(Newswire.net — January 2, 2024) — Cryptocurrencies have reached people’s daily lives in many parts of the world. According to the Global Crypto Adoption Index, crypto usage has slightly fallen in value in 2023, compared to the previous year, but it has grown in volume, which means that more people have started using cryptocurrencies in the year that has just ended.
What accounts for crypto adoption growth? Which factors drive the use of cryptocurrencies?
Well, there are general, context-related, and individual factors explaining the adoption of cryptos. Let’s see them in more detail.
General factors
The growth of crypto usage can be attributed to a lot of reasons. Such reasons are the ever-expanding list of crypto applications discovered by users, the greater availability of digital currencies, the increasing number of online platforms accepting crypto payments, or even the free crypto faucets, that reward users with cryptos, enabling them to get acquainted and become familiar with bitcoin and the likes.
Context-related factors
Besides these factors, other things seem to have played a very important role in the growth of crypto users. Emerging markets are leading the crypto adoption rate levels on a global basis and these markets are deciding the fate of cryptocurrencies shortly at least.
In emerging markets, crypto adoption is higher because of several reasons. For one thing, a large part of the population in these markets remains unbanked, which means that they don’t have access to financial service systems. As contradictory as this might sound, the same people have access to the internet and they generally experience a strong penetration of smartphone devices and digital technology. So, using cryptocurrencies is a viable way to deal with the lack of banking services.
Another context-related factor is the adoption of cryptos for gaming. In certain emerging markets like Vietnam, Pakistan, and Indonesia, gaming is thriving and it can range from eSports and video gaming to online gambling and sports betting. The use of cryptos in gaming appears to be among the most popular applications, explaining why crypto gambling is continuously gaining more and more fans in these markets.
Individual factors
There are individual-related factors that are associated with the adoption of crypto usage across the world. Such factors have largely to do with personality, general disposition, behavior, background knowledge, and demographics. But there is one thing that seems to matter the most and this is no other than the overall stance towards anything new.
People are generally classified into four types when it comes to technology adoption: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Interestingly, it seems that using cryptocurrencies is largely explained by these types of behaviors.
The innovators are those who have experimented with cryptos from the very beginning when assets like BTC, ETHE or DOGE came onto the scene. They were not bothered by the risks of the unknown – on the contrary, they wanted to be recognized as the first ones to use anything new.
The early adopters also used cryptos early, but not as early as innovators. They are usually young but they have much tech-savviness and digital literacy. The early adopters start using cryptos once they have already seen them used by their role models or opinion leaders.
The early majority are the people who are getting their hands on cryptos when they are getting more mainstream. They don’t wait until cryptos are everywhere, but certainly, they are not the first ones. However, they are usually the first ones to introduce them to their social circles.
The late majority are those who want to be sure that cryptos are secure and are used effectively and safely by the largest members of their society. They are likely to turn to cryptos once everyone else around them has done so as well.
And then we have the laggards, who are the very last frontier of crypto adoption. They will most probably never use cryptos, because of their absolute devotion and commitment to keeping tradition and stability in their lives.
Takeaway on crypto adoption
Crypto adoption is growing in volume but it has slightly dropped in terms of crypto value This means that more people have been using cryptos, only they have been using them less! There are so many factors that explain why and how people will use digital assets and it is really interesting to see that there is an interplay between several different types of factors like the ones we described above.