KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 24): Cryptocurrency adoption in Malaysia has dropped to 15% of Malaysian internet users aged 18 and above, from 20% late last year.

In a statement on Wednesday (Aug 24), Finder.com, a comparison platform, said its Cryptocurrency Adoption Index showed that men are much more likely to own cryptocurrency.

It said 63% of crypto holders are men and just 37% are women.

The firm said Bitcoin is still the most popular coin among Malaysian crypto owners (35%), followed by Ethereum (24%).

Cryptocurrency specialist at Finder, James Edwards, said he was not surprised adoption fell given the considerable drop in the crypto market.

“We saw huge drops in the price of Bitcoin at the start of May and June so it’s not surprising to see a drop in crypto adoption since the end of last year.

“In other markets like South Africa and the US, we saw adoption hold steady or even increase slightly, which suggests that while some people have sold, others are holding for the long term or may have actually bought cryptocurrency for the first time at what they consider to be a discount,” he said.

Edwards cautioned new investors that investing in cryptocurrency isn’t for the faint hearted.

“Cryptocurrency is a hugely volatile industry and you should never invest money you can’t afford to lose. You should also pay attention to the cost of trading to make sure any gains aren’t negated by fees you need to pay as you buy and sell.”

Finder.com analysed cryptocurrency exchanges by taking into account a range of factors like fees, regulation, coins available and deposit methods to name Kraken the best global cryptocurrency exchange.