Investors consider cryptos increasingly useful as the industry diversifies, according to the Economist report on consumer trust in digital currencies.

A report by the Economist shows a bright future for crypto adoption, with the respondents expecting rapid growth in demand in the near future. 

More People Positive about Cryptos, They Expect Demand to Increase

Economist Impact released the results of its “Digimentality Report,” which delved into consumer trust in crypto payments and stumbling blocks that have stood on the path of digitization of traditional money functions. The data shares food for thought as it compares trends from surveys done in the last few years. 

Information was gathered from surveys completed by 3,000 consumers in early 2022, with 50% of the respondents living in high-income countries, including Australia, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Singapore, and France. The other half consisted of respondents from developing states, including the Philippines, South Africa, Vietnam, Brazil, and Turkey.  

About 75% of the respondents had higher education and relied on a variety of digital payment methods to pay for their goods and services. The latter part involved 150 institutional investors and corporate treasury management respondents. This made the study to capture the attitude of the entire crypto investment niche. 

Open-Source Cryptos are Good Diversifiers 

One important takeaway was the current sentiment from investors who agree that open-source cryptos, such as Ether and Bitcoin, are helpful diversifiers in any portfolio account. 85% held this view, and 9 in 10 institutional investors and corporate treasury survey respondents, said the demand for cryptos, including CBDC, has shot up in the last three years. The rise of Web3 and metaverse projects might increase this demand, the report showed. 

74% of the respondents agreed that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are important new asset classes that organizations are looking at with great interest. CBDC is another notable area of interest, with a significant number of respondents expecting their governments to launch their CBDCs by 2025. 65% of respondents held the view that CBDCs are likely to replace the fiat currencies in their countries. 

The respondents identified regulations as the biggest obstacle to institutional investors from adopting cryptos. 35% of the respondents said the market trust was a major obstacle. This was a decline from 47% who had the same view in 2021. This argument echoes Janet Yellen, the US Treasury secretary, who said that barriers limiting access to cryptos include financial education and tech resources.