Was that cash, card or crypto? Australia’s unstoppable cryptocurrency market.

Do we stick to what we know, or do we like to take a risk? As cryptocurrency return prices seem too good to be true, Australia’s crypto market is often labelled as ‘risky’ for investors out there.

Just over half of us (53.4 per cent) are familiar with cryptocurrency. But as the numbers are added up, Australian Hunter and Bligh members don’t think they’ll be investing in the cryptocurrency market anytime soon.

71.9 per cent of Australians believe that they won’t be investing in cryptocurrency this year.

The survey shows Bitcoin in the lead as the most0recognised and most-used cryptocurrency in the market. More than nine in 1 (94.1 per cent) Australians are familiar with the currency, and around six in 10 (60.2 per cent) invest in it.

Among Bitcoin’s biggest rivals, less than half of Australian respondents (45.3 per cent) are familiar with Dogecoin, and just less than four in 10 (39.7 per cent) are familiar with Ethereum.

So, what’s stopping us from investing in cryptocurrency? Even though the average respondent to our survey is 46 years old and is considered a mass-market consumer, it’s a lack of knowledge and understanding of the cryptocurrency market that has stopped around a quarter (25.9 per cent) of us investing. A similar proportion (23 per cent) of Australians are worried about the level of risk involved.

Less than a quarter of Australians (19.5 per cent) currently invest in crypto.

To make some bank or to crypt-no? When asked if they think it is riskier to invest in the cryptocurrency market than in other types of investment, almost three-quarters (73 per cent) of us believe that crypto – whether that be Bitcoin, Dogecoin or Ethereum – is much riskier.

It’s no surprise that almost a third (32.9 per cent) of Australia’s younger generation, aged under 29, say that investing in the crypto market is only equally as risky to other investment types.

Smart, silly or do they just love to have a punt? Join in on the conversation on our InstagramFacebook or Twitter now.

Feature image: Photographed by Yaroslav Danylchenko. Image supplied via Canva.
Data received by Hunter and Bligh and conducted by CoreData Research, a global specialist financial services research and strategy consultancy. The survey was conducted in May 2021 and received results from 1317 Australians.