According to a poll conducted by CEX.IO and Qriously, an online service for measuring location-based public sentiment in real time, 13% of surveyed UK respondents own some cryptocurrency.

Among those who own crypto, Bitcoin is the most popular asset (owned by 43%). In second place are tokens (of all types), which are held by 29% of respondents. Of those surveyed, 20% say they buy and sell different types of crypto assets depending on the price volatility. Among factors that influence the decision to buy crypto, security is the most important for 31% of respondents.

More than 50% of crypto owners bought their crypto at least a year ago, and 25% spent the equivalent of GBP 500 or less acquiring it.

A positive perception of cryptocurrencies prevails among 18- to 24-year-olds. Within this group of consumers, 39% would use crypto as a banking option and 20% feel crypto is appropriate for charitable donations.

Crypto owners in the UK prefer to store their assets in online wallet services (31%), while only 16% use cryptocurrency exchanges.

The poll also suggests that a lack of understanding of cryptocurrencies affects consumers’ purchasing behavior. Among all respondents, 28% said they would buy crypto if they knew more about it. At the same time, fear of missing out (FOMO) is one of the least likely reasons to become a crypto owner (9%).

“For any credible crypto business, it’s important that the new economy and open financial system become a reality as soon as possible. We work every day to offer easy and effective products and services for different audiences. That’s why we have separate services for instant buy / sell, leveraged trading, and business-to-business tools that can be implemented in any third-party service to accept crypto payments. According to the results of our poll, UK consumers see crypto as a potentially useful innovative financial asset.” — Thomas Wilkinson, Analyst at CEX.IO

Qriously polled 1,013 people ages 18+ and weighted the data on age, gender, and region to be more in line with what is known about the general 18+ population in the UK. Respondents participated in the survey voluntarily and were not incentivized. The poll was conducted in May 2019, and involved respondents from across the United Kingdom. Qriously replaces in-app ads with surveys, enabling them to conduct real-time research anywhere in the world.