After its latest boom, it appears that cryptocurrency is still on the menu for a lot of Americans going into 2025. In a new survey by exchange Kraken, it found that 73% will return to it next year.
The survey is littered with interesting tidbits about people’s crypto habits. This includes that only 8% of those asked think the technology is a “Ponzi scheme”, while 29% “remain undecided”.
Cryptocurrency is the current hot topic in America. As President-elect Trump puts his weight behind it, with planned White House roles, Bitcoin has broken the $100,000 mark. As of writing, Bitcoin sits at $100,407.20.
With the price rising, it’s unsurprising that over half, at 52%, see the digital currency as a long-term investment. However, the Web3 tech is still known for criminal activity, including the buying and selling of drugs online.
60% of Americans believe crypto is used for crimes
Americans appear to agree, with 60% believing that crypto is still heavily used in crimes. It’s hard to gauge where criminal activity lies with crypto transactions as unless the “illicit address” of the wallet is known beforehand or tracked properly, things can fall through the cracks.
Chainalysis found that $24.2 billion, or 0.34% of “total on-chain transaction volume” were related to criminal activities. The analytics company admits that it hasn’t tracked every address and doesn’t include “funds associated with crypto money laundering.”
Interestingly, the younger the audience, the less likely they are to believe that crypto has “practical applications”. Only 32% of 18 to 29-year-olds think this, while 55% of 30-44-year-olds hold this belief. The 45 to 60 age group is by far the largest, with 63% thinking crypto has real-world applications. 60 and over is at 52%.
Kraken marks this as “younger participants may still be navigating the complex truths of crypto”.
Featured image: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Kraken
