Bitcoin Forum

Coinbase Survey Shows 18% of US Students Now Own Cryptocurrency
https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-blockchain-class-universities-coinbase/

You could argue that Coinbase-commissioned survey on only 675 students is not very reliable, but assuming it's true and that nearly fifth of students is already into crypto, do you see it as a bullish or bearish news?

On one hand, it shows that cryptos are already (almost) mainstream, hence there's not much room for further growth.
On the other hand, in few years time, those 18% will be earning real money and it's more likely they will choose cryptos as their preferred investment.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Coinbase blog link: https://blog.coinbase.com/the-rise-of-crypto-in-higher-education-81b648c2466f
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Good.  Universities ought to be teaching more of this stuff and less of the gender studies and pseudo-scientific crap, which doesn't prepare students for anything useful in life.

These are top universities that were polled, so it doesn't surprise me that the students have extra money to invest in cryptocurrency.  I suspect that if state schools were polled the number would be far less.  When I was in college, I barely had money for a small pizza or booze much less money to blow on investments.

So good for them.  They're the future of crypto, so the more young folks involved in it the better.

First I'd have to also agree in pointing out the obvious limitations in the sample but assuming that the 18% is true across the globe then it's a mixed bag. While it's positive so many students are invested and you make a good point about them potentially choosing crypto for future investments when their earning potential heightens. It can also be seen as a negative thing because 18% is already quite a high number and leaves less room for new investment.

Better to have cross sectional study in different schools in several states to confirm this fact.
18% is a good pourcentage in my opinion which is not obvious to find it elsewhere.
This  :)

OP, assuming it's true, I believe 18% of students holding to store value would be very good in my opinion, and it should be Bitcoin, not altcoin scams. Although there are exceptions, those expections still cannot compare to Bitcoin as a good store of value.

to be honest this looks to me more like yet another random statistics with a huge margin of error and it is always because of their selection process. the selected groups are too focused and have no diversity. it is like looking for alcoholics in a bar!

besides 18%  seems such a huge percentage considering the fact that bitcoin price is still pretty low. such adoption percentage would have been accompanied by a much higher price. so far the best estimation I have seen for adoption has been less than 1%.

It is good to here in this news because almost every students are interested to participate in new technology but majority of the students are not aware in crypto technology so these kind of lagging in crypto platform and it is bearish news for me. In my surrounding I spread the crypto potential so few peoples are invested in crypto so we only create the awareness in our locality. I think next year it will reach 54% because investors ratio is gradually increase in crypto industry.

It is very good.
Students have no money at all. They probably put 300usd in crypto.
Now, in 15 years, they have a lot of money. Maximum money is at 50 years old i think.

Why wouldn't it be "reliable"? I think it's solid enough for data in social science. That it's commissioned by a much-disliked corporate entity doesn't really change anything, if the sample and methodology were well-defined. A lot more scientific than most of the other polls conducted, I'd say.

But a fifth of students into crypto just doesn't mean anything useful in my books. Might as well be 100% of them all owning the free $10 Coinbase used to give out on new accounts. If they're owning and not using, doesn't help Bitcoin much.

Since it is not well defined, let us assume that the research conducted by Coinbase utilized convenience sampling in selecting the students that have been surveyed in the school. The sample though IMO is well defined. it is stated in their blog that:
I think Coinbase here is just wasting their time and money conducting such small-scale study. They should have had decreased the margin of error for their findings to be more reliable.

Seeing that Coinbase conducted the survey, I'd say that in a way, there's some form of bias on how the research/survey was done. Anyhow, no matter how small the sample is, the data extracted somewhat hints at the positive end of the spectrum for cryptocurrency. IMO, any form of awareness of students toward global trends and tech that could potentially impact the future is good, be it a disruptive tech that challenges the financial sector or any form of tech/methodology unbeknownst to the old-timers of the society. These students will be the ones handling our future, so as early as now they should be educated and aware of crypto, knowing that more and more countries are gearing towards a blockchain-powered society and digitization of money.

It would be better if the survey was conducted by a third-party org. that doesn't have any interests on cryptocurrency so as to 'keep' the integrity of the said survey.

Well, it's not like they surveyed students and presented results as representative for the entire population. 675 respondents may not sound impressive but, if the sample was chosen correctly, findings can be fairly accurate.


Again, it's 18% for students, the value for all age groups would obviously be much lower. Plus, number of people who owned/used crypto definitely increased a lot with the 2017 pump, so I'd expect more than 1% adoption (however defined), at least for the 'western' world.

In my opinion Cryptocurrency is still considered as money well there are good and bad effects of money that I think may occur depending on the student, Well we may see if there are good effects that can sure do in earning Cryptocurrency at an early age there are still bad effects for them I really think financial problems will sure affect the students academic performance, And thinking so much of the value decreasing value of a Coin might affect their every day doing inside their class, Or if a student is already profiting with Cryptocurrency there is a tendency that they might quit going to school or become lazy about it, But I am not saying all student will be like these, There is a tendency for some of them that will act this way.

Before waving off any survey, one key thing to consider is the source of the survey and for me, coming from Coinbase is legit enough to be given its due consideration.

