Coinjar

1M Aussies will enter crypto over the next 12 months — Swyftx survey

The findings come from the Annual Australian Crypto Survey, commissioned by Australian crypto exchange Swyftx.

Approximately one million Australians will purchase cryptocurrency for the first time over the next 12 months — bringing total crypto ownership in the country to over five million — according to a newly released survey.

The findings came from Australian crypto exchange Swyftx’s second Annual Australian Crypto Survey, which was conducted by research firm YouGov.

The survey questioned 2,609 Australians over 18 years of age in early July, with 548 of the survey sample identified as current holders of cryptocurrency.

The report stated that despite the current “Crypto Winter,” which has seen approximately $2 trillion in assets wiped from the digital assets market over the course of the last year, Australian crypto ownership has grown 4% year-on-year, reaching 21% in 2022.

According to the report, this figure is set to increase by another one million new crypto owners in 2023, while at least one-quarter of Australians are planning to buy crypto over the next 12 months, with Millenials, Gen Zers, Aussie parents and those working full-time most likely to buy.

*Source: Annual Australian Crypto Survey, Swyftx*

This finding is broadly in line with recent data from a Bitcoin processor suggesting the crypto winter isn’t holding back widespread adoption and comments from crypto exchange CoinJar’s head of content Luke Ryan claiming that sports sponsorship is helping to legitimize crypto in Australia.

Commenting on the bullish figures for crypto adoption and ownership, Swyftx’s head of strategic artnerships, Tommy Honan told Cointelegraph:

“On the basis of current growth trajectories in the use of digital assets, we expect half of the adults under 50 in Australia to own or have owned crypto within the next one to two years.”

However, Honan said there were also a lot of variables that make forecasting adoption “fiendishly difficult,” adding:

“The expectation is that we’ll see crypto move into the regulated space next year and, all other things being equal, you’d expect that to trigger growth in adoption, but it isn’t a given.”

Honan said the rate of adoption may slow over the next 12 months before recovering again as market conditions improve.

“The bear market has knocked confidence […] Confidence can take the stairs up and the lifts down, so we are going to have to wait and see how quickly the market takes to stabilize,” he noted.

According to the survey, lack of sound regulation was revealed as the biggest deterrent to investing in crypto for those who have not yet done so, along with a lack of knowledge about how crypto works and overall market volatility.

This finding is reinforced by recent comments from the former head of risk at Credit Suisse CK Zheng, who believes the next crypto bull run will be a result of “regulatory clarity” in the United States.

In a comment to Cointelegraph, Swyftx co-CEO Ryan Parsons said the report shows there’s clear demand among Australians to purchase and use crypto, but that a “material factor” for crypto hesitancy remains regulation.

“The drumbeat for defined rules is growing and it will continue to grow if adoption of digital assets increases at its current rate. As this report shows, there’s clear demand among Australians to purchase and use crypto. It is imperative we meet this demand responsibly.”

Sports sponsorship is helping legitimize crypto in Australia — Coinjar exec

Luke Ryan of CoinJar says sporting partnerships “helps shift the image of crypto away from the idea that it’s only there as speculative mania.”

The sponsorship of high-profile sports and teams may be key to legitimizing the crypto industry to the general masses, according to Luke Ryan, head of content at Australian crypto exchange CoinJar.

In May 2021, the exchange became the first crypto company in Australia to sponsor an Australian Football League (AFL) club by partnering with the Melbourne Demons.

Speaking to Cointelegraph at the Australian Crypto Convention on Sunday, Ryan remarked the AFL partnership changed the discussion around cryptocurrency in the country and that “it gives cryptocurrency a bigger sense of permanence.”

“Perhaps prior to this real punch into the sporting mainstream it was very easy for a lot of people to think ‘oh, this cryptocurrency thing, it’s going to fade away, or it has already faded away,’” he said.

“There’s a real declaration of intent by the industry, not necessarily about ‘we sponsor this team, and then we got X number of new users’, it’s more about we sponsor this team because we want to show the world we’re companies with consequences, with plans and long term visions, and a way of showing that is to align ourselves with a really established presence.”

Ryan believes sports partnerships also give the opportunity for crypto companies to break new ground in terms of their user base and adoption.

He noted that part of what drew CoinJar to partner with an AFL team was the idea of promoting crypto and the exchange “outside of the established true believers who already have their favored platforms.”

“At a certain point, you’re all just hacking into the same market,” he added.

“It’s a real ongoing question for cryptocurrency as a whole, how do we move out from this 5 to 10% that we now talk to, to the 20% to 50%, and we’ve started to think a bit more about what it might look like to start getting more actively involved in sponsorship.”

The partnership between CoinJar and the Melbourne Demons has also meant other teams and the AFL itself have learned more about crypto, which Ryan supposes has made the asset more normalized to the organization.

“It’s meant they’ve had the space to ask questions and look into it a bit more and be like ‘ah, that’s quite interesting, we could really use that to better create a relationship with the fans:’”

“I think it’s leading to a much more open attitude towards things like nonfungible tokens and how they can be harnessed, it’s all still primordial in the AFL sphere, but I certainly know there are very active discussions the AFL has got going.”

Ryan says the speculative nature of crypto is “undeniably what has gotten a lot of people into it” but isn’t what will make for a sustainable future entity. He added that “at some point, there has to be this transition towards actual products that people want to use.”

The AFL’s first 3,800 strong NFT collection in August sold out in under 12 hours raising an estimated $130,000 or more USD Coin (USDC). The AFL has already stated plans to expand its crypto offering to game day events, tickets and the chance to meet players in the Metaverse.