KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 24): A new survey has demonstrated that 46% of adult crypto users in the US are seeing lower than expected returns on their crypto investments.

The Pew Research Centre survey released on Tuesday (Aug 23) gathered responses from over 6,000 randomly selected adults across the US, with panellists participating in self-administered web surveys.

The research centre said the turmoil in cryptocurrency markets has taken a toll on investments.

It said by comparison, 15% of these Americans say their investments have done better than they expected, 31% say they have worked out about the same as they expected, and another 8% say they are not sure.

The survey, which was conducted on July 5 to 17, 2022, shows that the overall share of US adults who have ever invested in, traded or used a cryptocurrency (also referred to as “crypto users” in this analysis) is unchanged since September 2021.

Pew Research said this lack of overall change comes despite strong attention to crypto in the news.

The survey also explored the reasons people have for investing in cryptocurrencies.

Among the 16% of Americans who say they have ever invested in, traded or used a cryptocurrency, about three-quarters say that a major or minor reason is that they want a different way to invest (78%) or that it is a good way to make money (75%).

Some 54% said at least a minor reason is that they think crypto is easier to get into than other ways to invest.

Smaller shares cited being more confident in cryptocurrencies than other investments (39%) and wanting to be part of a community (33%) as at least a minor reason for investing.

The survey found that overall, men are 14 percentage points more likely than women to say they have used cryptocurrencies.

Adults under the age of 50 (25%) are more likely than those 50 and older (7%) to be crypto users.

There are also differences by race and ethnicity.

About one in five Black, Hispanic or Asian Americans say they have ever invested in, traded or used a cryptocurrency, compared with 13% of White Americans who say the same.