1 in 8 people will own bitcoin and crypto this year, study reveals

The global adoption of bitcoin (BTC) and the rest of the cryptocurrencies is on the rise. This was demonstrated during 2021. Now, for this 2022, the trend does not change. Rather, everything points to the year closing with at least 1 billion crypto asset holders, according to a company related to the ecosystem.

Cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com published a report this week, where it detailed the estimates for this recently started 2022. The company indicates that, as of December 29, 2021, there were, at least, 295 million cryptocurrency users worldwide. This is three times as many users compared to January, when adoption hovered around 106 million people.

Thus, they explain that, if a similar rate of increase is extrapolated for this 2022, we are easily on track to reach 1 billion cryptocurrency holders by the end of the year.

Taking into account that, according to World Meters, there are 7.9 billion people in the world, it can be calculated that, by the end of the year, 1 out of 8 inhabitants of the earth will have a cryptocurrency. This, if Crypto.com’s predictions are correct.

More Bitcoin users than Ethereum

Crypto.com report shows that the number of bitcoin holders grew by 37.5% in 2021, for a total of 176 million using the first cryptocurrency for various things, either as a medium of exchange or a long-term investment asset.

This responded —Crypto.com infers— to the strong adoption of BTC registered between the months of July and August, powered by the bitcoiner event The B World.

They also had to see PayPal’s announcements of starting to provide BTC services. Then came some restrictions in September and the approval of the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States. All these milestones, which helped the adoption of BTC, were duly reported by CriptoNoticias.

In the case of ether (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, adoption reached 23 million users, a stable measure. The increase in ETH holders was 64% in the first half of the year, and only 1.4% in the second half.

For Crypto.com, this adoption behavior could have been related to the multiple blockchains compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), one of the fundamental pieces for the operation of the Ethereum blockchain. Layer two network solutions and the connection of other new blockchain assets also played a role..

Countries can no longer continue to ignore growth

Due to the exponential growth that has been registered, Crypto.com indicates that countries can no longer continue to ignore the new economy and the impact of the Bitcoin ecosystem on the inhabitants.

In the document, the exchange house, which a few days ago suffered a massive hack of almost 5 thousand ethers, highlights that they expect “a friendlier stance towards the cryptocurrency industry”, this year

Crypto.com anticipates that in 2022, developed countries will be able to create legal and fiscal frameworks for cryptocurrencies. They also estimate that more nations facing economic crises will adopt to bitcoin as legal tender, «following the example of El Salvador».

Bitcoin lost market dominance

Although the Crypto.com report highlights that bitcoin had a higher adoption, it is also true that the first cryptocurrency lost market dominance in 2021. This is suggested by an analysis firm called CryptoCompare.

As reported by CriptoNoticias, the proliferation of decentralized applications (dApps) and other DeFi protocols (supported by Ethereum), caused the attention of investors to move away from bitcoin a bit and settle on alternative cryptocurrencies.

However, bitcoin remained the market leading cryptocurrency, surpassing by up to 10 percentage points other initiatives and its main rival: Ethereum.