expressed a strong interest in earning credit card or loyalty rewards in crypto.

Confidence in crypto remains high, perhaps too high

Even after billions worth of institutional and retail funds were wiped out overnight during the FTX and Alameda fallout, 89% of survey respondents said they trust banks, crypto exchanges and/or mobile payment apps to hold their crypto.

Interestingly, 27% of respondents bought crypto for the first time in the past year, indicating that despite the crypto winter of 2022, interest in crypto remained strong and new users continued to enter the market. Moreover, 72% of respondents reported that they were only slightly or not concerned about the volatility of the crypto markets in the past year, further highlighting this positive sentiment towards the crypto industry.

Crypto consumers are demanding that banks join the crypto ecosystem, survey shows

The latest survey shows that crypto owners want the banks and other financial institutions to enter the crypto market and support crypto purchases. The survey found that 75% of respondents are likely or very likely to buy crypto from their primary bank if offered, and 45% would invest more in crypto if banks and other financial institutions fully embraced digital assets. The survey also reveals that banks have a significant opportunity to meet the needs of existing customers and expand their offerings to support digital assets, given that two of the top three platforms for buying crypto are non-crypto-focused fintech companies.

• Two of the top three platforms crypto owners use to buy crypto are non-crypto-focused fintech companies: PayPal (31%) and Robinhood (26%)
• Of the survey respondents who bought crypto in the last year, 68% bought at least 1-2 times a month

A total of 5,000 participants were recruited to take part in Paxos’ online survey from 5 January 2023 to 6 January 2023. The full findings are based on unweighted aggregations of the survey responses and made available on Paxos’ websites.