ETF approval catalyzes the mainstreaming of cryptocurrency investment, with 38% of high-net-worth individuals planning to increase their holdings
Bnews editor
According to a recent survey released by Grayscale Investments, a crypto asset management company, high net worth high-net-worth investors with $1 million or more in investable assets are outperforming the average investor in cryptocurrency ownership, with 26% already holding cryptocurrencies, compared to 20% nationwide.
The survey highlights the views of wealthy Americans with investable assets of more than $1 million. The survey was conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Grayscale in three phases, with a total of 5,368 adults (18 and older) who plan to vote in the 2024 presidential election participating in the survey as of September 2024.
Nearly two-fifths (38%) of respondents said they expect their future portfolio to include cryptocurrencies. This trend spans across age groups, with 53% of respondents under 50 and 22% over 50 expecting to have cryptocurrencies in their portfolios. About 17% of those over 50 and 35% under 50 are interested in learning more about Bitcoin as an investment option.
"These new data highlight high-net-worth investors' growing confidence in cryptocurrencies as a potential long-term investment opportunity," said John Hoffman, head of distribution and partnerships at Grayscale.
"Wealthy investors are increasingly viewing digital assets as an important part of their portfolios, further solidifying crypto's place in the future of finance," Hoffman added, noting that market dynamics changed last year after regulators approved spot bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds.
As of Friday afternoon, the price of bitcoin has surged 117% since the survey began. This is in stark contrast to Ethereum's 8% drop.
More than a third (36%) of wealthy Americans said they are closely watching bitcoin and other crypto assets amid geopolitical tensions, high inflation and a weak dollar. What's more, 34% of high-net-worth individuals said the approval of a spot bitcoin ETF in January 2024 increased their interest in learning about or investing in digital tokens.
At present, heightened uncertainty over the Trump administration's trade policies has affected market sentiment, but some analysts remain optimistic about the long-term outlook.
However, the St. Louis Fed said in a blog post published last week that calculating cryptocurrency ownership is difficult because reliable measures have not yet emerged among U.S. households.
To address this issue, the St. Louis Fed used data from the Survey of Consumer Finances conducted in 2022 to estimate the distribution of cryptocurrency ownership. This suggests that about 4.3% of Americans hold cryptocurrencies, according to a blog post published by the St. Louis Fed on March 11.
Breaking it down further, statistics at the 25th percentile show that a quarter of cryptocurrency holders own $648 or less in cryptocurrencies, while statistics at the 75th percentile show that another quarter own $10,000 or more in cryptocurrencies, depicting a polarized cryptocurrency landscape. This difference becomes more pronounced as the percentile increases, with the 90th percentile owning $30,800 worth of cryptocurrency and the 95th percentile holding $92,400.
"While there is some uncertainty in our estimates due to sample size, we find that only a relatively small proportion of households own cryptocurrencies, and an even smaller proportion own a large amount of cryptocurrency," the St. Louis Fed said.
