Cryptocurrency has been one of the hottest topics in 2017 and will continue taking center stage in 2018. As an enabler of providing physical store owners’ solution to accept crypto to fiat or crypto payment, Pundi X, together with NEM.io Foundation and Stellar.org, surveyed 3,000 people to find out the mainstream consumers’ uptake on cryptocurrency and their cryptocurrency purchase behaviors.

The survey titled “the State of Cryptocurrency report” covers the range of respondents from 18 to 59 years old. The findings indicate the interest of cryptocurrency among the mainstream is high. Although only 8 percent of them currently own Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, over one third (39%) of the respondents consider buying cryptocurrencies in the next six months.

Here are more highlights from the State of Cryptocurrency report:

Cryptocurrency is considered a valuable digital asset

59% of respondents think bitcoin or cryptocurrency is digital money; 11% believe it is coin or bank notes; 23% don’t know what cryptocurrency is. When asking about what they want to use cryptocurrency for, 35% said they use cryptocurrency for trading or investment; 35% said they want to spend cryptocurrency and make purchases. 27% of them use it as a store of value.

Cryptocurrency overtakes iPhone X, the VR headset, and the drone

When asking about what the respondents will do with USD 1,000, 33% of them chose to save the money. However, 12% of them will spend it on buying cryptocurrency; 11% investing stock or bond; 7% on iPhone X; 6% on charity. Only 1% of the respondents want to use USD 1,000 to buy a VR headset or a drone.

Cryptocurrency owners trade frequently

Nearly half (47%) of the cryptocurrency owners have bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies more than six months. 76% of them made at least two transactions in the last three months. 23% even trade cryptocurrencies more than ten times in three months. When transacting cryptocurrency, security, privacy, and zero transaction cost are top three most important factors.

Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum are top 3 known cryptocurrencies

Among the people who own cryptocurrencies, 75% of them know Bitcoin, 35% know Litecoin, 30% know Ethereum, 27% know Ripple, 21% know Dash. There are also 20% of them know other cryptocurrencies.

Online exchange platforms are places where people are considering buying their cryptos

One-fourth of people who are considering buying cryptocurrencies will purchase through local online exchange platform. 14% of them through foreign online exchange platform. People are also thinking to buy cryptocurrencies in physical offline channels, such as bank (10%), stores (9%), friends and family (8%).

‘Volatility’ and ‘don’t know how to spend’ are the major challenges of purchase

When it comes to the reasons that people who don’t want to purchase bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, 21% of them said ‘the value of the Bitcoin is not stable,’ 19% said they don’t know how to spend the cryptocurrencies, 18% indicated that they don’t know what the cryptocurrency is and 17% of the respondents said they don’t know how to buy it.

About the report & methodology

The data was collected from Dec 21, 2017, to Jan 2, 2018. A total of 3,000 people from India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, UK, and the USA took part of this survey through Opeepl mobile ‘live sampling’ technology.