Are we still early in crypto?
How many people are actually holding crypto in the world? Since december 2020, when we broke the previous all time high of Bitcoin. A lot of new people came in to crypto. The hype then really started and the price went up really quickly. But how many people are actually in crypto in total?
Let’s dive in to it!
Verified coinbase users
First of all, we are going to take a look at the verified coinbase users. back in Q1 in 2018. Altcoins topped out and the amount of verified users won coinbase was 23 million users. Last year at Q4 in 2020 more then 43 million people had a verified coinbase account. This means that the amount of people in crypto doubled during a bearmarket.
Today in Q1 of 2021, there are more then 56 million verified users on coinbase. That’s 13 million users in only 3 months.
The innovation or adoption curve
You can apply this chart to all kinds of innovations or adoptions. And thiis is always going in the same way. It starts with the innovators (2,5%) and the early adopters (13,5%). In my opinion, we are crossing the border between innovators and early adopters.
So yes we are still early.
The internet vs cryptocurrencies
A great example of an innovation is the internet. I’ts remarkable to see the simularity in the growth of internet users and crypto users. After 10 years of internet there were 40 million users of the internet. After 10 years of crypto there are 40 million users (2019). If we fast forward 5 years on the internet chart. We see that the internetusers almost tenfolded. So if crypto follows the lead of the internet. We can see more then 412 million people getting into crypto in the following 5 years.
- In 2020 I published my book ‘De Bitcoinrevolutie’ with the biggest publisher in Belgium. The book is in Dutch, and tells the complete story of money: from trading seashells and rocks to peer-to-peer online trading of cryptocurrencies.