7% of Spanish Are Crypto HODLers, Says Regulator

The top Spanish regulator – the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) – estimated that 6.8% of Spain’s adult population has invested part of their wealth in cryptocurrencies. Most of them were from the high-income bracket, while those with lower salaries do not find the asset class that attractive.

Still, the Iberian nation is far behind other countries in terms of cryptocurrency adoption. A few months ago, a Gemini survey determined that Brazil and Indonesia rank as the global leaders.

How Popular Is Crypto Among Spanish?

The CNMV questioned 1,500 adults in Spain to find out what chunk of them have allocated some of their funds to the digital asset market. Per the results, 6.8% have already bought bitcoin or altcoins, while the percentage varies among different demographic groups.

Young, educated, and well-paid individuals are much more likely to be crypto investors. Almost 36% of the people aged 35 to 44 admitted being such, while only 7% of those between 55 and 70 have done the same.

Touching upon education, 43.3% of the crypto investors have university diplomas, while 28% lack that level of scholarship.

Similar to other countries, most HODLers receive solid salaries and have stable jobs. The CNMV found out that 41% of those with paychecks over 3,000 euro have entered crypto’s ecosystem, while 10.7% of the Spanish earning less than 1,000 euro have allocated some funds in the market.

Unsurprisingly, 66% of the cryptocurrency investors in the Iberian country are male, while 34% are women.

Digital assets are considered a legal form of investment in Spain. At the same time, capital gains from the sale of cryptocurrencies are taxed in a range of 19% to 23% (depending on personal income).

Falling Behind the Leaders

Spain’s cryptocurrency adoption level seems minor compared to Brazil and Indonesia’s. According to a study carried out by the trading venue Gemini, 41% of the polled individuals from those nations are HODLers.

It is worth noting that the economic crisis in Brazil and Indonesia is significant, while the majority of their population lacks basic access to financial services, which could explain the interest in the asset class. Purchasing cryptocurrencies could also be considered a hedge against inflation since the Brazilian real and the Indonesian rupiah have been depreciating recently.

Spain is also far away from leading economies, such as the USA and the UK, where the crypto adoption rate is respectively 20% and 18%.