Traditional investors looking for crypto payment firms, says report

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Daniel Webber
Daniel Webber
Founder & CEO
Daniel is Founder and CEO and has 20 years of experience in the international finance world focusing on cross-border payments, technology and the property sectors. Daniel is widely quoted as an expert… Read more
  • 59% of investors ready to invest in crypto payment firms
  • Trust is still higher in traditional brokers
  • 1,000 American stock market investors surveyed

 

Investors are increasing shifting their attention towards cryptocurrency as changing attitudes towards it take hold, a new report has shown.

The report, from student financing marketplace LendEDU, claims that domestic and international payments made through the twin track of mobile technology and blockchain-based cryptocurrencies may soon be backed by an influx of investment capital.

The firm asked respondents from institutional investment backgrounds whether or not they would reduce the amount of stock they bought up in order to replace it with investments in crypto firms.

In a marked change from the previous assumed negative sentiment towards cryptocurrency in the investment space, 59% of those who replied to this question said they were either likely or definitely on the verge of doing so. Only 15% said they weren’t.

To the question: “If it was offered, would you invest in virtual currency through the brokerage accounts you have (listed in a prior question)?”, almost a quarter (23%) said that they would “definitely” do so.

Just 6% said that they would not consider investing in remittance services which were crypto-based.

LendEDU’s respondent base was diverse, although all respondents were believed to be based in the US.

The legitimacy of the survey, however, was bolstered by the fact that respondents were in large part clients of big investment houses.

They were, for example, clients of firms like Charles Schwab and Fidelity and other high-profile providers.

Aside from the overall changing sentiments, two particularly striking aspects of the survey stood out.

The first was that there is a still a clear role for brokerage houses. Despite crypto’s potential to displace the traditional order in the online payments world, there is still demand for the services of the main institutions.

Almost half of the respondents to the LendEDU survey said that they would place more trust in their own brokers rather than in Coinbase, a major cryptocurrency exchange.

For brokerage houses which have the expertise and the dynamism to purchase tokens or coins on behalf of their clients, then, this presents an opportunity, although it may prove to be a challenge in the long term for those who can’t or won’t.

“It appears that there is a major trust issue, even if it is unwarranted, between traditional investors and virtual currency exchanges like Coinbase,” said Mike Brown, from LendEDU, in a blog post.

The second interesting insight on offer, from a payment method point of view, is the fact that a significant chunk of respondents said they’d be happy to use mobile apps.

A total of 38% of people said that would be willing to run a crypto experiment using an app such as Robin Hood, a fast-growing trading platform which is believed to be on the verge of an initial public offering (IPO).

The survey was carried out in conjunction with The Daily Hodl news site. It was carried out by polling firm Pollfish and surveyed 1,000 American stock market investors aged above 18 who were not currently crypto investors.

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