Grayscale: Over Half of Current Bitcoin Investors Bought It for First Time in Past 12 Months

The current year turned out to be very turbulent for Bitcoin, nevertheless, interest in it continued to grow. According to Grayscale Investments, more than half of current Bitcoin investors (55%) bought Bitcoin for the first time in the last 12 months. The company also noted that an increasing number of investors see Bitcoin as a capital protection remedy.

This data underpins the explosive growth of the digital coin market, in which investors have been demonstrating enormous appetite despite the-still-elevated volatility, including for Ethereum-based non-fungible tokens (NFT). Even after the recent deep correction, Bitcoin is adding about 70% for the year, while its major rivals including Ethereum (ETHUSD), have risen in price more than five-fold.

According to a survey conducted by Grayscale Investments among 1,000 people, “It’s more and more difficult for investors to ignore Bitcoin as its price continues to rise”. "About 80% of U.S. respondents surveyed reported that they would be more likely to invest in Bitcoin if a dedicated ETF existed."

Back in October, Grayscale and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) filed an application with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to transform the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which market value at the time was about $40 billion, into an ETF. However, at the moment, the regulator has only allowed the launch of an ETF backed by Bitcoin futures.

According to Grayscale, investors are changing their priorities in regards to the way they buy Bitcoin. Specifically, in 2020, over three quarters of all polled respondents said they prefer to buy cryptocurrency at an exchange, while approximately 60% of survey participants lean towards trading through apps such as eToro or Coinbase. The exchange is still preferred by about a third of the respondents.