Cryptocurrencies are no longer a hobby of a small niche. On the contrary: even the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, not only recently introduced crypto trading for its institutional clients, but also launched a Bitcoin fund.
The European Union has also been dealing with the regulation of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for some time. In a study of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, the executive body of the EU analyzes the decision-making process that private investors go through to make an investment.
The results provide insights into the investment behavior of selected member states. This includes the following countries: Germany, France, Italy, Finland, Sweden, Spain, Greece, Poland, Romania and the Netherlands.
Almost a quarter of Germans have no savings
A look at the general investment and saving behavior of the selected EU countries reveals: Sweden leads the list of nations that are already investing diligently (44 percent).
Although Finland ranks second for investment activity (39 percent), the Scandinavian country also has the largest proportion of people who have no savings (30 percent).
According to the report, Germany is in the middle: almost a third are already investing in financial products (29 percent). However, almost a quarter of respondents in the Federal Republic have no savings (23 percent). The proportion of people who have savings but are not interested in investing is just as high.
According to the survey, Greece brings up the rear in terms of investment activity: just under a fifth are already investing in financial products. Almost a third have meanwhile not built up any savings.
Crypto assets and ETFs shake hands
Mutual funds are therefore the most popular way of investing money among people who own at least one investment product. Almost half of those surveyed (46 percent) say they invest their money in this way.
Listed shares are in second place (38 percent), followed by life insurance in third place (30 percent). 27 percent invest their money to be well taken care of later in retirement.
According to the study, crypto assets and ETFs share the ranking (16 percent). This means that Bitcoin and Co. and exchange-traded index funds (ETFs) are equally popular among the selected EU countries.
Germany as a stock nation
If you look at the preferred type of investment at the country level, there are sometimes significant differences.
Finland (75 percent), Spain (66 percent), the Netherlands (51 percent), Italy (48 percent), Romania (41 percent) and Poland (39 percent) rely primarily on mutual funds.
Germany (43 percent) and Sweden (54 percent) prefer to invest in exchange-traded shares.
Greece prefers annuity products (34 percent), while three-quarters of respondents from France (74 percent) put money into life insurance.
Crypto assets do not make first place in any of the member states considered. In some countries, however, Bitcoin and Co. make up a reasonable investment share.
According to the study, almost a third of investors from Greece invest in cryptocurrencies (31 percent). Investors from Romania even put 37 percent of private investors in crypto assets.
“Both these are countries with a rather low proportion of investors, but where investors who own financial products tend to have a mixed portfolio with no one dominant product type,” the report says.
One in five private investors from the Netherlands (21 percent) invest in Bitcoin and Co. Almost as much in Spain: 17 percent.
A total of 11,497 people from the selected ten EU member states were interviewed as part of the study.
You want to buy Polkadot (DOT)?
This is possible via eToro, among other things. eToro offers investors, from beginners to experts, a comprehensive crypto trading experience on a powerful yet easy-to-use platform. We took a close look at eToro.
To the eToro review