+101 Million cryptocurrency users were registered by a new study

How many people do you think are behind the +348 Billion cryptocurrencyA digital currency running on a blockchain and built with cryptography. Contrary to central-bank issued currency, cryptocurrency issuance rules are... More market capitalization? Since this is mostly a decentralized world and numerous cryptos have private transactions, we can’t really know for sure, but we can calculate based on some empirical data. And that’s exactly what the University of Cambridge did.

According to the third “Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study” by this university and its Centre for Alternative Finance, there are at least “101 million unique cryptoasset users across 191 million accounts opened at service providers in Q3 2020” worldwide. Compared to the user base presented by the same study in 2018, this is a significant 189% increase.

If we compare this figure with the total population on Earth (7.800 Million), we can’t reach 1% yet. However, only 59% of the population has access to the Internet, and worldwide crypto-users are now more numerous than several countries: they’re equivalent to around 13% of the total population in Europe. By the way, Latin America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific are the world regions with more cryptocurrency users.

On the other hand, it should be noted that the study was made based on the data provided by 280 companies in 59 countries and across four main market segments – exchanges, payments, custody, and mining. Besides, as it mentions:

“Consumers vary widely in how they engage with cryptoassets. User activity as reported by service providers is one useful metric to monitor users’ interaction with the cryptoasset ecosystem. Service providers operating from North America and Europe generally report higher user activity, with the median firm indicating that 40% of total users are considered active”.

Another interesting finding of the crypto-users worldwide is that enterprises fit inside the category. Service providers from Europe and North America indicated that business and institutional clients make up at least 30% of their customer base. On the same line, the non-regulated cryptocurrency companies decreased from 48% in 2018 to only 13% this 2020.

More highlights

Apparently, the stablecoins are the new normal worldwide, because the service providers supporting Tether and other tokens increased to 55% this year. This is not surprising, given the recent fever caused by DeFi applications.

About the cryptocurrency mining, the study found out 39% of proof-of-work (PoW) mining is powered by renewable energy, primarily hydroelectric energy. There’s a way to go yet in the sector, but still, the finding is great news for cryptocurrencies and the planet.

The most popular PoW currency is, of course, Bitcoin. However, its availability in service providers declined slightly from 98% in 2017 to 90% in 2020. Ethereum is the second most common. In any case, the crypto-users base will continue growing these years: according to Deutsche Bank, there will be at least 200 Million by 2030. This digital economy is the future.

Featured image by stux 7210 imágenes / Pixabay

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