Poll: 45% of young Britons made cryptocurrencies their first investment

Almost half of UK residents aged 18 to 29 made their first investments in digital assets, but more than 50% used borrowed money for this, according to the survey results.

A study for the direct-investment platform Interactive Investor was carried out by Opinium in June 2021. The survey included 1,000 respondents aged 18 to 29. Digital currencies were categorised into three groups: Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and “other cryptoassets”.

Forty-five per cent of young people chose cryptocurrencies for their initial investments. This is almost twice the proportion who invested through funds (23%), and well above the figure for investment trusts (13%). Stocks of public companies were the choice for 18%.

Bitcoin emerged as the clear leader in popularity among digital assets — a fifth of respondents had invested in it at some point.

Half of them used debt financing for this: 23% used a credit card, 17% used a student loan, and 16% cited another form of credit.

“Young people using credit cards, student loans and other forms of debt to invest — that is a worrying trend,” said Myron Jobson of Interactive Investor.

He noted that investing in such high-risk assets as cryptocurrencies exposes young people to the risk of debt default. This could damage credit scores and make it difficult to obtain a mortgage or other forms of credit in the future, Jobson warned.

Over a ten-year planning horizon, 20% of respondents said they would prefer to hold savings in fiat money. Cryptocurrencies ranked second in this list, chosen by 16% of respondents. Public-company shares completed the top trio, with 14%.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) counted 2.3 million investors in cryptocurrencies. Over the year, their number increased by 400,000.

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