Mastercard’s New Payments Index reveals that at least 40% of Millennials plan to adopt cryptocurrencies and digital assets in the next year, primarily as a means of payment.
According to Mastercard, Millennials' appetite for cryptocurrencies, and digital assets are just getting started.
In a poll In a recent survey of 15.569 people from 18 countries around the world, Mastercard collected data that will define the future of crypto adoption. According to the data, nearly 40% of the population interviewed online, in the regions of North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific, plan to adopt cryptocurrencies as a means of making payments quickly, safely and affordably around the world.
Mastercard interviewed approximately 1.000 people per country in Australia, India, Thailand, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, of which 4 in 10 said they want to use crypto assets in payments next year.
The mass adoption of cryptocurrencies by Millennials is something that experts have been predicting for some time. In October last year, JPMorgan published a report stating that Bitcoin, the market-leading cryptocurrency, was gaining greater importance over gold for Millennials as an investment asset and store of value. JPMorgan's analysis determined that the potential qualities offered by Bitcoin make this cryptocurrency much more attractive than the precious metal, due to its ease of use and transacting in the markets.
Thus, considering that Millennials are a generation that was born and developed in a more technological and interconnected world, they will play a key role in the mass adoption of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in the future.
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The Middle East and Africa are the most connected
According to Mastercard statistics, millennials in the Middle East and Africa are particularly involved in the world of cryptocurrencies, with 67% representing more than half of respondents. This segment of respondents said they were more open to using crypto assets than they were the previous year.
The shift in perspective on cryptocurrencies and digital assets accelerated with the arrival and expansion of COVID-19 worldwide, which forced people to remain in voluntary confinement, companies to close their establishments, shops and other businesses, and to investigate new ways to boost the economy.
The new needs that arose with COVID-19, and with the policies implemented by governments in financial and economic matters, led citizens and companies to deepen their knowledge about cryptocurrencies; not only as a means of payment, but also as a reserve asset of future value.
Craig Vosburg, Mastercard's chief product officer, said the COVID-19 pandemic “It made us think differently, partly out of necessity”, and cryptocurrencies were presented as the flexible and reliable option that citizens and consumers needed.
The new digital economy emerging with cryptocurrencies offers advantages and benefits that work for everyone, and allows retailers around the world to offer a new range of easily accessible payment solutions that are always available, Vosburg said.
Emerging payment methods
Cryptocurrencies have become a trend as emerging payment technologies, which has changed our perception of seeing money. Mastercard explains that as people become comfortable with cryptoassets, and their understanding increases, the use of cash decreases.
The multinational financial services company said that after the pandemic, it recorded 1.000 billion additional contactless transactions compared to the figures seen in 2020. This demonstrates the power and importance that contactless technology is taking on, and the need for citizens to have more payment options, such as cryptocurrencies, that reduce the use of cash. In fact, in the survey applied, 71% said they expect to use less cash in the future.
On the other hand, 77% of Millennials who participated in the Mastercard survey said they were interested in learning more about cryptocurrencies, while 75% said they were in favor of using them if they understood them better.
The growing appetite for cryptocurrencies is leading more companies to add them to their balance sheets, to their payment options, as investment assets, and even as a form of payment for their employees and executives, as in the recent case of microstrategy. Even Mastercard has begun to adopt cryptocurrencies, integrating, for the moment, the main ones stablecoins to its payment network directly.
The results of the Mastercard survey show that cryptocurrencies are gaining, and will gain, greater popularity in society, becoming a financial tool that makes it easy to make payments quickly, easily and without excessive costs, among many other benefits.
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