Does Britain Know About Crypto?

Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies have been growing in popularity for quite some time now, with many nations taking serious steps to legalize digital assets and many states have already done so. However, it seems that Britain is not aware of what it is. A study recently published revealed that almost 73% of the British population did not know what cryptocurrencies are.

With Bitcoins gaining more and more recognition and becoming more prevalent with each passing day, one would expect a top 5 economy to have a population aware of something that was one of Google’s most searched consistently for a couple of years. However, it turns out that, that is not the case, with it being revealed that just shy of three-quarters of the UK population don’t even know what it is.

On top of this, only around 3 % owned any cryptocurrency, 16% of which hadn’t conducted any research by doing so, and only 1 in 3 had checked its value since. It was also revealed that almost 20% of those who had in fact invested in crypto did so as a means to get rich quickly, while 30% did so as a gamble. These statistics were revealed by the UK’s primary financial regulator, the FCA, who had conducted research into ownership and attitudes in the UK towards crypto. Interestingly, they also revealed quite that almost 1% had, in fact, confused its definition with that of a raffle.

This brings to fore the fact that a great deal of misunderstanding still exists about cryptocurrencies in general and especially now that the scope of its expansion and adoption is at its peak, this situation is rather unfortunate. Reports, however, had been published which indicated that the younger generation, in Britain were indeed more attentive to whatever is going on with the crypto market and what it essentially constitutes of.

However, even if that serves as a saving grace, one still has to wonder how as huge a topic of discussion as cryptocurrency slipped under the radar in such a large and well-connected and developed country.

Rishma Banerjee

Rishma is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and has a special place in her life for sifting through all sorts of random trivia, thank you very much.