COVID-19 has a major effect on Bitcoin’s appeal to the public

According to a new survey, the Coronavirus pandemic appears to have had more of an impact on the American bitcoin (BTC)-buying population than the first impression.

Per Grayscale commissioned an online survey of 1,000 USA-based general investors aged between 25 and 64 and administered within June 26 and July 12 this year, 63% of respondents who “had invested in bitcoin within the previous four months (comprising 38% of all Bitcoin investors)” responded that “COVID-19 had impacted their decision” to buy BTC.

When asked if COVID-19 had affected bitcoin’s appeal, almost four in 10 stated that the health crisis had made the token “more appealing,” with just 13% opining that the outbreak had diminished BTC’s allure.

The Grayscale article authors continued that the findings correlated with similar results from JPMorgan as reported by Bloomberg) back in August this year, “some retail investors, particularly younger investors, had deployed excess liquidity to bitcoin in response to the pandemic.”

The Grayscale report researchers also discovered that almost 40% of respondents who displayed an interest in bitcoin considered the token to be a “safe haven investment.” They added that “the single largest age group of people who saw BTC as a safe haven were between the ages of 35-44.”

The authors wrote,

“With faith in traditional safe havens being tested, investors are actively seeking suitable alternatives.”

Here are a few other essential findings from the survey:

• 55% of respondents said they had an interest in bitcoin investment, up from 36% in 2019
• Among those who reported investing in bitcoin, 83% made investments within the last year, with most of these investments coming in the past four months.
• 62% of respondents said they were “familiar with” bitcoin, up from 53% in 2019
• Over half (55%) of all investors said they would consider buying BTC “if their financial advisor were able to provide them directly with an investment option.”
• 70% of all respondents said that they thought BTC could be vulnerable to cybersecurity-related threats