About 6% of US residents own cryptocurrency, and in 2021 interest in digital assets rose most sharply in Hawaii. MiQ Digital arrived at these conclusions after analyzing Google Trends data.
By examining user search queries, researchers compared the average interest of US residents in cryptocurrencies from 2020 to 2021. They identified five states where attention to digital assets rose the most in 2021:
- Hawaii — up 687% versus 2020;
- California — up 655%;
- Colorado — up 637%;
- Florida — up 628%;
- Nevada — up 621%.
“Perhaps cryptocurrency has not yet become part of the mainstream economy, but demand for it in some states is so high that US financial regulators are considering possible ways to regulate the market,” the authors of the study added.
According to Fundera, about 2,300 businesses in the United States accept Bitcoin. The most such companies are based in California (440), the fewest in South Dakota (one).
MiQ Digital noted that the most lucrative crypto asset was Dogecoin — since December 2020 its price rose by 6,900%. However, over the same period interest in it in the United States increased by only 1,781%.
Attention to Ethereum rose most among American residents (+777%). Following it are Litecoin (+433%) and Bitcoin (+239%).
According to a survey by the BitPay payment system and the news aggregator PYMNTS, two-thirds of current and former holders of digital currencies acquired them for conducting transactions, and 92.6% of coin holders will consider buying goods with them in the future.