Bank of Canada and the Ontario Securities Commission(OSC) recently released a data that indicated that the bitcoin adoption and general crypto awareness in Canada is observing a steady growth. The percentage of the Canadian poll respondents who own bitcoin has risen from 2016’s 2.9% to 5% in 2017.
According to the report titled “Bitcoin Awareness and Usage in Canada: An Update,” by the Bank of Canada, the largest growth in bitcoin ownership was observed in groups of Canadians between the ages of 45 and 54. A similar report by OSC illustrates that 1 in 10 Ontarians either currently hold or used to hold digital assets.
The Bank of Canada Report
The Report inferences that over the period in question, the gender gap for bitcoin ownership has considerably widened. Where the male bitcoin ownership in Canada has nearly doubled from 4.2 percent to 8.1 percent, the female bitcoin owners remain at 2 percent of the population.
Notably, the ownership did not only rose in heavily populated provinces with urban centers like Ontario and British Columbia, but a significant rise also occurred across all provinces including Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Subsequently, the number of small bitcoin amount holders have increased marginally in comparison to those holding more than 10 BTC.
The OSC Report
The OSC report noted that the total number of Ontario residents holding cryptocurrency at 500,000 by extrapolating the sample respondents to the population of the entire province; 63% of holders own bitcoin, 35% ether, 18% litecoin, 17% bitcoin cash, and 13% ripple(XRP).
To ascertain the rise of cryptocurrency in the province, the survey asked respondents when they first purchased their crypto holdings. Notably, a large percentage purchased their first coins in late 2017 or early 2018. 35% of crypto holders made their first purchase within the first three months of January, 37% ventured into crypto space past year, just 27% indicate purchases more than a year ago. Computing that 72% of crypto owners have jumped the cryptocurrency wagon within the past one year, indicated a significant level of growth of crypto adoption in Canada’s most populated province.
With the rise in popularity of cryptocurrencies, the underlying threat, that scares more regulators is also on the rise. To combat that, the Canadian and American regulators are collaborating on a joint cross-border operation targeting ICO and cryptocurrency scams called “Operation Cryptosweep.”
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