A study by The Economist reveals some trends today among cryptocurrency investors. Specifically, the rising confidence in NFTs, portfolio diversification with the help of crypto-assets, expectations of the CBDC implementation and the transition of all calculations to the cashless settlement.
Economist Impact partnered with Crypto.com to present the Digimentality report based on a large-scale survey of user sentiment among private and institutional cryptocurrency investors. Similar studies were conducted in 2020 and 2021, so analysts could capture changes in momentum. Some of the study’s key findings include:
- 65% of respondents trust non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and 60% plan to buy, hold or sell NFTs in the near future. The level of trust in NFTs is second only to cash, which is trusted by 85% of respondents.
- 87% of respondents expressed a need for an international digital currency exchange platform similar to the Bank for International Settlements. Investors also believe open-source digital currencies (85% vs. 80% last year), CBDCs (86% vs. 77%) or corporate digital currencies (88% vs. 76%) are needed to diversify assets in an investment portfolio.
- 65% of survey participants (56% last year) expect a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to replace physical currency in their country. Of those, 70% believe this will happen within the next ten years; 82% believe the creation of a CBDC will increase overall demand for forms of digital currencies and assets not backed by the government; 93% believe the issuance of a CBDC is necessary to create a market for new financial instruments such as digital bonds.
- 18% of respondents believe their country of residence will fully transition to cashless payments in the next year or two, up from 17% in 2021 and 14% a year earlier. At the same time, only 13% say their country will never become cashless, up from 19% in 2021 and 28% in 2020.
According to those surveyed, the biggest barriers to broader adoption appear to be the same across different types of digital assets. Whereas last year a lack of knowledge was cited as the main barrier (22% this year vs. 51% last year), in 2022, the lack of a secure form of digital identity (24.3%, up from 13% last year), which does not yet exist, was named as the primary obstacle.
A total of 3,000 people took part in the survey, half of whom live in capitalist center countries and the other half in emerging economies. More than 75% of those surveyed have higher education or academic degrees and actively use various digital payment methods to pay for goods or services. The survey also included 150 institutional investors and respondents who manage large investment funds.
Growth of interest in digital assets was recorded by the largest insurance companies — the annual report of analysts from Goldman Sachs showed that 1 in 10 U.S. insurance companies plan to use cryptocurrency as an investment asset.
