Survey: Nearly 1 in 3 women say they plan to buy crypto this year

Nearly one in three American women say that they are planning to purchase cryptocurrencies in 2022; the majority of that third — 60% — intend to do so in the next three months, according to a recent survey by Jersey City, NJ-based crypto financial services company BlockFi.

This latest survey, “Real Talk: Women x Crypto 2.0”, is the second of BlockFi’s Real Talk: Women x Crypto survey series — launched in September 2021 — which asks female Americans ages 18 to 65 about their current motivations, behaviors and dispositions around crypto investing, financial wellness and career aspirations. The latest survey reached out to 1,031 female Americans and was conducted by an unnamed third-party survey panel on January 28, 2022, according to BlockFi’s announcement.

The major finding in BlockFi’s latest survey is that the majority of women surveyed have a high degree of faith in the long-term investment potential of cryptocurrencies — buying and HODLing crypto. (Fun fact: HODL is a misspelling for “hold” made by a writer in a Bitcoin forum post in 2013 who described his post as a drunk, semi-coherent, typo-laden rant. That misspelling resulted in becoming a popular meme that has now morphed into an acronym among crypto investors for “holding-on for dear life.”)

The breakdown of the numbers from the January survey is revelatory:

• About one-quarter of women in the survey (24%) said they own crypto. The majority within that group — 70% — are HODLers, having bought but never sold their digital coins.
• Nearly 45% of women said they are experienced at buying crypto, which is almost twice as many women who reported doing the same in BlockFi’s first survey six months earlier (23%).
• Of the 24% of women who own crypto, 71% are buying Bitcoin, 42% are buying Dogecoin, and 18% are buying Ethereum.
• Among women in the survey who said they own crypto, 75% said they have only traded crypto, which means they haven’t taken advantage of earning interest and rewards or engaging in mining or staking.
• According to the survey, only one in 10 women surveyed said they use a crypto interest account, and one in 20 have purchased NFTs or participated in crypto mining.

According to the survey, the talk of crypto — and the potential financial rewards alluded to throughout traditional and social media — has increasingly piqued the curiosity among the women surveyed, resulting in practical intent and investment in this alternative currency. But skepticism remains very high among the survey participants, especially when it comes to crypto’s use for their financial wellness. In the survey, 92% of women said they’ve heard of cryptocurrency, but 80% find it “confusing”, and 72% believe it’s “too risky to invest in.” Only 20% surveyed said they believe crypto can help them reach their financial goals, both big and small. The most common goals include funding a vacation, retiring on time and purchasing a home.

14% view Bitcoin comparably to gold, 16% to silver, and 13% to individual stocks as a long-term investment. However, 41% of the women surveyed believe real estate is the best long-term investment. Non-fungible tokens, on the other hand, scored poorly: only 4% see NFTs as the best long-term investment, according to the survey.

But for some of the women surveyed, interest in cryptocurrency extends beyond investing in it to working in it, especially in light of a January LinkedIn report that said crypto-related job postings were up 395% in the past year. A small group — one in 10 women surveyed — regard crypto to be a promising career sector, double the number who regard fintech as most promising. A slightly higher number of respondents, 15%, said they’re “interested” in a career in crypto, with one in 10 saying they’re planning to apply to a job at a crypto- or blockchain-focused company in the next year, according to the survey.

“It’s very exciting to know that women are becoming more aware of the benefits of owning crypto and expressing interest in working in the crypto sector,” says Flori Marquez, founder and senior vice-president of operations at BlockFi. “Now it’s our responsibility to continue to close the education gap and provide as many on-ramps as possible, so women can easily gain exposure to crypto markets and get comfortable doing more with their crypto,” she said.