Cryptocurrencies are not widely popular among Russians

The National Agency for Financial Studies (NAFI) interviewed Russians on cryptocurrency. The results show that the people of Russian Federation have unclear concept of cryptocurrency and what to do with them.

The term cryptocurrency was heard for the first time during the interview by 72% of respondents. 28% of respondents somewhat know that cryptocurrencies exist, 16% - “heard something” about them, 12% responded that they know the topic well enough. That said, the number of those who have actually used cryptocurrencies at some point in the past does not exceed 1%.

One should expect that the public awareness on the matter will increase – 34% of those who at least knows about cryptocurrencies are interested in information and news on the matter. Mostly it’s people less than 35 years old (38%), the majority of them are men (40%), those who have higher education (43%).

Among 28% of Russians who think they know the cryptocurrency topic well, 38% consider investment in digital currencies beneficial. This opinion is characteristic of young people – 52% of respondents who are between 18 and 24 years old, elder people – 40% of those who are more than 55 years old – think that buying cryptocurrencies is not an action that will turn out beneficial. Generally, deals involving cryptocurrency are claimed to be unprofitable by 28% of respondents. Those who had doubts and difficulties in assessing such deals are 33% of the survey participants. Participants who are sure in sustainability of cryptocurrency investments form 29%, and those who think cryptocurrency investments are unsustainable make 39%.

Almost half of those participants who know anything about cryptocurrencies – 47% – think this phenomenon is not going to last long. This group is mainly composed of women – 59% vs. 38% of men, and of people in their pension age – 60%. People who tend to think cryptocurrencies are the money of tomorrow are 31%, 39% of them are men.

Those who are against the prohibition of Bitcoin form 48% of all respondents, interestingly, two years ago this number was much smaller – 23%. Those who think that Bitcoin should be prohibited form 20% of the survey participants, more women (20%) and pensioners (30%) than men. People between 18 and 24 years old are the majority of those who are against prohibition (58%). Men also prevail here (54%). Those who are not sure about whether the government should prohibit Bitcoin or not are one third of interviewees.