The world is marching on toward the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies. This is evident in almost every metric one can look at when analyzing the crypto market, even in volatile times and during sharp downturns.

Venture capital investments in crypto have surpassed $30 billion, with more than $10.5 billion invested in the last quarter of 2021 alone. Alongside institutions, retail investors have also begun realizing the potential of crypto and are flocking to it in record numbers.

To find out more about what makes the crypto market tick and get an understanding of the broad makeup of its participants, Gemini conducted an ambitious survey of 30,000 people across 20 countries. The survey explored awareness of cryptocurrencies and crypto companies, the motivations for buying and trading, as well as barriers to owning cryptocurrencies.

What the survey found was that 2021 was crypto’s breakout year—there have never been more people entering the market, more people interested in entering the market, and more people realizing the potential of cryptocurrencies.

Identifying crypto curiosity and crypto ownership

While it’s easy to quantify current market performance, predicting its future performance depends on a multitude of factors—the biggest being its participants.

Gemini set out to discover just how much untapped potential there is outside of the crypto market by surveying people about their general curiosity about cryptocurrencies. According to the report, 41% of its global respondents said that they were crypto-curious. This means that they currently don’t own cryptocurrencies but plan on buying in the next year.

Diving deeper into the geographic makeup of the crypto-curious reveals that a significant number of them come from Europe. Ireland led among the crypto-curious, both globally and in Europe, with 58% saying they were interested in purchasing cryptocurrencies in the near future. A significant number of crypto-curious respondents came from Germany, Colombia, and the United Arab Emirates—53%, 50%, and 49%, respectively.

The data shows that the majority of the crypto-curious come from developed nations with stable financial systems, with the exception of Colombia.

This, however, isn’t the case when it comes to crypto ownership.

Gemini’s data shows that the least amount of ownership comes from developed nations—15% in Denmark, 16% in France, 17% in Germany, 18% in Australia, 18% in the U.K., and 19% in Norway. The exceptions to the rule are Kenya and Colombia, where only 15% and 16% of respondents owned crypto.

The largest crypto ownership was identified in Brazil and Indonesia, where 41% of respondents said they owned cryptocurrencies. Approximately a third of respondents from Singapore and the U.A.E. owned crypto, while the ownership decreased to around a quarter in Israel, Nigeria, South Africa, Hong Kong, and Mexico.

Crypto is the future of money for many

The extremely high rate of crypto ownership in certain countries can be attributed to several correlating factors. People in countries with the highest adoption and the highest percentage of crypto curiosity tend to see cryptocurrencies as the future of money.

This is due to the fact that these countries have seen their national currencies devaluate against the dollar over the past decade, drastically affecting both the quality of life and financial stability. Respondents in countries with 50% or more devaluation against the dollar over the past 10 years were more than 5 times more likely to say they plan to purchase crypto in the coming year, compared to those who experienced less than 50% inflation.

A significant number of respondents saw cryptocurrencies as a way to protect against inflation—46% of respondents in Latin America and Africa said they were looking into the asset class as a way to offset currency devaluation.

In regions where the local currency hasn’t experienced significant long-term devaluation, respondents were far less likely to see cryptocurrencies as ...