Survey: 73% of millionaires hold or want to invest in cryptocurrencies by the end of 2022

The number of millionaires looking to buy cryptocurrency is on the rise, with a new survey suggesting that 73% of millionaires want to hold digital assets by the end of 2022.

A survey of more than 700 high net worth individual investors (HNWs) found that nearly three-quarters of millionaire respondents already hold or are considering investing in cryptocurrencies by the end of 2022.

The survey, conducted by financial advisory firm deVere Group, showed that 73% of respondents were bullish on cryptocurrencies, an increase from 68% in 2019.

The survey was conducted among individual investors with a net worth of more than £1 million, equivalent to about $1.32 million, from many regions including the United States, the United Kingdom, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Australia and Latin America.

Nigel Green, CEO and founder of DeVere Group, noted in the survey that Bitcoin has once again been one of the best performing assets this year, up 125% year to date, adding: “As the survey shows, Bitcoin’s stunning performance has attracted the attention of wealthy investors who increasingly believe that digital currencies are the future of money and they don’t want to be left in the past.”

Noting that respondents who are interested in Bitcoin include some of Wall Street’s largest banks, Green attributes the rising sentiment towards Bitcoin to adoption by large companies such as PayPal and Square: “There is no doubt that many of the high-net-worth individual investors surveyed are seeing growing institutional interest in the high returns currently offered by the digital asset class, which is a major driver of price appreciation.”

Even former Bitcoin skeptics on Wall Street have shown enthusiasm for digital currencies. At a recent New York Times conference, JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said he is a “believer” in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies that are “properly supported and regulated.”

Dimon made headlines in 2017 for calling Bitcoin a scam, though JPMorgan has since moved to embrace digital assets.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio still has a lot of doubts about Bitcoin, but he changed his skepticism on Tuesday, tweeting: "I may have missed something on Bitcoin so I hope to be corrected."

Dalio has said that Bitcoin cannot be used as a store of value and that governments may "outlaw it and classify it as too dangerous to use." He also said that he cannot imagine central banks, multinational corporations and large institutional investors using Bitcoin.

The billionaire survey was published on the same day that bitcoin’s total market capitalization hit a record high of $336 billion and as the price rose to over $18,000, just below the $19,763 reached in December 2017.