SINGAPORE – Singaporeans have the sixth highest rate of cryptocurrency ownership among people in 22 countries surveyed.
Nearly 16 per cent of Singaporean adults currently own cryptocurrency, according to the poll by fintech comparison website Finder.com.
The survey of 40,645 people across 22 countries included 985 adults in the Republic.
Finder cryptocurrency editor Keegan Francis said: “Singapore (15.6 per cent) has a similar adoption rate to Hong Kong (16 per cent) and Indonesia (17 per cent), and is just two percentage points behind Malaysia and Australia (18 per cent each).”
Singapore is also well ahead of the 11.4 per cent global average for cryptocurrency ownership in the survey.
Nigeria tops all other countries in the study with a quarter of adults saying they own at least one type of cryptocurrency. Japan is at the bottom with under 5 per cent.
Singapore’s cryptocurrency holding rate, however, is down from 19 per cent in a similar survey conducted by Finder earlier in the year.
The poll found that Singaporean men are 1.1 times more likely to own cryptocurrency than women.
Bitcoin is the most popular coin with 66.7 per cent of the cryptocurrency owners – the third highest percentage of all 22 countries.
In second spot is Ethereum (52.4 per cent) while Cardano is third (23 per cent).
Of all the Singaporeans surveyed, 8.2 per cent say they own Ethereum, the highest percentage of any country.
“Most countries have Ethereum adoption rates below 3 per cent, showing Singaporeans are particularly bullish on the digital currency,” said Mr Francis.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore recently issued digital payment token service licences to three entities – Singapore-based fintech firm Fomo Pay, Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve and local bank DBS’ brokerage arm DBS Vickers.
The regulatory approvals come at a time when cryptocurrency firms are facing intense scrutiny from worldwide regulators amid the fast-growing digital asset industry, which is currently valued at US$1.91 trillion (S$2.57 trillion).