In a recent study the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) released it showed a growing number of people in the UK are now owning cryptocurrencies.
The reported figure is that nearly 4%, or 1.9 million people in the UK are now owners of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum or others.
Not only is the number of owners rising but awareness of cryptocurrencies is steadily on the rise too.
With today only 27% of the population that still have no idea what cryptocurrencies are. That’s a decrease from last year’s number of 58%.
It is still a male and youth dominant area, with 79% of the owners being male. And 69% of the cryptocurrency owners are younger than 35.
It is still the bigger cryptocurrencies that people are aware of, like Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin. But also Facebook’s Libra has caught the attention of most cryptocurrency-aware people. And it’s the second most known cryptocurrency, after Bitcoin.
(FCA report on cryptocurrencies)
Cryptos are still a bit of a gamble, but also part of a wider portfolio strategy
The main reasons for why UK residents are investing in cryptocurrencies are both seen as a gamble, but cryptocurrencies are more and more becoming part of people’s overall portfolios.
And there is still a big attraction to cryptocurrencies because they don’t want to miss out.
When comparing with the findings from previous year’s report, it overall feels like cryptocurrencies and reasons for investing in them have taken steps from FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and the gamble aspect to more long term investment strategies.
Where can people from the UK buy cryptocurrencies?
If you like many others from the UK interested in investing in cryptocurrencies, then you need to find a website or app where this is possible.
The most popular ways for people to purchase cryptocurrencies in the UK, but also globally are through what is known as cryptocurrency exchanges.
These are online trading platforms, where buyers and sellers trade one cryptocurrency for another. This is the most common way to buy or sell a cryptocurrency if you go by trading volume.
There are also websites that allow you to purchase a cryptocurrency directly with your bank card, or via bank transfers.
Previously that have stopped a lot of newcomers to easily purchase Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, it was often too difficult to get started.
Other reasons for this difficulty have been the traditional banks approach to cryptocurrencies.
Where many of the popular high street banks in the UK have either blocked customers from purchasing cryptocurrencies on different occasions to full right banning them (read more).
There is a growing number of newer startup banks that are more cryptocurrency-friendly appearing on the UK and global scene. These are often more open for its customers to invest and purchase Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
So buying cryptocurrencies in the UK hasn’t always been straightforward.
But a few options that are available to UK residents are:
These are all very popular options for purchasing cryptocurrencies and that are open to UK traders.
To use any of these cryptocurrency exchanges you need to first register an account. And then you can either make a bank transfer or purchase a cryptocurrency directly with a card.
The latter option is available on all but Kraken.
Conclusion
There is a steady rise in both awareness for cryptocurrencies but also an increased number of investors. This will continue to rise, as cryptocurrency interest and awareness is much greater amongst the younger generations.
But even for other age groups cryptocurrencies are becoming part of an overall portfolio these days, and not only considered a get rich quick strategy, or gamble.
