By Tobi Loba
As a notable indication that cryptocurrency is going worldwide, the research conducted by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance shows that 100 million people across the world now hold Bitcoin (BTC) and other crypto-related assets.
In 2018, the 2nd Global Cryptoasset Benchmarking Study summed up the number of crypto users that are verified by identity at about 35 million worldwide.
This estimate has drastically changed in the third quarter of 2020. At the moment, about 191 million accounts have been opened on various cryptocurrency exchanges. Mind you, self-hosted wallets are not included in this figure.
The Cambridge researches highlighted the notable increase in the space of 2 years:
“This 189% increase in users may be explained by both a rise in the number of accounts (which increased by 37%), as well as a greater share of accounts being systematically linked to an individual’s identity, allowing us to increase our estimate of minimum user numbers associated with accounts on each service provider.”
Also, the study explains the geolocation of customers, as cryptocurrency exchanges operating from North America, such as the United States and Canada, and Europe report a significant increase in consumer activity around the same period, with the median firm indicating that 40 percent of total users are considered active.
Going by the report of the researchers, the firms based in Latin America and Asia Pacific (APAC) saw a much lower user activity from this figure. The report says both have 10 percent and 16 percent respectively.
The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance combined public data and surveys, using a combination of verified user data and the average share of ID-verified accounts surveyed for the study.
Although the researchers claim that the methodology used in the study encountered a number of limitations, they still believe that the estimated numbers as indicated in the study, offer a reliable and relative figure of the total number of digital asset holders across the world.
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