18% is a cool and decent figure if ask me because replicating that percentage across board would mean that a huge percentage of student in the US are already in the fold and these students would grow to become law makers, policy makers, entrepreneurs, head of agencies, committee members etc which is why I am seeing some positives here that in the next decade some amount favorable policies is coming from States.

While this offers hope as I have rightly noted in the above paragraph, I do not see it making some significant difference at this time because the popualtion is really not enough to make a move in the US and bitcoin price determination goes beyond that. We still have several students in China, India, UK, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Japan etc. Until when the penetration begins to cover a huge percentage of the target population, we might not see any impact.

18% of US students is nothing to worry about, there's still room for speculative price rise.
If it were 18% of US grandmothers, then I'd say dump it asap!  :D

You have to think students are going to be a lot of the early less serious investors. Few will invest with large amounts and there investment could be a prerequisite to further investment from more major players. Investment from any demographic at the end of the day is a positive. Under 100% means more room for growth but near 100% means mass adoption and true use-cases.

Hopefully. But there's a risk that 18% will end up as dropouts if crypto moons to hard and too soon.



Unironically, this could be the best summary, if you ignore that grannies tend to ask their student grandchildren to buy and hold "that internet money" on their behalf.

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On related subject, this piece from Jan 2018 shows 6 out of 10 people have heard about Bitcoin, but only(?) 5% own some:
https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/23/study-6-in-10-americans-have-heard-about-bitcoin/

If anyone have any better, newer stats for total population - please share.

Maybe for wage-slave employees. For those who have money work for them, 50 is just the beginning.

A great start for a students in this market, yes they don’t have much money right now but since they believe in this market, they will surely have greater profit in the future especially with bitcoin. Hopefully, this will happen around the world where everyone ows crypocurrency, I know this will happen soon.

Well, the survey doesn't specify how much of that 18% holds Bitcoin, but I'd argue a majority of them are holding scammy alt coins. Pretty much all of the crypto newbies that I know personally are invested in crap alts. It's only a matter of time until they realize they are wasting their time with small cap alts, and should only really focus on Bitcoin. Bitcoin will just need to regain more dominance, it has been doing great lately.

For a country like the US, this is very small. For example, I am sure that a large part of South Korean students have a crypto currency. At the same time, 18 percent for the US is practically nothing. Here, apparently, the attitude to the crypto-currency of state bodies and their propaganda that bitcoin is a risky investment of funds has played.

Haha, good point. But I actually see this type of news as positive, for my personal greedy needs. These are students in college, who by now surely have heard of Bitcoin and who are in possession of enough disposable income without yet having debt or financial commitments. And if they still haven't gotten on board that ship yet, then yeah like you said, still so much room for speculative price rise when their network effect kicks in.

I'd prefer for that rise to not happen before such things like LN are fully in place.

IF that is true,then better create more porn sites and topics here since this is what those youngsters need,or mcdonalds and all food chain must accept bitcoin or cryptocurrency to sustain whats this students deman lol😂😂😂

Let the kids play,lallow them to learn about technology,but not the profiteering because they need to enjoy their younger years before entering this riskiest and troubleshooted world of cryptocurrency

Hahaha then those students, making the OP's assumption that the statistic is an accurate representation of student-holders, will be working some years of their lives to pay off the debts incurred by their stupidity.

I believe there were students who were using their student loans to buy Bitcoin last December, the worst time to buy.

I always believe in the truth that when more investors join the market, the market will develop better, and these students are the best investors!

These students had a good future with cryptocurrency and I am thankful that they prefer to be with this companionship. It's better diversion compared of what other young people who were students drowned themselves with non sense social media activities. As they own cryptocurrency their future has a strong foundation for financial stability.

that is a big IF though.
what I got from their post is that they basically went to top 50 universities in US which already have some sort of course on blockchain technology and ask their students about cryptocurrencies. of course it didn't mention how those students were chosen, if they were from different departments it would be more accurate than if they asked those participating or have participated in one of these classes.

You got it slightly wrong, as per coinbase blog (https://blog.coinbase.com/the-rise-of-crypto-in-higher-education-81b648c2466f):


So they went to top 50 unis and discovered that 42% of them offer blockchain courses. And they did survey across different departments, there's even this bit (quoted from coindesk article) which I find surprising:

Well, Indeed. If an US students are good investors when it comes to cryptocurrency then it is very good news because nowadays. For me, I think the target users of bitcoin is the teenagers because they are the one who will notice about cryptocurrency and they are the only one who could spread it. For me its a good thing, it will be a bad if they will lured someone thru cryptocurrency.

Great news for us, horrible news for banking system in usa. Banks are making students pay so much in debt that the interest rate kills their future incomes. People who graduate and start working usually only have enough money to pay their student loans and rent and barely have enough left to live with the rest.

Hence I think students who get bitcoin are aiming at that future, they want to have some sound investments for the future and they see that bitcoin will worth a lot in the next couple of years and they will be able to at least provide some quick repayments of their debts. Since less people will be at the banks loan crippling debts, banks will not be making as much as they used to.