There is plenty of evidence that Texans’ attitude is changing toward cryptocurrencies in general and toward bitcoin particularly. A recent survey shows wide disparities in the reasons investors or would-be investors give for owning bitcoin. Overall, there are eight reasons Texans believe they should own bitcoin.
The No. 1 Reason to Own Bitcoin
When asked why they should own bitcoin, Texans responded in one of eight ways:
- As a long-term investment
- Because it’s the latest technology
- To avoid inflation or other currency risks
- For Short-term trading
- It’s a store of value
- To support blockchain innovation
- Lack of access to traditional banking options
- And “none” or “other”
Among these eight reasons, the category with the most responses was “None/Other.” That’s interesting because the second most popular answer was long-term investment.
Thirty-five percent of survey respondents said “None/Other.” That either means that those respondents don’t believe there are any good reasons to own bitcoin or that there are reasons not mentioned in the other seven options. In other words, some respondents may believe that a good reason to own bitcoin is because a friend or neighbor owns it.
That catch-all category doesn’t break down any further, so it’s virtually impossible to know how many people don’t think bitcoin ownership is important at all.
Thirty-three percent of survey respondents said long-term investing is a good reason to own bitcoin. Another 30 percent said they’d own bitcoin because it’s the latest new technology. Twenty-nine percent said bitcoin ownership is a good way to avoid inflation or other currency risks, such as devaluation. Twenty-two percent cited short-term trading, 19 percent referred to bitcoin as a good store of value, 15 percent said to support blockchain innovation, and 7 percent mentioned a lack of traditional banking options.
When it comes to political party affiliation, there is one slight variation among the results.
Democrats Are More Likely to Own Bitcoin as a Long-Term Investment
The biggest gap between the None/Other response and long-term investing was among Democrats. The gap was 10 percent, but the relationship between the two responses was inverse to that of Republicans and Independents. Thirty-nine percent of Republicans and 36 percent of Independents said “None/Other.” Thirty percent of Republicans cited long-term investing versus 34 percent of Independents.
By contrast, 38 percent of Democrats said long-term investing and only 28 percent cited None/Other in response to the survey question.
The same percentage of Republicans who said long-term investing was a good reason to own bitcoin also said they wanted to avoid inflation and other currency risks. The same percentage also said bitcoin being the latest new technology was also a good reason to own it.
Twenty-seven percent of Independents believe inflation and other currency risks is a good reason to own bitcoin while 25 percent said it was the latest new technology.
The top three responses for Democrats were long-term investing, latest new technology (34 percent), and avoid inflation and other currency risks (29 percent).
These results show that Democrats may be more likely to own bitcoin than either Republicans or Independents. It also shows that more Democrats than Republicans or Independents are likely to own bitcoin simply because it is new technology, whereas Republicans and Independents who own bitcoin or want to own bitcoin are more concerned with the financial benefits. All three groups, however, are more concerned with the financial benefits of bitcoin ownership than its innovative features.
At the end of the day, no reason stands out as the most important reason to own bitcoin among any members of any political party. Yet, bitcoin ownership interest is growing among Texans.