Number of Americans Owning Crypto Doubled in 2019: Finder

The number of Americans who own cryptocurrencies has almost doubled in 2019, from 7.95% in 2018 to 14.4%, according to a new survey by Finder.

36.5 million Americans own crypto

Finder, an Australia-based financial services firm, has surveyed 2,068 Americans to figure out that 36.5 million people in the United States own some form of crypto to date.

Titled “A rising number of Americans own crypto,” the survey was released on Oct. 14, as Finder tweeted.

Average $5,447 holdings versus $360 median amount

According to the survey, the average amount out of the totally owned crypto by Americans accounts for $5,447. However, as nearly three-quarters of respondents actually held less than this amount, the median amount — the value separating the higher part — of cryptocurrency owned by U.S. people stands at $360.

More than half of American crypto holders are considered as “crypto polygamists” as 55.4% of Bitcoin (BTC) owners surveyed by Finder claimed that they also own another form of cryptocurrency. Similarly to other surveys, Finder’s survey says that men own crypto at nearly twice the rate of women, with 19% of men surveyed claiming they hold some type of crypto versus just 10% of women.

3 Reasons to own and not own crypto

According to Finder, the majority of Americans are owning some form of cryptocurrency because they consider it a type of investment. As such, 61% of respondents claimed that own crypto for investment purposes, while just 29.3% said they use it for transaction purposes. Meanwhile, as much as 25.6% of U.S. people hold crypto because they want to store their money outside traditional financial institutions.

On the other hand, lack of ease of use apparently remains the main reason why Americans preferred to stay away from crypto in 2019. According to Finder, 47.9% responded that crypto is “too complicated or difficult to understand” as a reason not to invest in it. That category is followed by 45% of people who simply are not interested in crypto and 23% who believes that crypto is too risky to deal with.

The results of the new research slightly alters from another crypto-related research that was held earlier this year. On April 30, venture capital firm Blockchain Capital released a survey claiming that 11% of the American population owns Bitcoin.

In late September, another survey showed that 32% of Europeans believe that crypto is the future of online payments.