37% of survey participants want cryptocurrencies legalised

Approximately 37% of the respondents said they will support their respective government if it decides to declare bitcoin or another digital asset as an official payment method

A recent study conducted by The Economist estimated that 37% of the participants want their governments to declare bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies as legal tender for internal transactions. Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are also favoured as 37% will agree if their countries’ authorities issue such a financial product.

The popular British newspaper – The Economist – surveyed 3,000 people across the following developed economies (the USA, the UK, France, South Korea, Australia, and Singapore) and the developing ones (Brazil, Turkey, Vietnam, South Africa, and the Philippines) to determine what is their current stance on the crypto industry.

Approximately 37% of the respondents said they will support their respective government if it decides to declare bitcoin or another digital asset as an official payment method. 43% were neutral on the matter, while only 18% said they will disagree with such a move.

The results were similar when speaking of launching a CBDC. 37% believe the authorities should release that product, while around 19% think this would be a mistake.

The survey touched upon non-fungible tokens, too. Over 60% of the participants consider buying, holding, or selling NFTs, while only 7% are against this idea.

The respondents were also predominantly bullish on decentralised finance (DeFi) since 34% revealed intentions to use such applications for personal or professional financial transactions. In contrast, 17% stated they had no plans to interact with it.

It is safe to say that the COVID-19 pandemic changed the trends in the payment network and many individuals shifted from cash to digital settlements. 18% of the study participants expect their nation to become cashless in the next year or two, while 13% admitted using cryptocurrencies as a form of settlement.

John Mitchell – CEO and Co-Founder of Episode Six – predicted that the future payment network will be encompassed by new instruments, hinting that digital assets might play this role.

Shortly after El Salvador splashed the waters in the cryptocurrency space by declaring bitcoin as legal tender, many other countries were rumoured to consider the same move. A research conducted by YouGov revealed that almost 30% of the US residents will be happy to see BTC having the same status in their nation.