Major challenge to purchase of cryptocurrencies in India is less awareness of what a crypto is

Photo Credit : thetechportal.com,

Pundi X, a cryptocurrency point-of-sale (POS) solution provider, together with NEM.io Foundation and Stellar.org, released the State of Cryptocurrency report, taking a close look at the cryptocurrency adoption among the mainstream consumers.

A survey conducted in India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, UK, and the USA revealed that people would prefer buying cryptocurrency to buying  an iPhone X. Around 70 percent of the respondents agree that most people will start using either Bitcoin or the other cryptocurrencies in the next 10 years.

Cryptocurrency has been one of the hottest topics in 2017 and will continue taking center stage in 2018. As an enabler of providing physical store owners’ solution to accept crypto to fiat or crypto payment, Pundi X, together with NEM.io Foundation and Stellar.org, surveyed 3,000 people, including 500 in India to find out the mainstream consumers’ uptake on cryptocurrency and their cryptocurrency purchase behaviors.

The survey titled “the State of Cryptocurrency report” covers the range of respondents from 18 to 59 years old. The findings indicate the interest of cryptocurrency among the mainstream is high. Although only 8 percent of them (7 percent in India) currently own Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, over one-third (39 percent) of the respondents will consider buying cryptocurrencies in the next six months.

Here are more highlights from the State of Cryptocurrency report:

Cryptocurrency considered valuable digital asset
59 percent of respondents think bitcoin or cryptocurrency is digital money; 11 percent believe it is coin or bank notes; 23 percent don’t know what cryptocurrency is. When asked about what they want to use cryptocurrency for, 35 percent said they use cryptocurrency for trading or investment; 35 percent said that they want to spend cryptocurrency and make purchases. 27 percent of them use it as a store of value.

Cryptocurrency overtakes iPhone X, VR headset, and drone
When asking about what the respondents will do with USD 1,000, 33 percent of them chose to save the money (24 percent in India). However, 12 percent of them will spend it on buying cryptocurrency (16 percent in India); 11 percent investing stock or bond (12 percent in India); 7 percent on iPhone X (11 percent in India); 6 percent on charity (9 percent in India). Only 1 percent of the respondents want to use USD 1,000 to buy a VR headset or a drone (2 percent in India).

Cryptocurrency owners trade frequently
Nearly half (47 percent) of the cryptocurrency owners have had the bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies more than six months. 76 percent of them made at least two transactions in the last three months. 23 percent even trade cryptocurrencies more than ten times in three months. When transacting cryptocurrency, security, privacy, and zero transaction cost are top three most important factors.

Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum are top three known cryptocurrencies in India
Among the people who own cryptocurrencies in India, 68 percent of them know Bitcoin, 40 percent know Litecoin, 28 percent know Ethereum, 21 percent know Ripple, 19 percent know Dash and 15 percent know Stellar Lumen. There are also 25 percent of them who know other cryptocurrencies.

Online exchange platforms are places where people are considering buying their cryptos
One-fourth of people who are considering buying cryptocurrencies will purchase through the local online exchange platform. 14 percent of them through the foreign online exchange platform. People are also thinking to buy cryptocurrencies in physical offline channels, such as bank (10 percent), stores (9 percent), friends and family (8 percent).

Major challenge to purchase of cryptocurrencies in India is less awareness of what a crypto is
When it comes to the reasons that people who don’t want to purchase bitcoin or the other cryptocurrencies, 22 percent of them said ‘they don’t know what cryptocurrencies are,’ 19 percent thought it is not real money, 18 percent indicated that they don’t know what the cryptocurrency is, and 18 percent of the respondents said the value of the Bitcoin is not stable.

“From this survey, we confirmed that the uptake of cryptocurrency is high in India. As the interest of owning cryptocurrency among the mainstream is growing, there are still some challenges for the mass adoption in India. One of them is ‘the knowledge about cryptocurrency’,” said Zac Cheah, CEO, and co-founder of Pundi X.

“Few cryptocurrencies have already proven themselves as a purpose that benefits the average consumers more than cash does regarding financial inclusion and asset sharing but difficult for everyday transactions. We believe that this will improve as more and more innovative startups, like NEM, Pundi X and Stellar.org, are providing solutions to tackle this issue, educating the users and bring them into the real economy.”