New technologies are often scary. Then, over time, people get to know them a little—and often still wouldn’t touch them with a 10-foot pole. That would be you, cryptocurrency.
The Pew Research Center yesterday released the results of a survey showing that a whopping 88% of Americans have heard at least something about crypto, and three-quarters of those people are either not very confident (36%) or not at all confident (39%) about the safety and reliability of virtual currencies. A mere 6% are very or extremely confident in crypto.
Of course, hearing about something and experiencing it are two different things, and Pew’s research does show that those who have invested in crypto (around a sixth of U.S. adults, who tend to be wealthier, younger men) are somewhat more likely to find it trustworthy—just 43% of that cohort lack confidence in it. Americans aged 50 or older are less likely to be confident about crypto, as are women.
On the plus side for Team Crypto, 69% of those who have invested in, traded, or used cryptocurrencies still hold some of it. The results don’t indicate how much they still hold, but, for those who don’t urgently need to liquidate their holdings, I guess it makes sense to avoid selling in a crypto winter.
As it happens, Bitcoin is on an upward trajectory at the moment, having just broken past the $30,000 mark for the first time since the middle of last year. But that’s not necessarily an expression of confidence in Bitcoin as such—it probably has more to do with the expectation that central banks will stop hiking interest rates.
There’s certainly no reason to think regulators are going to become less hostile to crypto in the near future, especially given recent actions such as the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s civil suit against Binance and its CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, over alleged compliance violations.
Speaking of which, do read Jeff John Roberts and Yvonne Lau’s exclusive interview with the otherwise-quiet-these-days Zhao, which delves deep into his formative experiences in Canada and China—and even his relationship with his brilliant but remote father. And don’t forget to check out Fortune’s new Crypto 40 list, which shows how, even if trust in cryptocurrencies is dismal these days, many blockchain technologists are still building quality companies.
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David Meyer
Data Sheet’s daily news section was written and curated by Andrea Guzman.
