SINGAPORE - Public confidence in cryptocurrencies continued to shrink in Singapore, particularly after 2022’s unexpected series of blow-ups that landed many prominent firms based here in bankruptcy and wiped out billions of investors’ money.
Despite this, more than four in 10 people polled in a survey, or 44 per cent, said that at least a tenth of their investment portfolios consisted of crypto, showing that interest in the volatile digital asset market has not waned, or that investors may be reluctant to sell at a loss.
The poll of 1,500 people also found that crypto ownership in 2023 rose to 43 per cent, from 40 per cent in 2022.
Singapore scored 55 out of 100 in confidence level, lower than the score of 61 in 2022 and 63 in 2021, the Independent Reserve Cryptocurrency Index found.
This showed that respondents’ confidence in crypto was hit due to the difficult year the industry had in 2022.
Still, 47 per cent of the people surveyed have been investing in crypto for one to two years, and 46 per cent invest between $100 and $1,000 per month.
More than half of them said they used crypto to diversify their portfolio.
The index released on Wednesday was conducted in February on Singapore residents from age 18 to find out their awareness and adoption of crypto, as well as their confidence and trust levels in it.
The poll found that 37 per cent of females are investing in crypto, up 6 percentage points from 2022.
More from the higher income group are also dabbling in it.
The index said 65 per cent of Singaporeans earning $5,000 or more per month have invested in crypto, up 6 percentage points from 2022.
Those who make $7,000 to $9,000 a month allocated the highest portion of their portfolio to crypto.
The index found that 72 per cent of crypto owners hold more than 5 per cent of their portfolio in the asset.
Among the Gen Z group or those aged 18 to 25, a third want to invest in crypto but said they do not have the means to do so.
Bitcoin, the darling of the crypto world, remains the most known digital asset. The younger crowd aged 26 to 35 are most familiar with crypto, and nine in 10 polled are aware of at least one crypto token.
Last May, the surprise crash of stablecoin TerraUSD and its sister token Luna wiped out billions of investors’ funds. The co-founder and disgraced chief executive Do Kwon of Terraform Labs had issued TerraUSD and Luna.
Kwon, arrested in Montenegro last week, is wanted by the authorities in both his native country South Korea and the United States for fraud and for allegedly breaching capital markets law.
South Korea asked Interpol last September to circulate a “red notice” for the 31-year-old across the agency’s 195 member nations.
Said Independent Reserve Singapore chief executive Lasanka Perera: “The collapse of Terra Luna and the FTX fallout have understandably led to a loss of confidence and trust in the industry.
“As recent global financial events continue to unfold, many may also re-evaluate their dependence on traditional financial institutions to safeguard their money and turn to alternative assets such as Bitcoin to hedge against bank defaults and currency debasement.”
