After years of volatility, the recent crypto winter has brought with it some uncertainty as regards the digital assets landscape. Add to this the rising cost of living and it looks like appetites may be wavering slightly.

This according to some data shared by Finder.com, which shows that an estimated 10 percent of adult South Africans (18 years and older) own some form of crypto, which is down one percent from last year’s number.

While the drop is small, it may point to changing sentiments and some potential hesitancy given that there is less disposable income to test out the cryptocurrency waters for many South Africans.

“South Africa ranks 18th out of 26 countries for crypto adoption, according to Finder’s Crypto Adoption August 2022 report, which has so far surveyed 217,947 people in 26 selected countries (8,012 in South Africa since April 2022),” Finder.com’s data points out.

“The crypto ownership rate in South Africa is 10%, which is lower than the global average of 15%. India leads the way at 29%, with Germany at the other end of the spectrum with 6%,” it adds.

In terms of crypto popularity, Bitcoin unsurprisingly leads the way in SA with a massive 52 percent of ownership. This is followed by some margin by Ethereum at 24 percent and Dogecoin at 17 percent.

Another unsurprising statistic is that the majority of crypto owners in the country are men, with a reported 65 percent to 35 percent in terms of men and women respectively.

“There is a wide gap in adoption of crypto between men and women. Of those who own crypto, an average of 36% are women compared to 64% who are men. Norway actually has the widest gap, with 74% of people that own crypto being men. Colombia is the closest between the sexes (crypto ownership being 56% men, compared to 44% women),” Finder.com highlights.

This also tracks with a report that Luno shared earlier in the year, with men featuring heavily in terms of ownership locally too.

With many organisations and entities with a vested interest in the digital assets industry pointing to an up-turn out of the cryto winter, it will be interesting to see how local sentiment will be impacted.

For now though, it may simply be too expensive an investment to test out for most South Africans.

To find out more about recent cryptocurrency adoption, you can read the Finder.com report for yourself here.

[Image – Photo by Quantitatives on Unsplash]