bitFlyer: Confidence in cryptocurrency increases across European populations year-on-year despite ongoing coronavirus crisis

bitFlyer Europe, the European arm of the world’s largest bitcoin exchange by trading volumes^[1], has today released the results of its annual Crypto-Confidence Index. Built from a consumer poll of 10,000 respondents across 10 countries in Europe, this is the second year of the index which demonstrates the levels of confidence in European populations that digital financial assets will continue to exist in 10 years’ time.

With the poll to create the Crypto-Confidence-Index taking place annually in March, this year’s survey was conducted during the continuing height of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic outbreak - a time during which the value of assets both traditional and novel has been unstable. Despite this, confidence in cryptocurrencies across Europe has increased 3% versus the 2019 results, and in nine out of the ten countries polled.

Perhaps even more surprisingly Italy, amongst the countries hardest hit by the novel coronavirus in March 2020, was found to be leading the pack when it comes to the most optimistic countries confident in the future of cryptocurrency, with almost three-quarters (72%) believing they will still exist in some form in 10 years’ time. Italy is closely tailed by the Netherlands and Poland, 70% of the populations of which believe in a future for digital financial assets.

Looking at the UK specifically, it is the only country other than Norway in which population confidence in the future of cryptocurrencies decreased versus 2019. It is worth noting, however, that the decrease is by only 1%, and well over half (56%) of the population still believe that digital currencies will exist in some form by 2030. This increases to 61% when looking at the 18-44 age group specifically.

In addition to asking respondents whether they believe bitcoin will still exist, the study also dug deeper to uncover what consumers think the real use cases for bitcoin will be in future and how cryptocurrencies will solidify their place within their respective market. The results show the majority are still very much uncertain.

Almost 1 in 10 (9%) of Europeans believe bitcoin will be fully ingrained into society as a form of currency in 10 years’ time versus 8% in 2019, whilst 9% believe it will be used as a security or investment versus 7% last year.

Interestingly, Italy is also the country in which the biggest proportion of the population (12%) believes that cryptocurrencies will one day be used as mainstream currency, a 2% increase on the 10% of the Italian population who believed this to be the case last year. Italy has a 2% clear lead on any other country in believing in this purpose for digital currencies, with 10% of Polish respondents also believing that this could be the case. Conversely, only 5% of UK respondents believe in the potential of cryptocurrencies as mainstream currencies.

Overwhelmingly, however, Europeans are uncertain as to how cryptocurrencies might be utilised in the future, despite confidence in their continued existence. A quarter (25%) of respondents answered that they were certain that cryptocurrencies would still exist, but had no idea how they would be used, with this response being up 2% from 2019.

Andy Bryant, COO at bitFlyer Europe, said: “It is pleasing to see these results that indicate a slow but steady progression of cryptocurrencies into the mainstream consciousness. Although we might look at this as an achievement for digital currencies in spite of the challenging economic times we are facing, it is also worth considering that this may well be partly because of these times.

“It is interesting to see that countries like Italy which have been hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis are expressing more faith than ever in cryptocurrencies. As people face economic hardship, we can expect populations to seek alternatives to traditional financial systems. This is an important time for the crypto industry to demonstrate how cryptocurrencies and associated concepts such as decentralised finance can provide attractive alternatives or even substitutes for incumbent economic models, as we battle unprecedented financial times globally and look for novel solutions.”

Tables of results

Table 1: the percentage of consumers who believe cryptocurrencies will still exist in 10 years’ time based on March 2020 poll:

1	Italy	72%
2=	Poland	70%
2=	Netherlands	70%
3	Spain	68%
4	Norway	67%
5=	Denmark	66%
6=	Germany	64%
6=	Belgium	64%
7	France	60%
8	UK	56%
	Europe	66%

Table 2: the percentage of consumers who believe cryptocurrencies will still exist in 10 years’ time based on March 2019 poll:

1	Norway	73%
2	Italy	68%
3=	Netherlands	67%
3=	Poland	67%
4	Spain	66%
5=	Denmark	63%
5=	Germany	63%
6	Belgium	59%
7	UK	57%
8	France	55%
	Europe	63%

ENDS

Methodology

To create the annual bitFlyer Europe Crypto-Confidence-Index, surveys were conducted via Google Surveys, with the following question and response options posed to a pool of 1,000 people in each of the 10 countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, UK.

Do you think bitcoin will still exist in 10 years’ time?

• Yes, in mainstream use as a currency
• Yes, but as an investment or security
• Yes, but it will only have niche uses
• Yes, but no idea how
• No, but other forms of crypto will exist
• No, something new will take its place
• No, all cryptocurrency will not exist

The same question and answer options were used for each country, all translated into the dominant language for each country, with the exception of Belgium, where the question and answers were posed in French. Response options were displayed in random order. The full database of survey results is available upon request.

About bitFlyer EUROPE S.A.

bitFlyer EUROPE S.A. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of bitFlyer, Inc., a leading bitcoin and blockchain company based in Japan. The European office is located in Luxembourg and operates an exchange platform for European traders to buy and sell bitcoin. bitFlyer EUROPE S.A. corporate site: www.bitflyer.com/en-eu/

About bitFlyer, Inc.

bitFlyer, Inc. is the largest bitcoin and blockchain company in Japan. bitFlyer aims to revolutionize the FinTech sector using blockchain technology. Its work includes operation of the bitFlyerintegrated virtual currency platform, in-depth blockchain research, and the R&D of its original blockchain miyabi. bitFlyer, Inc., corporate site: www.bitflyer.com

^[1]https://www.coinhills.com/market/exchange/rank-for/btc/

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Lauren Armour
Tyto PR
Lauren.armour@tytopr.com