Consumers are losing their fear of cryptocurrency, as gamers lead the way for its normalisation, a new Kaspersky survey has revealed.
According to the research, 72 percent of gamers responding currently own digital currency, and 48 percent of the study’s subjects describe themselves as ‘very knowledgeable’ or ‘extremely knowledgeable about cryptocurrency’. Another striking finding is that the knowledge gap between men and women has narrowed since 2022.
The study also discovered that 27% of consumers believe cryptocurrency is the future of shopping and would be happy to use it as payment option for people in their daily life — 27 percent would even use it to buy groceries.
Global surveys prove, that there is a very high level of awareness about cryptocurrencies: 92 percent of respondents have heard about them. Fifty percent stated that they have heard about them, and understand what they are.
In fact, worldwide the top association with cryptocurrencies is that it represents the “future of money”, despite some countries remaining skeptical. Considering this, Kaspersky explored users’ behavior and attitudes towards the use of cryptocurrency.
Kaspersky discovered that consumers’ knowledge about cryptocurrency and their confidence in it has grown. More than a half of respondents in the survey (48%) boasted they were ‘very’ or ‘extremely knowledgeable’ about digital currency.
Women appear to have increased their familiarity with the subject, as 41 percent of them, say they know a lot about crypto compared to 46 percent of men – a gap that has shrunk year-on-year. Gamers are particularly knowledgeable 72 percent even owning crypto.
According to study results, almost half of all respondents believe that crypto payments will become a common choice for online shopping (29%), and 26 percent of respondents would use it more, given more opportunities.
Besides the majority (77%) comfortably paying for online purchases with digital money, most respondents (80%) even feel comfortable using it to pay for their wares in a physical store.
Gamers, of course, tend to buy items related to their passion such as video games (60%), and in-game purchases or upgrades (34%), but 38 percent will also use it to buy gaming equipment such as special keyboards – you can even buy special steering wheels, gear sticks and pedals for racing games. People are also using cryptocurrency for clothing (34%) and grocery (27%).
Interesting, that these shoppers are less ready to go as far as to purchase extremely high-value items such as a house (18%) or cars (22%) using cryptocurrencies. As for concerns and risks related to crypto, volatility and scams were named by 39 percent of respondents. Perceived potential vulnerability has put off some shoppers, as 13 percent are unsure of how to protect cryptocurrency adequately, making them less likely to use it.
Marina Titova, Vice-President, Consumer Product Marketing at Kaspersky said, “Our survey results show users’ understanding of cryptocurrency has grown over last few years. Now more than a half of respondents (48%) are sure that they are extremely or very knowledgeable about digital money.
We support the needs of the crypto community by adding special protection features to our comprehensive security solutions such as Kaspersky Premium, so our customers can work with cryptocurrency without risking their money and personal data in cyberspace.
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