The rise of cryptocurrencies in the recent years have seen a similar increase in cryptocurrency adoption, especially amongst the younger generation. Many studies have shown that youths nowadays are expanding their investments from the regular stock, bonds, and equities market to the more volatile cryptocurrency market.
One survey by Shin R25 shows this phenomenon becoming more and more widespread in the country of Japan. The survey, titled “Questionnaire Survey on Virtual Currency” shows that close to 14% of the survey respondents are invested in cryptocurrency.
The survey was published on April 3rd by Shin R25, an online magazine for young businessmen. According to survey statistics, over 4,734 men nationwide, with ages ranging from 25 to 30, participated in this survey from January 2018 to March 2018. Out of all the survey respondents, over a quarter of them admitted that their cryptocurrency holdings are the first ever investment that they’ve made in their lives.
There was also a variety of reasons why these Japanese youths entered the cryptocurrency market, be it the herd mentality, or because they see a potential in their newfound investments.
‘Of the young Japanese male employees that own crypto, 92 percent said that they entered the crypto markets “for investment,” 37.4 percent “for the time being because it is a trend,” and 19.9 percent due to “acquaintance and media recommended information.”’
However, a lot of these young investors are still pretty conservative with their investments. According to the survey, 34.5% of the respondents admit to having less than 50,000 yen worth of cryptocurrencies, which equates to about $467 based on today’s conversion rates. On the higher end of the spectrum, only 10.2% of investors owned up to 1,000,000 yen or more in crypto holdings ($9,340).
When asked for the time during which they first started investing in the crypto space, most of the respondents admitted that they’ve joined very recently. The majority of respondents, about 24.3%, purchased their first cryptocurrencies between October and December 2017, while 15% of them caught the late train as they started investing in January 2018 or later.
Despite the recent turbulence in the world of cryptocurrencies, there is still a considerably large percentage of Japanese youths who are interested in actively investing in crypto (47.1%). Conversely, 35.4% of them declared that they “do not intend to keep investing” in cryptocurrencies.
Comparison to U.S. Investors
In contrast, the blockchain and cryptocurrency scene in the United States seems to be much more enthusiastic. According to a survey done by venture capital firm Blockchain Capital, approximately 30 percent of those in the 18-to-34 age range admitted that they would rather own $1,000 worth of Bitcoin than $1,000 of government bonds or stocks.
