Surveys: Investors Show Growing Interest in Crypto, but Financial Illiteracy Hinders Investment

A series of recent polls are indicating a surge in interest in cryptoassets by US investors from across the generational and ethnic spectrum, but obstacles such as financial literacy gaps and inaction in dealings with financial advisors continue to hamper an accelerated crypto adoption by individual investors.

A poll of 4,000 US adults carried out between January 27 and February 7, 2022, by Investopedia showed that 49% of respondents declared to have only a beginner’s understanding of cryptoassets.

This knowledge is unevenly distributed across generations, with 38% of Millennials admitting they own crypto, and 6% of baby boomers declaring to hold crypto.

Millennials are also those who show the highest confidence in their grasp of the technology, with 41% saying they have an advanced understanding of crypto, according to the poll.

With this in mind, some 28% of Millennials say they intend to use crypto to support themselves in retirement, compared with 20% and 17% of Gen X and Gen Z respondents, respectively. At the same time, crypto is part of the retirement plan for only 5% of baby boomers.

A January 2022 poll of 669 US financial advisors surveyed by financial data and analysis provider Coalition Greenwich sheds more light on the reasons behind the hesitancy shown by some American individual investors towards crypto.

The poll indicated that two-thirds of financial advisors in the US had discussed crypto and/or digital assets with their customers in the past year. However, for the vast majority of advisors, those talks have not led to action.

As a result, only 15% of financial advisors have either developed an investment strategy or offered an investment product involving cryptoassets to a client, according to the survey.

On a more positive note, a recent survey by Ariel Investments and Charles Schwab Corp. shows that young Black Americans are increasingly embracing crypto as an investment strategy. About 38% of Black investors under the age of 40 own crypto, compared with 29% of their White counterparts, as reported by Bloomberg.

In total, twice as many Black respondents ranked crypto as the best investment choice in comparison with their White counterparts.