SINGAPORE: More young and also older Singaporeans are buying into cryptocurrencies as the market picks up, a crypto index has found.

Crypto adoption among Generation Z, or those aged 18 to 25, has grown to 47% in 2024 from 38% in 2021. The take-up by boomers - those aged over 55 - has risen to 30% from 19% in the same period.

In contrast to Gen Z and boomers, both millennials, who are aged 26 to 45, and Gen X - those aged 46 to 55 - have been paring down their crypto ownership over the four-year period.

The steepest decline was seen among those aged 26 to 35, who lowered their crypto holdings to 53% in 2024, from 69% in 2021.

The findings were released on March 28 by crypto exchange Independent Reserve Singapore. Conducted in February, its fourth annual survey of the public’s attitude towards digital assets polled around 1,500 Singapore residents aged 18 to 84.

The exchange’s Singapore chief executive Lasanka Perera said Gen Z investors are the youngest group among those polled, and they are digital natives who consume the most amount of information about digital assets.

The boomers, he said, have been more active, led by news of bitcoin, bitcoin halving and spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

“We’ve started to see investors who are in their 40s and older put in more deposits and make bigger crypto investments, particularly into bitcoin.”

The price of bitcoin has been climbing since the start of 2024, peaking at over US$70,000 in mid-March, buoyed by United States approval in January of spot bitcoin ETFs and expectations of a halving in April.

Bitcoin halving refers to the process that reduces the supply of new bitcoins about every four years. The idea was to counter inflation by maintaining scarcity.

The approval in the United States of spot bitcoin ETFs has led to a more positive view of bitcoin here, with 39% of all polled saying they have a more favourable view than before the approval.

Of all respondents, 60% are non-crypto owners. One in four non-crypto owners expressed a more positive perception of bitcoin.

 - ANN