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Bitcoin Awareness and Usage in Canada: An Update

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher Henry
  • Kim Huynh
  • Gradon Nicholls

Abstract

This note provides an update of the results of the 2017 Bitcoin Omnibus Survey (BTCOS) conducted by the Bank of Canada from December 12 to 15, 2017. The BTCOS was previously conducted in November and December 2016 and the results were reported in Henry et al. (2017, forthcoming). The 2017 survey took place in an interesting time, as Bitcoin prices were increasing and reached an all-time high on December 17, 2017. During this period, the level of awareness of Bitcoin increased from 64 per cent in the 2016 BTCOS to 85 per cent in the 2017 BTCOS, while ownership rose from 2.9 to 5.0 per cent, respectively. The main reason cited by survey participants for owning Bitcoin changed from transactional purposes in 2016 to investment purposes in 2017. Further, only about half of Bitcoin owners were found to regularly use Bitcoin to buy goods or services or to send money to other people.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher Henry & Kim Huynh & Gradon Nicholls, 2018. "Bitcoin Awareness and Usage in Canada: An Update," Staff Analytical Notes 2018-23, Bank of Canada.
  • Handle: RePEc:bca:bocsan:18-23
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Wilko Bolt & Maarten R.C. Van Oordt, 2020. "On the Value of Virtual Currencies," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(4), pages 835-862, June.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Auer, Raphael & Tercero-Lucas, David, 2022. "Distrust or speculation? The socioeconomic drivers of U.S. cryptocurrency investments," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    2. Lin William Cong & Xi Li & Ke Tang & Yang Yang, 2023. "Crypto Wash Trading," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(11), pages 6427-6454, November.
    3. Daniela Balutel & Christopher Henry & Jorge Vásquez & Marcel Voia, 2022. "Bitcoin adoption and beliefs in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(4), pages 1729-1761, November.
    4. Daniela Balutel & Marie-Hélène Felt & Gradon Nicholls & Marcel-Cristian Voia, 2024. "Bitcoin awareness, ownership and use: 2016–20," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(1), pages 33-58, January.
    5. Fujiki, Hiroshi, 2020. "Who adopts crypto assets in Japan? Evidence from the 2019 financial literacy survey," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    6. James Chapman & Carolyn A. Wilkins, 2019. "Crypto ‘Money’: Perspective of a Couple of Canadian Central Bankers," Discussion Papers 2019-1, Bank of Canada.
    7. Bannier, Christina & Meyll, Tobias & Röder, Florian & Walter, Andreas, 2019. "The gender gap in ‘Bitcoin literacy’," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 129-134.
    8. Helmut Stix, 2021. "Ownership and purchase intention of crypto-assets: survey results," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 65-99, February.
    9. Nazifi, Amin & Murdy, Samantha & Marder, Ben & Gäthke, Jana & Shabani, Bardia, 2021. "A Bit(coin) of happiness after a failure: An empirical examination of the effectiveness of cryptocurrencies as an innovative recovery tool," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 494-505.
    10. Daniela Balutel & Christopher Henry & Doina Rusu, 2023. "Cryptoasset Ownership and Use in Canada: An Update for 2022," Discussion Papers 2023-14, Bank of Canada.
    11. Ed Saiedi & Anders Broström & Felipe Ruiz, 2021. "Global drivers of cryptocurrency infrastructure adoption," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 353-406, June.
    12. Bonaparte, Yosef, 2022. "Time horizon and cryptocurrency ownership: Is crypto not speculative?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    13. Jünger, Moritz & Mietzner, Mark, 2020. "Banking goes digital: The adoption of FinTech services by German households," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 34(C).
    14. Feyen,Erik H.B. & Kawashima,Yusaku & Mittal,Raunak, 2022. "Crypto-Assets Activity around the World : Evolution and Macro-Financial Drivers," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9962, The World Bank.
    15. Daniela Balutel & Walter Engert & Christopher Henry & Kim Huynh & Marcel Voia, 2022. "Private Digital Cryptoassets as Investment? Bitcoin Ownership and Use in Canada, 2016-2021," Staff Working Papers 22-44, Bank of Canada.
    16. Chunling Li & Nosherwan Khaliq & Leslie Chinove & Usama Khaliq & József Popp & Judit Oláh, 2023. "Cryptocurrency Acceptance Model to Analyze Consumers’ Usage Intention: Evidence From Pakistan," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440231, March.
    17. Nils Brouwer & Jakob de Haan, 2024. "What Drives Households’ Knowledge about Cryptocurrencies?," Working Papers 799, DNB.
    18. Christopher Henry & Kim Huynh & Gradon Nicholls & Mitchell Nicholson, 2019. "2018 Bitcoin Omnibus Survey: Awareness and Usage," Discussion Papers 2019-10, Bank of Canada.
    19. Yongzhi Gong & Xiaofei Tang & En-Chung Chang, 2023. "Group norms and policy norms trigger different autonomous motivations for Chinese investors in cryptocurrency investment," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bank notes; Digital Currencies; Econometric and statistical methods;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E4 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates
    • C12 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Hypothesis Testing: General

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