The cryptocurrency world has been on an upward trajectory for the past few years. Starting as an alternative to fiat currencies barely a decade ago, digital currencies are fast becoming integral in various economies. The latest in leading countries to embrace cryptos is Singapore.
A recent study by WorldPay from FIS Generation Pay Research, a payment platform, confirmed around 37% of the Singaporean population is willing to use or is already paying using cryptocurrencies. The research was about establishing spending habits and the purchasing experiences among various generations.
The research established that millennials (born between the 1980s to 1990s) were the most open to using digital currencies for payments with more than 57% already using or open to using crypto for payments. On the other hand, boomers had the lowest crypto exposure with only 16% already using or open to crypto payments.
Generally, the central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) had more backing from the users. 23% of respondents preferred the CBDCs over the private digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Still, 24% of Gen Zs and 29% of Gen Ys were open to using any cryptocurrencies without any particular preference.
Those who favoured private digital currencies were looking for the autonomy that comes with them. The decentralised nature means one has full control over their money use and other details. However, for those who would have rather have CBDCs they were looking for security from government backing.
At the same time, there is a population that still finds it hard to get to crypto payments. 31% of this population cite the possibility of crypto wallets being vulnerable as their reason while 30% believe digital currencies are a conduit for illegal transactions.
Creating a crypto ecosystem
The crypto uptake has been increasing over the past year. This can generally be down to high performance of crypto platforms while the traditional stock market and fiat currencies have been on a slump.
For the longest time, institutional investors had avoided putting money in digital currency assets like Bitcoin. However, with the increasing regulations and high values, various institutional investors are looking towards crypto assets.
Phil Pomford, the general manager for APAC, a global eCommerce, in an email to Forkast.news spoke of the increasing crypto institutional investments. He said, “We are currently in the second wave of wide crypto buying, with quite a bit of institutional money entering the market, but still a few years out from mainstream cryptocurrency usage.”
At the same time, retail crypto use has been expanding. Various payment services providers are looking to make it easy to access crypto payments. For example, Australia experienced more than 180% growth in retailers accepting digital currencies for payments. MasterCard recently partnered with Bakkt to help businesses accept crypto payments. They would also be running various crypto loyalty programs for those who use digital currencies in making payments.
Other than MasterCard other platforms like PayPal have also embraced digital currencies. Countries like El Salvador have also declared Bitcoin as a legal tender and other countries like Qatar and Pakistan are also looking into their viability for foreign remittance.
As crypto regulations become clearer, crypto uptake will increase. Singapore is already an example of how digital currencies are becoming mainstream.
