Of 3.3 million Australians who own any form of cryptocurrency, women accounted for 11% in June, a significant jump from 7% in January, according to research by comparison site Finder.
Despite the proportion of men investing in cryptocurrencies falling from 29% in January to 23% six months later, the overall number of Australians with cryptocurrency jumped to 17% in June from 12% at the start of the year.
In terms of demographics, close to a third of Gen-Z owned crypto (31%), a figure that had more than doubled since January (15%) and, by comparison, the number of millennials who owned cryptocurrency dropped from 33% to 24% over the same period.
“Even though Bitcoin’s value dipped in recent months, Finder’s research shows that crypto adoption in Australia is continuing to grow,” Kate Browne, personal finance expert Finder, said.
“It’s great that we’re seeing more women and young people choosing to invest in cryptocurrency.
“Historically, the world of cryptocurrency has been dominated by men. With strong long-term growth predictions, a gender gap in cryptocurrency investing could have implications for wealth distribution,” Browne noted.
Finder’s data also showed that Bitcoin remained the most popular cryptocurrency ‘but only just’, with around 9% of Australians currently owning Bitcoin, followed by Ethereum (8%), Dogecoin (5%) and Bitcoin Cash (4%).
Also, the most common reason Australians were hesitant to purchase cryptocurrency was the perception that it was too volatile or risky (43%) while one in three (32%) would not buy cryptocurrency because they would rather have money in shares or savings, and a further 25% thought it was overvalued.
