Despite the significant increase in awareness and investment in cryptocurrencies over the past few years, there remains a discrepancy among European Union countries between investments in cryptocurrencies compared to traditional investments such as funds, stocks, and bonds. This is shown by the infographic created by Gilbert Fontana, a data analyst at Visual Capitalist, which illustrates what percentage of the population in EU countries invests in cryptocurrencies and how much in traditional assets.
This example shows how different countries, as well as regions, are adopting cryptocurrencies. Within the EU, which is experiencing rapid adoption of cryptocurrencies, public attitudes vary.
—
—
According to Eurobarometer data, on which Fontana based his infographic, the highest investors in cryptocurrencies are Slovenians, supporting the fact that Slovenia is considered one of the most open countries in the world for cryptocurrencies. As much as 18 percent of the population in Slovenia has some form of investment in crypto.
However, immediately after Slovenia, Croatia ranks second with as much as 16 percent of the population having invested in cryptocurrencies. Only one percent more of the Croatian population invests in funds, stocks, and bonds.
—
—
In Bulgaria, for example, an equal percentage of the population – 13 percent – invests in both crypto and stocks, while Cyprus is the only country where the percentage of the population investing in crypto exceeds the number of traditional investors. Thus, in Cyprus, 13 percent of the population invests in cryptocurrencies, while 10 percent invest in traditional funds, stocks, and bonds.
In Luxembourg, which has a strong reputation as a global financial center, 14 percent of its 640,000 residents own crypto assets.
On the other hand, wealthier and more developed EU countries record somewhat lower levels of investment in crypto. For example, the largest EU economies are at the very bottom when it comes to investing in cryptocurrencies – Germany 6 percent, Italy 6 percent, and France 5 percent.
—
—
Sweden, for example, stands out as a country where as much as 60 percent of the population invests in traditional assets, while only 10 percent invest in cryptocurrencies.
From the data presented, it could be concluded that citizens of stronger economies invest less in cryptocurrencies, given their economic stability, while countries with higher investments in cryptocurrencies are, on average, less wealthy.
As Milan Horvat, CEO of FIMA plus, wrote on his LinkedIn profile, this makes sense, as ‘on average, citizens of less developed countries are more intensely seeking new opportunities for themselves and are more inclined to the risk of accepting a developing digital economy than citizens of more developed countries.’
– They stick to their traditional values that have proven profitable and useful. Although according to this statistic, almost the same number of citizens of the Republic of Croatia invest in securities (17 percent) as those who invest in crypto (16 percent), in my experience, these are different age groups and a much larger amount of capital is invested in traditional securities than in crypto. The structure is also different as younger people primarily invest almost all their savings in crypto, while older individuals invest only a portion in crypto, at a level of 5 to 10 percent of their investment savings – wrote Horvat.
