More than half of U.S. investors interested buying in Bitcoin

More than half of U.S. investors are interested in buying Bitcoin, and nearly one quarter already have. And the COVID-19 pandemic is a leading driver of that interest.

That’s the result of a survey of 1,000 U.S. investors released by the leading crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments.

The findings, announced on Oct. 27, show that 55% of them would be interested in investing in Bitcoin, while 23% already bought in. This percentage of American investors translates to nearly 32 million potential Bitcoin investors. The firm’s managing director Michael Sonnenshein said:

“This data makes it clear that investor interest in Bitcoin grew substantially in 2020. As investors become more familiar with Bitcoin and better understand the role it can play in a diversified portfolio, they are more likely to invest.”

Furthermore, Grayscale points out that the survey also showed a 19% year-to-year increase in the portion of U.S. investors interested in Bitcoin, as in 2019 only said they 36% would consider investing in the crypto asset.

Mainstream knowledge of Bitcoin is also growing, with 62% of respondents saying they were “familiar” with the leading cryptocurrency, up from 53% in 2019.

Cough it up

Of those who have invested in BTC, 83% have done so in the past 12 months, and 38% in just the past four months.

One big factor in that growth has been the COVID-19 pandemic. Of those who invested in the past four months, nearly two thirds—63%—said the pandemic was a factor in their decision, according to the full report. Of those respondents, 39% said that COVID-19 made Bitcoin more appealing, while 13% expressed the opposite idea.

*The pandemic has been a big factor in Bitcoin buyers decision (Photo: Grayscale)*

Sonnenshein believes that the interest in cryptocurrencies shown by mainstream firms also played a role in this increase:

“With Bitcoin increasingly being supported by mainstream names like PayPal, Square, MicroStrategy, and Paul Tudor Jones, we believe investor attitudes will continue to evolve toward greater acceptance of Bitcoin and the larger digital currency asset class.”

As Modern Consensus recently reported, PayPal is allegedly already negotiating to buy a number of crypto companies, including major Bitcoin custodian BitGo. The rumors of the upcoming acquisition started spreading shortly after PayPal president and CEO Dan Schulman announced that customers would be able to buy, sell, and hold bitcoin and three other cryptocurrencies in their accounts.