By CCN Markets: Bitcoin users in Poland are mostly men under the age of 40. Moreover, a whopping 92% of them believe that payments using cryptocurrencies will soon become commonplace.
The results were shared by BitPay, the largest multilingual crypto exchange in Europe. BitPay is the most popular crypto platform among Poles.
The group surveyed 2,582 cryptocurrency users in Poland and asked them a series of questions, including their gender, age, and other details to get a composite picture of the nation’s crypto community.
Bitcoin Users In Poland Are 90% Men
The survey indicates that cryptocurrencies are mainly popular among men in their thirties. Men comprised 91.5% of the crypto community in Poland, while women make up just 8.5%.
Most Crypto Users Are In Their Early-30s
More than 50% of the survey respondents are under age 40, with the highest concentration among 31 to 35-year-olds.
These findings are consistent with other research about bitcoiners around the world, which shows the crypto ecosystem is overwhelmingly male.
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As CCN reported, almost half of millennial bitcoin traders in the United States trust crypto exchanges more than the traditional stock market.
In contrast, 77% of Generation X traders trust stock exchanges more than crypto exchange.
93% of Respondents Say Crypto Is Safe
Not surprisingly, bitcoin was the most popular cryptocurrency among the Poles surveyed. More than 70% of respondents have bitcoin in their wallets. Other popular digital currencies were Ether, Lisk, and Ripple.
Notwithstanding the recent barrage of crypto hacks, a staggering 93.1% of Polish crypto enthusiasts consider digital currencies to be a safe means of conducting transactions.
Despite the rising popularity of bitcoin among younger Poles, the vast majority of respondents did not use cryptocurrencies when making purchases. In fact, only 20% of respondents say they have used crypto to buy something.
This is because merchant adoption of crypto payments has been very slow.
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However, the crypto community in Poland are very optimistic about mass adoption. According to the survey, over 90% of respondents believe that payments using cryptocurrencies will become more popular.
Taxes Roil Crypto Traders
As CCN reported, cryptocurrencies have slowly gained traction in Poland. In April 2018, crypto traders launched a petition to protest the government’s decision to tax all cryptocurrency transactions, even those that weren’t profitable.
In the petition, the traders said that the new regulations meant that the money they had invested in bitcoin and other virtual currencies would effectively be taxed “hundreds or even a thousand times.”
The brouhaha erupted after Poland’s Finance Ministry published an interpretation of the country’s tax code in April 2018. The Finance Ministry said all income from crypto transactions were subject to either an 18% or a 32% tax rate.
But what really upset the crypto community was the government’s insistence that merely selling or buying virtual currencies was a “transfer of property” that was automatically subject to a 1% tax. So in other words, you owe taxes on a crypto trade even when you lose money.