One in six Australians now own cryptocurrency, with the full value of their holdings calculation upwardly to $eight billion, according to a contempo survey.

The full report of the Finder Consumer Sentiment Tracker was posted online on September ii. It is a monthly ongoing survey of one thousand nationally representative Australians conducted past Qualtrics.

The most popular cryptocurrency in the state remains Bitcoin, with ix% of Australians currently hodling it. Around viii% of Aussies indicated that they own Ethereum, 5% ain Dogecoin and Bitcoin Cash is held by four% of the population.

Researchers said they were surprised to observe that 35% of respondents believe that Bitcoin will eventually be transacted more widely than traditional currency — significant that i in three Australians believe Bitcoin will take over from fiat currency past 2050.

The proportion of Bitcoin trubelievers grew to 52% among Gen Z respondents. Additionally, 50% of all respondents indicated that they believe Bitcoin is a legitimate investment.

Men were twice as probable as women (23% vs. eleven%) to ain crypto. However, the trends favor women, with the proportion of crypto-owning women increasing from just 7% in January, while the proportion of men fell from 29%.

Of those who indicated that they owned cryptocurrency, the largest proportion said that they did so to diversify their portfolios (30%). One quarter (24%) of Aussie hodlers said they purchased crypto but "because information technology's going up." This effigy fell from 45% in January.

Around 49% of respondents aren't interested in crypto, responding that "nothing would make me want to invest in cryptocurrency," while 32% of crypto abstainers indicated that they would "rather buy shares or accept money in savings."

Overall, the biggest deterrent to ownership crypto is its volatility and perceived risk. Surprisingly, more than men than women (50% to 37%) were reluctant to buy crypto for these reasons.

Some other meaning bulwark to entry for Australians is the difficulty in understanding how crypto works. 20-eight percent responded that they would invest in cryptocurrency if they understood how it all worked, while 18% said they would invest if they understood how to really invest in it.

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Finder's enquiry was highlighted earlier in the year when it reported that 56% of Australians believe Tesla CEO Elon Musk is the founder of Bitcoin.

The study also demonstrates the effect of global social media influencers on crypto sentiment. More than than half of Australians (52%) tend to get news from social media platforms like Twitter, where many cryptocurrency market influencers can be plant.