Canadian investors’ level of anxiety in trading cryptocurrencies is tied directly to age, gender and income, according to a recent Environics survey conducted on behalf of Toronto-based cryptocurrency trading platform Coinberry.
Specifically, younger Canadians are more confident with cryptocurrency investing than older Canadians, as 39% of investors from 18-34 years of age identified cryptocurrencies as “high-return investments” in comparison with older groups, which ranged from 5% to 22%. In addition, 36% of younger investors also were more likely than older age groups (ranging from 18% to 26%) to believe that wealthy Canadians invest in cryptocurrencies.
Furthermore, the survey found that Canadian women are significantly braver than men when it comes to investing in cryptocurrencies. In fact 71% of men cited risk as a concern with cryptocurrency investing vs 55% of women; and 62% of men were concerned about security in cryptocurrency investing compared with 55% of women.
Despite their concerns about risk, male investors were more likely than female investors to believe that cryptocurrency investing is a high-return investment (35% vs 18%). This suggests that men see the value in cryptocurrency investments but are sidelined by perceived risk.
Investors’ appetite for risk in cryptocurrency investing also depends greatly on income levels. In fact, more high-income earners, 84%, who take home $100,000 or more annually, are worried about risk than all other income categories, which ranged from 49%-70%. These investors also were more concerned about security in cryptocurrency investing, at 76%, compared with a range of 45%-63% in other income categories. Ironically, high-income earners were mostly likely to site a lack of understanding (72%) as a barrier to cryptocurrency investing.
Environics conducted an online survey of 1,000 Canadian adults aged 18 years of age or older from July 9-11, 2018. Of the 1,000 survey participants interviewed, 688 indicated they were investors.