On 7 March 2019, the FCA published two pieces of research looking at UK consumer attitudes to crypto-assets.
The first piece of research explores the attitudes, understanding and motivations behind people’s decisions to purchase and use different crypto-assets, through qualitative interviews with a small number of crypto-asset owners. The second piece of research is a survey of 2,132 UK consumers looking at their awareness, understanding and purchasing habits related to crypto-assets.
Christopher Woolard, the FCA’s Executive Director of Strategy and Competition commented:
“This research gives us evidence we haven’t had before about how consumers interact with crypto-assets. This will help us ensure we are acting on evidence as we seek to protect consumers and market integrity. The results suggest that although crypto-assets may not be well understood by many consumers, the vast majority don’t buy or use them currently. Whilst the research suggests some harm to individual crypto-asset users, it does not suggest a large impact on wider society. Nevertheless, crypto-assets are complex, volatile products – consumers investing in them should be prepared to lose all of their money.”