While non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been touted by certain corners of the financial and entertainment industries as the next biggest investment opportunity—even to the point of being the focus of a “Saturday Night Live” sketch—the actual the popularity of the sector is bordering on the non-existent.
According to new data from the Pew Research Center, roughly half of Americans have heard of NFTs, but only 2% of Americans and 6% of adults under 30 have purchased an NFT.
The lack of enthusiasm in spending money on NFTs cannot be attributed to a lack of awareness. Pew found that 49% of US adults have heard at least a little about non-fungible tokens, including 11% who have heard a lot. Among this proportion, 69% of adults aged 18 to 29 said they have heard at least a little about NFTs – compared to 56% of those aged 30 to 49 and 36% of those 50 and older who were aware of NFTs.
Among demographics, men were 22 percentage points more likely than women to say they have heard of NFTs, while Asian Americans were the most likely among racial and ethnic groups to say they have heard at least a little about NFTs (66 %), compared to approx. half of white or Hispanic adults (49% and 48%, respectively) and 38% of black adults. Also, two-thirds of high-income Americans have heard at least a little, followed by about half of middle-income Americans (51%) and about a third (36%) of lower-income Americans.
One thing the different groups shared was a reluctance to buy NFTs – Pew added that small proportions of all these groups have actually bought these items.
