Crypto comes of age

Crypto comes of age – survey suggests cryptocurrency nearly as popular as investment property with everyday Kiwi investors

Kiwi cryptocurrency platform, Easy Crypto, has today released insights from a survey it conducted of 1,000 New Zealanders, analysing evolving attitudes towards the burgeoning investment category.

The survey highlights cryptocurrency’s rapid ascent to becoming a mainstream investment in little over a decade, with 18.4 per cent of adult Kiwis surveyed reporting they are currently invested in cryptocurrency – compared with 19.7 per cent who reported having investment property.

More respondents had heard of cryptocurrency as an investment category (71.7 per cent) than had heard of bonds (65.3 per cent); once the investment vehicle of choice for an entire generation.

Easy Crypto co-founder and CEO, Janine Grainger, says the sector is experiencing a real coming of age, and is increasingly seen as an attractive way to diversify for investors.

“A common sentiment we see among our more than 100,000 Easy Crypto customers is a sense that Cryptocurrency is going to be central to the digital infrastructure of the future and they’re keen to have a stake in it early,” says Grainger. “Our users aren’t typically staking it all on one cryptocurrency; just like with shares, many investors are taking a diverse portfolio approach where they’re focusing on the whole market rather than trying to pick a single winner.”

Grainger says Kiwi investors expect a certain level of customer experience and trust when entering into any investment, and that’s what Easy Crypto has delivered.

“When Kiwis engage with any financial service they have high expectations: they want simple and easy purchasing, trustworthy transaction processes and the ability to chat to a NZ-based customer service representative. We’ve been really conscious of that from day one, and I think that’s why we’re now seeing this mainstreaming of cryptocurrency – access really is as easy now as buying some shares in Mainfreight or making a Kiwisaver deposit.”

Grainger believes that FOMO has also played a significant role in cryptocurrency’s arrival as a mainstream investment category. The Easy Crypto survey reveals that nearly a quarter of respondents were aware of Bitcoin when it was worth less than $1,000NZD (it’s presently worth more than $56,000 NZD) and are kicking themselves for now buying sooner.*

In addition, more than one in five participants reported having a friend or family member who had made a lot of money investing in cryptocurrency.**

“That sense of FOMO is definitely having an effect. A decade or so ago you used to hear people wistfully saying they knew about Apple in the nineties and wish they’d bought then – the ironic thing is that if instead of being wistful they’d actually bought Apple, they’d be up massively right now despite missing those early gains. You get the same sense with cryptocurrency – there are some who talk as if they’ve missed the bus, and others who think bus has a long way left to go and it’s not stopping.”

*_{Like any investment, past performance is not a guarantee for what’s going to happen in the future}

_{**Of course, with any high risk investment type, there is the potential for upside but also risk that the value could go down.}

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_{Editor’s Notes:}

• _{Survey was commissioned by Easy Crypto and conducted by consumer insights agency 3Gem, surveying a panel of}
• _{1,000 New Zealanders aged 18+}
• _{Easy Crypto is a New Zealand based cryptocurrency retailer with presence in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand}
• _{and Brazil and plans for rapid expansion into new markets, including Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.}
• _{Easy Crypto is not a financial advisor, it offers a cryptocurrency retail service. Users who purchase cryptocurrency}
• _{are advised to do their own due diligence on any cryptocurrency they seek to purchase.}

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