The number of users has increased by almost 200%, compared to that of 2018. There are currently about 190 million accounts among service providers.
In the last two years, the total number of users that interact with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies worldwide has grown by 189%. The figure has already exceeded 101 million operators, according to an analysis that the Center for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge recently published.
The researchers note in the report entitled “3rd Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study” that cryptocurrency service providers have also increased their reach. They say that there might already be more than 191 million accounts open on various platforms such as exchanges, wallets, or P2P exchanges.
According to the study, there is a relation between this global growth and an increase in the number of accounts that users have created at service providers. They estimate that the accounts created have quadrupled in the last four years. The figure went from 45 million in 2016 to 139 million in 2018.
It is striking that the number of active users remains below the number of existing accounts. From the above, it is possible to infer that each user might have multiple accounts at different service providers.
Robert Wardrop, director of the Center for Alternative Finance, highlighted that the expansion began in 2018, months after Bitcoin had reached its highest all-time price in the market.
“The research results suggest that the industry has entered a growth stage, despite the notable headwinds that the crypto markets have encountered since 2018,” he explained.
Latin America, Bitcoin, and Its Adoption
Even though the study does not specify the number of users per region, it states that there are disparities between the different geographical areas. For example, Asia would have the highest percentage of high-growth companies, with 39% of those surveyed.
Latin America would have the smallest proportion, with only 13% of the companies. The size of its workforce or the profits that it has generated define a high-growth company.
The types of users that companies serve and their profitability are other business behaviors to highlight.
Differently from North American and European service providers, which have a mix of institutional and retail customers, the main trend in Latin America is to support retail customers. Besides, they also confirm that companies with a longer time in the Bitcoin ecosystem are more profitable.
More than 280 entities making life in the Bitcoin ecosystem, from almost 60 countries, participated in the research. The analysis focused on four segments (exchanges, payments, custody, and mining) and the researchers collected the data between March and May 2020.
Among the Latin American companies and associations that participated in the study, the most prominent are the following: NGO Bitcoin Argentina, Blockchain Spain and Alianza Blockchain Iberoamérica, Bitso, Asociación Bitcoin Chile, Koibanx, OrionX, Cryptopatagonia, Blockchain Mérida, ArgenBTC, Asociación FinTech Paraguay, Asociación FinTech Uruguay, FinTech Mexico, and Colombia FinTech.
This work by the University of Cambridge is the third version of the study that began in 2017. In April of that year, the researchers said that the estimated number of cryptocurrency users was almost 3 million people. They published the second version of the analysis the following year.
By Alexander Salazar
