It’s official: investing in cryptocurrency is a known fact among the majority of Americans and more people than ever are factoring crypto into their financial planning.
But who knows the most about Bitcoin (BTC) and which states have invested the most in digital currencies thus far?
Americans Are More Likely Than Ever to Buy Digital Currency
Approximately 15 percent of Americans state that they’re likely to purchase some form of cryptocurrency, according to research conducted by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
Their study takes research from YouGov into account as well as Coinbase user activity and state-by-state laws.
Investing in Cryptocurrency Is Already Common Among Institutional Investors
Within the past three years especially, 22 percent of Fidelity Investment investors had some connection to digital assets such as cryptocurrency, per a survey conducted by Fidelity.
40 percent of responders also expressed interest in further investing in cryptocurrency, in contrast with the national average of 15 percent.
Some States Have Higher Investment Rater Than Others
The states with the highest percentage of investment include California, Washington, and New Jersey.
Colorado, New York, Florida, Alaska, and Utah, Massachusetts, and Nevada also have higher levels of investment than the national average.
More Than Half of Americans Know About Bitcoin
Today, 58 percent of Americans know about investing in cryptocurrency, More specifically, they’ve heard of Bitcoin. In fact, Google search queries for “Bitcoin” rose to new levels in 2019. This year, the market-leading coin was searched more than “election results,” “royal wedding,” and “Kim Kardashian.”
More specifically, Bitcoin searches were triple those for Kim Kardashian during the second half of June 2019 due to rising prices.
Bitcoin Awareness Varies Greatly Between States
Who knows the most about the leading market cap cryptocurrency? Wisconsin residents had the highest levels of preexisting knowledge of Bitcoin at 57 percent. By contrast, only 18 percent of Alaskans had heard of the crypto.
Despite this, Alaska ranks in the top 10 U.S. states when it comes to investing in cryptocurrency.
Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Massachusetts are also in the top five in terms of pre-existing knowledge of BTC.
Crypto Wealth Is More Concentrated in These States
California, Nevada, Delaware, New York, Washington, Wyoming, Connecticut Illinois, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire have the largest average holdings per capita of cryptocurrency ownership.
Which States Are Most Likely to Invest More?
When it comes to investing in cryptocurrency in the next six months, New Jersey comes in first: 22.8 percent of survey responders said that they are likely to purchase digital assets.
Kentucky (22.5%), West Virginia (17.1%), Pennsylvania (16.4%) and Missouri (16.4%) make up the top five states.
Investing in Cryptocurrency Goes Mainstream
Though Bitcoin’s resurgence to public awareness may appear sudden, the cryptocurrency has been slowly gaining traction among investors and media outlets since Satoshi Nakamoto‘s original whitepaper, dating back to 2008.
In the past few years, many states have implemented some legal framework for cryptocurrency. To date, 70 percent of states have some legislation governing blockchain and cryptocurrency.
Though the market remains volatile, more investors, institutional and otherwise, are either already involved or planning future investment.
