The majority of Ethereum users hold the world’s second most popular crypto-currency for investment purposes.
This is according to research by online betting platform BonusInsider. Between 1 and 4 November, it surveyed 1 225 Ethereum adopters to find out how they spend their coins and how many transactions per month they send.
The survey followed the long-awaited “Ethreum Мerge”, which took place on 15 September with shifting Ethereum’s existing proof-of-world consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake model.
BonusInsider notes that with this major upgrade, the Ethereum network managed to significantly cut its carbon footprint and decrease its network power consumption by over 99.9%.
“The BonusInsider team decided to analyse the impact of the merge on Ethereum holders’ behaviour and whether it affects the number of transactions they make,” says David Sandler, BonusInsider spokesperson.
“We noticed the number of daily transactions decreased by 9% between 15 September and 31 October 2022 (57 421 667 transactions) and the same period last year (52 841 636 transactions). This motivated us to commission a survey to understand more about the online spending behaviour of Ethereum holders after the merge.”
According to the firm, the vast majority of Ethereum holders are not actively trading or using their crypto very often, as 72.9% of them send no or less than 10 transactions a month.
It notes that a total of 505 people, which is more than 40% of the survey respondents, admit they send only one to nine Ethereum transactions per month, while nearly 18% say they send 10 to 19 transactions.
Those making the most transactions, over 20 a month, are less than 10% of all respondents, or exactly 111 Ethereum holders, the survey found.
Interestingly, Sandler notes, 389 of all people, or a little over 30%, say they don’t send any transactions.
According to the survey, 31.8% of the respondents hold Ethereum with investment purposes.
“Although experts point out that crypto isn’t ideal for investment due to its high volatility, many people still hold Ether as an investment. This group of people hope to profit from the rise in price after a certain period of time,” Sandler says.
The survey also found that 330 or 26.9% of the respondents speculate on the markets. “This group of holders use Ethereum to speculate on the markets and actively trade other crypto coins through it.
“They speculate on the price movements of other crypto-currencies, or buy and sell the underlying coins. Even though it is considered a high-risk activity, crypto trading is extremely popular among this group of holders.”
Some 223 (18.2%) of the participants said they use Ethereum to pay for services and shopping online.
BonusInsider notes that another important use of Ethereum is paying for services, or buying products through e-commerce sites.
For many people, it says, its utility as an actual method for payments is obvious and they usually prefer to use it for paying for hosting, domain names, different IT services or to pay freelancers for work.
It also found out that 95 (7.8%) of the respondents buy non-fungible tokens (NFTs) using Ethereum.
“Many of the crypto-currency’s proponents use Ethereum to buy NFTs since they are usually held on the Ethereum blockchain,” says Sandler.
“This can be done through a major marketplace such as Coinbase, OpenSea and Binance, or in private deals without the mediation service of online platforms. Non-fungible tokens or NFTs are cryptographic tokens that exist on a blockchain. They cannot be replicated in any way; hence, they can certify ownership and authenticity.”
He adds that the so-called P2E or play-to-earn games have also exploded in popularity in the past few years.
“They use a different model of the traditional games where you are usually required to pay in order to play. The concept behind the P2E games is simple – players collect crypto-currencies or NFTs produced in the blockchain-based game. Popular titles right now are Calvaria, Silks, Tamadoge and Axie Infinity.”
The study also discovered that online gambling and betting accounts for 65 (5.3%) of the respondents.
“Another group of Ethereum holders use their crypto to make safe and reliable deposits at gambling sites, including online casinos, sportsbooks and fantasy sports platforms,” Sandler says.
“Some websites specifically cater to crypto holders but there are also many traditional online gambling platforms that accept Ether as a form of payment. Crypto-currencies have several benefits to other payment methods: they are decentralised, so no bank would ever stop a transaction, they are extremely safe and reliable − unlike card payments that can be denied sometimes − and they are almost anonymous.”
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