UK financial institutions believe crypto will go mainstream within a decade  

90% of UK financial institutions believe that cryptocurrencies will see mainstream adoption in less than a decade, according to the results of a new global survey published today.

This means UK institutions are the most confident in crypto across the whole of Europe, ahead of countries like France and Germany.  

The first Bitstamp Crypto Pulse survey — a new, comprehensive global survey analysing trust in and adoption of crypto around the world — also finds that around 70% of institutional respondents in the UK – including banks, fintech companies and trading platforms – currently trust crypto products, with 67% actively recommending crypto investment to their clients. 

The data from more than 250 institutions in the UK comes from a Bitstamp survey of over 28,450 respondents — including 5,450 senior institutional investment strategy decision makers and 23,000 retail investors — from 23 countries across North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, The Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.  

The survey found that around the world, 80% of institutional respondents believe that crypto will overtake traditional investment types such as stocks, shares, and ISAs. The majority of institutions are already very likely to recommend crypto as an asset class, while 71% of institutional respondents have “high trust” in crypto as an investment.  

The polling of more than 1,000 UK consumers also found that more than 40% would purchase their groceries and everyday items, as well as shopping online, using cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, almost half of UK consumers believe cryptocurrencies will overtake traditional currency in the next decade.  

However, there is still a clear need for education about crypto investment in the UK, with almost half (45%) of non-investors in the UK saying their top reason for not investing is that they do not know enough about it, and only 18% of respondents saying they were very knowledgeable about cryptocurrency.  

Julian Sawyer, CEO of Bitstamp, said, “The adoption of crypto and other digital assets is advancing at an unprecedented rate. In the last few years, cryptocurrencies have moved from the outskirts of the financial ecosystem to find themselves front and centre of mainstream investing, with many of the largest trading venues in the world now catering to both retail and institutional crypto needs. We’ve seen interest propel in the years since the pandemic, and crypto is now part of the wider conversation in global macro-economic matters. Our survey shows something we have advocated over a long time: talking about survival of digital assets is firmly over — the question is now about evolution.”  

Read more:
UK financial institutions believe crypto will go mainstream within a decade