US Gallup Poll Shows Only 2% of American Investors Own Bitcoin

According to a Wells Fargo Gallup Investor and Retirement Optimism Index poll, just 2 percent of Americans surveyed own bitcoin. The poll is based on US adults who have at least $10,000 or more invested in things like mutual funds, stocks, and bonds. The Gallup survey also reveals that 26 percent of the US residents surveyed are “intrigued” by bitcoin but have no plans in investing any time soon.

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Gallup Data Says American Investors Find Bitcoin Investment “Risky” But Young Investors Say They Would Jump in if Bitcoin Was “More Mainstream”

Wells Fargo has published the results of a Gallup Investor poll which shows only 2 percent of US residents own some bitcoin. The ‘Investor and Retirement Optimism Index’ survey was conducted online between May 7-14, 2018 and the web study consisted of 1,921 American investors ages 18 and older.

“Bitcoin, the leading form of digital currency that has seen its price soar, crash and rise again in the past year, has made little headway with U.S. investors,” explains the report authored by Lydia Sadd.

According to a Wells Fargo/Gallup poll, just 2% of investors say they currently own bitcoin, and less than 1% plan to buy it in the near future — While most investors say they have no interest in ever buying bitcoin, about one in four (26%) say they are intrigued by it but won’t be buying it anytime soon.

Most US Investors Are on the Sidelines

75 percent of the longitudinal panel of U.S. investors surveyed stated they found cryptocurrency investment “risky” while 23 percent of those polled found the investment to be “somewhat risky”. Only 2 percent of the investors polled said bitcoin investments were “not too risky” and just 0.5 percent found it to be “not risky at all”. The study found that because a majority of individuals believe bitcoin is risky, most prefer “security over growth” and “US investors prefer to play it safe with their investments.”

“Looking to the future, however, many younger investors who currently say they are intrigued may be converted to investors once the currency goes more mainstream,” Sadd notes.

For now, most investors are on the sidelines, knowing little to nothing about bitcoin. Few are already invested in it, and even fewer plan to jump in soon.

Sadd’s web study also concludes that out of the 2 percent that owned bitcoin, ownership is more common among wealthier investors (earning $90,000 USD a year or more) while low-income investors don’t invest in bitcoin as much.

The researcher also notes that three in 10 of the investors (29%) polled knew some things about cryptocurrencies. 67 percent said they’ve heard of specific digital currencies but don’t have that much knowledge about them, and 5 percent have never heard of any types of virtual currencies.

What do you think about the findings within the Wells Fargo/Gallup poll? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comment section below.

Images via Shutterstock, and Wells Fargo’s Gallup poll

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