A survey by cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com found that 26% of Australians considered buying Christmas gifts that were somehow related to cryptocurrencies in 2021.
Aussies increasingly ready for crypto gifts
Australians are progressively becoming more accepting of cryptocurrencies, as evidenced by recent political and societal developments. But would they accept crypto on the biggest holiday of them all?
A crypto.com survey revealed that 26% of respondents indeed were ready to feature crypto-related gifts under the Christmas tree. The exchange surveyed more than 2,000 Australian consumers between 18 and 59 to inquire about Australians’ crypto Christmas preferences, featuring 53% women and 62.8% people younger than 40. When it came to mixing up their shopping list with crypto-centric gifts, more than a quarter confirmed they would do so, while only 43% declined. The other 31% had not thought about it yet.
Only 53% of these respondents would consider actual coins, indicating that the virtual nature of crypto may not make for the best gifts after all. Other popular options were crypto merch (42.9%), coin vouchers (41.8%), crypto books (35.5%), hardware wallets (34.9%), and NFTs (29.2%).
Other crypto preferences by Australians
The survey did not only cover Christmas, though. Interestingly, almost two out of three respondents (65.3%) found that crypto had a use case outside of investment, and only 11.7% responded that it did not. Making payments was the most popular crypto use (65.4%), far ahead of being a store of value (40.9%), earning staking rewards (33.5%), and collectibles (31%). Surprisingly, NFTs were most popular among 35-44-year olds, with this age group also being the most likely to possess digital collectibles. Almost half (46%) of respondents said they owned, minted, or were looking to buy NFTs. Just 12% said they were not interested, while the rest either did not know about NFTs (21%) or did not understand them (16%).
In terms of shopping preferences, Australians said they prefer to do their Christmas shopping online. Only about one-third said they would go to the malls or shop locally to support local business, with the rest purchasing gifts online out of convenience, saving money, or avoiding crowded places. 64% preferred using cash or cards to pay, while only 7.5% would use crypto or crypto credit cards to pay for Christmas gifts.
What Aussies are skeptical about
Finally, Australians are still wary of the limitations of crypto. 80.9% said security was important for them when choosing a trading platform, and 78.1% quoted low fees. 64.5% regard market volatility as a pain point, but scams came second, with 47.1% worrying about getting virtually shaken for money. 41.9% considered a lack of acceptance from the legacy financial sector to be a problem, and 35% said the same of negative media stories.
This summarises crypto’s shortcomings quite succinctly: a promising financial technology for payments and investing still plagued by high-ish fees, massive volatility, and security issues. Crypto companies should take note and start addressing these points if they want to see more crypto gifts under next year’s Christmas trees.
