David Attlee
An average crypto asset holder in Great Britain would be young, male and a hodler. And they would consider crypto to be a "fun investment." Such are the findings from the fresh research conducted by Her Majesty Revenue and Customs (HMRC) with the help of research agency Kantar UK and published on Tuesday.
Taking a quantitative approach, the research sought to establish the prevalence of owning crypto assets, the types and amounts held, and the platforms individuals use to buy crypto assets. It consisted of a survey with a representative sample of 5,916 United Kingdom adults, including 713 crypto asset owners.
The report revealed that 10% of the U.K. citizens hold or have held crypto, with 55% never having sold any (equivalent to 5% of the adult population). Only 7% are currently holding more than £5,000 (almost $6000 by press time) in value, while 52% of current owners have holdings of up to £1,000 ($1200).
Other significant findings come as no surprise — crypto owners tend to be younger than the general population with 76% of them 45 years, and mostly they are male (69%). A vast majority hold cryptocurrencies (79%), while the second most popular type of asset is utility tokens (20%).
An important takeaway refers to the common trading pattern — 68% of owners most frequently acquire crypto from “centralized exchanges” and 81% use these exchanges to sell or exchange their assets.
The majority of owners reported making a profit (63%) over the past year when disposing of cryptoassets, 14% claim they made a loss and, similarly, 14% revealed they broke even. As the survey was conducted between February 2021 and June 2021, this data should be attributed to 2020.
On Tuesday, HMRC made a call for an evidence paper, describing its intention to study whether administrative hassles and costs may be reduced for taxpayers who participate in the crypto industry.
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Ezra Reguerra
While the market goes steady, the crypto ecosystem continues to grow as merchants innovate and adopt cryptocurrency payments in their quest to gain new customers.
Data platform PYMNTS collaborated with Bitpay to survey merchants, in an attempt to understand the trends on what participants expect from digital currencies and their effect on payments and businesses.
In the report titled "Paying With Cryptocurrency," the researchers found that among businesses with an annual income of $1 billion, 85% are adopting crypto payments to find and gain new customers. On the other hand, 82% of all the merchants who participated in the survey cited crypto’s elimination of middlemen as their reason for accepting it as a payment method.
Apart from these, the results also showed that 77% of the surveyed merchants are also drawn to accepting crypto because of lower transaction fees. According to the report, the fees for processing crypto transactions are around 1%. This is much lower than the usual fees from 1.5% to 3.5% charged by other payment options like credit cards.
While most of the report shows positive perspectives on crypto, some merchants report that technical barriers and challenges still get in their way of adopting crypto payments. Of the merchants that do not accept crypto yet, 68% said that this is because of the challenges that they face in the implementation of the technology at the checkout.
Despite the crypto winter, a report published by Cointelegraph Research in June showed that a wide range of companies coming from various industries has already integrated crypto payment options. From entertainment platforms like to travel booking platforms, the crypto ecosystem continues to expand as global adoption progresses.
In the same month, Ben Caselin, an executive at trading firm AAX, told Cointelegraph that despite the bearish market, Bitcoin (BTC) adoption and Metaverse development continues to advance. According to Caselin, this is a good opportunity for businesses that are looking to tap into the crypto ecosystem.
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Ezra Reguerra
Vincenzo Sospiri Racing (VSR), a GT racing team backed by Lamborghini's motorsport department, has announced its partnership with nonfungible token (NFT) platform Go2NFT to launch a program that certifies racing car parts.
In an announcement sent to Cointelegraph, former racing champion Vincenzo Sospiri from the VSR mentioned that their team will build NFT certification for their race cars with Go2NFT and blockchain platform Skey Network. This will allow them to monitor and ensure the quality of the car parts. He explained that:
“This also brings great responsibility to ensure that we can securely authenticate and audit every part of our racing fleet to monitor performance and ensure provenance.”
Apart from the car parts, VSR is also looking to expand the NFT certification program to official merchandise and its other products as well. According to the team, this will give fans peace of mind when purchasing branded goods.
Boris Ejsymont, an executive at Go2NFT, mentioned that their team understands the challenges that brands face when it comes to protecting their intellectual property, and they believe that NFTs can provide a solution. Ejsymont said that:
“We believe that NFT utility can help create more trust and transparency for brands and their fans. This project with VSR is just the start of many such co-operations for beloved brands across the globe.”
The world of racing and crypto has been colliding well in 2022. Back in February, Formula 1 racing team Red Bull Racing scored a $150 million partnership with the crypto exchange platform Bybit. In a Cointelegraph interview, Bybit founder Ben Zhou said that the partnership allowed its team to reach people who are new to the crypto space.
In March, Crypto.com partnered with car manufacturer Aston Martin's Formula 1 team. With the deal, the brand's F1 cars will showcase advertisements of the exchange. Jefferson Slack, an executive at Aston Martin, noted that the move allows the car manufacturer to understand the crypto space more.
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This Daily Dose was brought to you by Cointelegraph.
