Nearly 40% of Chinese are willing to invest in cryptocurrencies in the near future, according to findings from a new survey conducted by PANews.
The study, which asked close to 5,000 Chinese people about their familiarly and interest in cryptocurrency, found that 98.22% have heard of at least one concept related to cryptocurrency or blockchain. Blockchain technology remains largely not well understood with only 20% of those who have heard of blockchain claiming to actually understand the technology. Half of these people were millennials.
Only 14.24% of respondents said they have invested in cryptocurrencies. 60.54% of them were millennials. Overall, 82.81% of respondents considered cryptocurrencies as a new niche alternative investment opportunity.
Respondents cited the main drawbacks of investing in cryptocurrencies as the complexity of using cryptocurrency wallets or exchange platforms (58.85%), followed by market volatility and regulatory concerns.
The findings echo an earlier Coinbase survey which found that US students were twice as likely as the country’s average to own cryptocurrencies. The study, conducted by researchers Qriously and released in August, found that 18% of US student respondents said they have owned bitcoin or other cryptocurrency.
Among all students surveyed, 17% said they consider their knowledge of cryptocurrency and blockchain was very good, compared to just 9% of the general population surveyed at the same time.
Another key finding was that 42% of the world’s top 50 universities were offering at least one course on cryptocurrency or blockchain, and 22% offered more than one, demonstrating the growing demand from companies for people who understood cryptocurrency-related issues.
“A process is well underway that will lead to the migration of most financial data to blockchain-based organizations,” said David Yermack, the finance department chair at New York University Stern School of Business. “Students will benefit greatly by studying this area.”
A separate survey conducted by YouGov and released in November 2018, found that one in five people in the UK thought that bitcoin would become “as common as cash or card” payments in the future.
93% of UK respondents said they have heard of bitcoin and 23% said they understood it “fairly” well.