Jason Kupferberg, an analyst at Bank of America, told CNBC that the bank conducted a survey of a thousand U.S. adults earlier this month. The survey came after the collapse of the Terra ecosystem but before this week’s crypto capitulation.
The results were surprising given the current state of markets, with Kupferberg revealing:
“It was interesting to see that 90% of respondents said that they do plan to buy some amount of crypto in the next six months.”
He added that it was the same percentage that said they had bought some crypto over the previous six months. The Bank of America has no plans to offer its own cryptocurrency trading services.
More payment methods
When asked for the reasons that people want to buy crypto this year, Kupferberg said that an increase in “crypto-to-fiat products” such as Coinbase’s Visa card has made payments easier, adding that it was a “win-win for both consumers and merchants.”
He confirmed that bitcoin and crypto were correlated to risk assets in general such as high-growth tech stocks. There was the usual comparison with the beginnings of the internet when markets were awash with dot com stocks.
“The reality is that there are too many crypto exchanges, there are too many cryptocurrencies and tokens,” he said before adding “there’s going to need to be some sort of consolidation.”
The survey also revealed that most respondents were short-term investors with 77% of them having held crypto for less than a year. Furthermore, almost a third of the respondents said they had no intention of selling in the next six months.
Crypto bottom in 2022?
Macro-economic woes have been the driver of the current market collapse, which has also hit stock markets hard. Therefore, markets are unlikely to show signs of recovery until the global economy does, which may not be until next year.
A crypto winter, which is a prolonged period of depressed prices and activity, provides ample opportunities to accumulate though catching the bottom is never easy. Total market capitalization is currently down 70% from its all-time high and previous bear markets saw 80%+ declines so the bottom may not be in yet.
Those looking to buy more crypto this year would be wise to wait for a longer period of consolidation after the final capitulation which could last for several months.
