The Spaniards with crypto assets have more than doubled in two years

Madrid – The proportion of citizens in Spain who own crypto-assets has more than doubled in just two years, according to a study by the European Central Bank (ECB), which raises the ratio of Spaniards who had them in 2024 to 9%, compared to 4% in 2022, a growth in line with the euro area average.

According to the ‘Survey on Consumer Payment Attitudes in the Euro Area’, across the eurozone the proportion of respondents who said they owned crypto-assets has risen from 4% in 2022 to 9% in 2024, a level the ECB considers “quite low”.

Among the twenty euro countries, only 13 reported crypto holding rates above 10%, with the most significant being Slovenia (15%) and Greece (14%), while Ireland, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, and Austria reported a ratio of 13%.

At the opposite extreme, the eurozone countries with the lowest percentage of people who declared owning crypto-assets in 2024 were Germany and the Netherlands, with 6% in both cases, ahead of Estonia, with 7%, and Lithuania, with 8%.

In line with Spain’s 9% and the euro zone average were also the French and Italians, although in 2022 in the French country the proportion was around 3% and in the transalpine country slightly above 2%.

In terms of age, the ECB notes that people aged between 25 and 39 were more likely to own crypto-assets, followed by those aged 18 to 24.

In any case, despite the growing interest in crypto-assets, “the adoption rate among the public remains comparatively low”.

In addition, the ECB survey among people who reported holding crypto-assets finds that mostly (54%) their purpose is solely as an investment vehicle, while 16% use them as a means of payment and 19% for both.

However, the ECB notes that the analysis by country reveals significant disparities in the use of crypto-assets for investment compared to payment, as in the Netherlands, 90% of respondents reported using crypto-assets solely for investments, while 2% used them only for payments.

Similarly, a total of 82% of respondents in Germany stated they use crypto-assets solely for investment purposes, but only 6% use them solely as a method of payment.

For its part, France recorded the smallest difference between the two uses, with 57% using them exclusively for investment and 25% solely for payment. In the case of Spain, 57% declared their exclusive use as investment, compared to 19% who use them only for payments.

Also, among those who use crypto-assets for both payment and investment purposes, the highest percentage was observed in Lithuania, with 30%, ahead of Cyprus and Belgium, both with 29%, while only 4% in the Netherlands said the same. In Spain, 20% of respondents who have crypto-assets indicated their use for investment and payments. (December 26)