73% UK Customers Don’t Know What Cryptos Are
According to a new survey that was conducted by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the country’s financial regulator, 73% of consumers in the UK either don’t know what a cryptocurrency is or how to define it.
Details of the Survey
The FCA had conducted the survey in association with Kantar TNS, a London-based market research company, and 2132 consumers in the UK were surveyed.
The results showed that the group that was most aware of cryptocurrencies was men between the ages of 20 and 44. Of the total population polled, only 3% had ever bought cryptocurrencies.
Of those of had bought cryptos, 50% spend less than £200 (~$263) of their disposable income on these purchases. Of all the cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is the most popular, with more than 50% of those who purchased cryptos choosing the most valuable digital asset. 34% bought Ethereum tokens.
Additional Quantitative Research
Besides this survey, the FCA, in association with another London-headquartered research company, Revealing Reality, carried out qualitative research on consumers in the UK.
The results of this research revealed that many people had bought cryptocurrencies without really understanding what they were purchasing. In fact, many wanted to buy a full coin, without understanding that tokens could be bought in fractions.
The FCA stated that the respondents, despite not understanding what they were investing in, had bought cryptos in the hopes of making some quick money, and cited friends, social media and acquaintances as those who influenced them to buy digital assets.
With regard to how risky it was for people to invest in cryptocurrencies, the FCA stated that these surveys revealed that the situation may not be has been had it had thought.
The Director of Strategy and Competition at the FCA, Christopher Woolard stated that the results showed that while there may be some hard done to some individual crypto investors, the larger society has not felt any impact. He also added that having said that, cryptocurrencies were still very volatile products and that if people invest in them, they should be prepared for the loss of all their money.
Risky Investment
Woolard is not the only one to warn against investing in cryptocurrencies. In December of 2017, the Chief Executive Officer of the FCA, Andrew Bailey had said something similar. He said that buying cryptos was equivalent to gambling. This is because neither was backed by or regulated by the authorities.
The FCA has also issued several warnings about crypto derivatives products as well as unregistered crypt-based brokerage companies.