80% of Australians Know About Crypto but Only 1% Use It: Central Bank Study

Fewer than 1 p.c of Australians paid for shopper items with cryptocurrency in 2019, in accordance with a examine printed Thursday by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Australia’s central financial institution.

Revealed in RBA’s triennial Consumer Payments Survey (CPS), the findings from about 1,100 respondents reveals that whereas shoppers are largely embracing digital and various cost strategies over money, they’re simply not paying in crypto. RBA carried out the survey in October and November 2019.

The low utilization is available in spite of respondents’ overwhelming focus that cryptocurrency can be utilized to pay for items. Over 80 p.c stated they’d heard of crypto, making it the third-most acknowledged “various cost methodology” the financial institution surveyed for, behind solely “purchase now pay later” companies and “faucet and go” cell funds.

Crypto was by far the least-used various methodology, falling behind these in addition to AliPay and WeChat Pay, bank-owned “PayID” and “Beem It” companies, and in-app cell cost choices. Crypto had the worst usage-to-awareness ratio by far, the survey confirmed. 

“Although many respondents had heard of ‘cryptocurrencies’, only a few had used a cryptocurrency akin to Bitcoin to really make a shopper cost over the previous 12 months,” RBA stated.

This seems to be the primary time that RBA’s CPS survey requested respondents about cryptocurrency. The survey had been carried out on 5 earlier events.

RBA discovered that money use in Australia is down in 2019, particularly amongst youthful demographics akin to these below 40, who paid by money in simply 15 p.c of recorded transactions. Even older teams are shifting away from money, the survey discovered. But it stays the most well-liked cost methodology for these 65 and up. 

The survey additionally discovered that cell cost strategies are on the rise. That development is being pushed by youthful demographics as properly.