Low-income crypto investors sold off holdings during crash

Low-income crypto investors sold off their holdings as the crypto crash swept across the industry, while wealthier investors held on to their portfolios.

46 per cent of crypto investors sold their holdings, with lower income individuals the most likely to do so, a survey by US-based intelligence company Civic Science found in a survey of thousands of crypto investors.

26 per cent of investors said they sold all or a lot of their positions, while 20 per cent sold some of it. 

65 per cent of lower income individuals, those with incomes $50,000 (£40,766) per year or less, sold their crypto holdings while wealthier individuals with annual incomes of over $150,000 (£122,298) held on to their portfolios. 30 per cent of these wealthier investors sold their portfolios.

“Unsurprisingly, those with higher income are more willing to weather the storm with their assets,” Civic Science said.

The “crypto winter” has gripped the industry recently and caused drastic drops in cryptocurrency prices, causing widespread losses across the market.

58 per cent of those polled said market volatility was a major obstacle stopping them from investing in the market, up 4 per cent from January this year. 

The Russia-Ukraine war and surging inflation worldwide has dented investor confidence in the market as central banks around the world hike interest rates to curb the rise in prices.

Nearly 25 per cent of those surveyed had been affected, or know someone who has been, in some way by the crypto downturn.

“More or less everyone with crypto investments has been negatively affected by the recent downturn,” the company said. “And this, of course, is reflected in the volatility barrier for new entrants to the asset.”

Many of those not currently invested in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin said they did not think it was legitimate, or that they did not understand it, or that they thought it was too volatile. 

The prices of major cryptocurrencies have swung wildly recently, with Bitcoin down about 50 per cent for the year to trade at $23,400 (£19,094) today.