By Mark Hopper, VP of Product Management
Not all consumers today are on board with cryptocurrency, but a surprising number are considering an investment. Here are three stats that should make you take notice:
- Consumers want to invest: Of those who don’t yet own crypto, a Gemini study found that 63% of American adults are crypto-curious, and 13% said they plan to buy it in the next 12 months.
- They are sticking with crypto: Whether investing for long-term portfolio growth, short-term financial gain, or as a diversification strategy, 99.2% of current investors are planning to continue their current investment strategy.
- If solutions are not available, they will move: Of consumers who have invested in Bitcoin, according to a NYDIG study, more than 80% would choose to store crypto with their financial institution if this service was offered, and more than 71% would switch their financial institution for one that offered cryptocurrency services.
The takeaway for banks and credit unions? As more consumers invest in this virtual currency — and trends are showing this is the case — if your financial institution doesn’t support crypto or doesn’t have a strategy to get there, account holders will go outside of your institution to fulfill this need.
Once you are on board with how important this is to your customers and members, your next step is to learn how to support it. Your institution may have legitimate concerns about supporting crypto. For example, you may be worried about the value of the currency and its price fluctuations. You may be deterred by the security needs around digital currency or unsure how to fulfill custodial responsibilities. You may just not know enough about blockchain technology to be comfortable.
A great way to get past these concerns is to work with your digital banking partner, who has already done the research to identify the best crypto solutions and can help educate your institution and its account holders about the technology. In this manner, you can quickly ramp up to take advantage of a fully vetted cryptocurrency solution already integrated with your digital banking platform. The cryptocurrency vendor shoulders the weight of providing security protection around the currency, as well as custodial responsibilities, assisting your institution with these responsibilities.
If you’ve taken a wait-and-see approach to cryptocurrency, the time is now to take action so that when your users decide they are ready to invest in virtual currencies, they don’t need to seek an external solution…or another financial institution.
To learn more about our cryptocurrency offerings, contact Apiture.
