• Out of the 8 billion living on the planet, only 43 million people own Bitcoin.
• This amount is less than 1% of the population, despite the success of cryptocurrency.
• A possible cause of this is confusion between creating a cryptocurrency wallet and owning certain amounts of cryptocurrency.
The world of cryptocurrency has seen tremendous growth and success in recent years, yet only 43 million people on the planet own Bitcoin. Out of the 8 billion people living on the planet, this means that only 0.5% of the population holds ownership of Bitcoin, despite its success. So what is causing this low rate of ownership?
One possible reason is confusion over the concepts of ‘ownership’ and ‘creation’ when it comes to cryptocurrency. Before anyone can have access to any form of cryptocurrency online, a user must first create their own online wallet for the specific cryptocurrency they want to invest with. This is the same for Bitcoin, as specific blockchain wallets are created for BTC. Data from Blockchain.com shows that as of January 2022, a total of 85 million BTC wallets that were unique from each other were created and recorded.
However, unique ownership of the cryptocurrency itself (meaning that they have at least 1 or more BTC in their wallet) is only 43 million worldwide. This means that while there are many people who have created wallets in order to access Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, there are only a select few who are actually investing in them. This could be due to confusion between creating wallets and owning actual Bitcoin, or it could be due to other factors.
For example, some people may be put off by the perceived risk of cryptocurrency and the volatility of the market. Others may be skeptical of the technology and unsure about how it works. And there are those who may not be able to afford to invest in Bitcoin, either due to financial constraints or lack of knowledge.
Whatever the reason, it is clear that only a very small percentage of the global population currently owns Bitcoin. Despite its growing popularity and success, the majority of people are still not taking part in the cryptocurrency revolution. It remains to be seen whether this will change in the future, as it is likely that more people will become aware of the potential benefits of cryptocurrency and start to invest in it as a result.