- Grayscale found a 19% increase in the amount of people interested in buying Bitcoin compared to last year
- 2020 Grayscale Bitcoin Investor Study found that lack of education is holding many back from jumping in
- If financial advisors began recommending Bitcoin, 40% would buy in
Interest in Bitcoin has accelerated this year according to Grayscale, who found a 19% rise in the number of investors expressing an interest in investing in the cryptocurrency. Grayscale believes that the coronavirus pandemic has led to more people taking an interest in learning about Bitcoin, both from a retail and institutional point of view, with over half the respondents now showing a willingness to invest.
Coronavirus Boost Bitcoin Interest
The increased interest in Bitcoin is the headline finding from the 2020 Grayscale Bitcoin Investor Study, which surveyed 1,000 investors between June and July this year. Grayscale found that 55% of respondents said they were interested in investing in Bitcoin, a figure up from 36% the year before.
Grayscale adds that COVID-19 and the looming economic recession has made Bitcoin more attractive – 63% of respondents who had invested in Bitcoin in the four months prior to the survey (38% of all Bitcoin investors) said that the pandemic had impacted their decision to invest.
Grayscale posits that those investors who were interested in Bitcoin were more likely to see it as a “defensive investment”, with this group more likely to be interested in traditional “safe haven” investments across the board.
Grayscale Finds Bitcoin Education Lacking
Interestingly, Grayscale also found that a high number of people, 58%, felt they needed more education on Bitcoin, almost mirroring the number of people also interested in buying some. However, 40% said that they would buy Bitcoin if a financial advisor recommended it, which is not something we would expect in the short term but may be something that starts to happen in the future as Bitcoin gains more acceptance.
