Kucoin: 14% of Saudi citizens invest in cryptocurrencies

Article Reading Time:
2 minutes.

According to a study by the Kucoin cryptocurrency exchange, investors in Saudi Arabia changed their strategy during the year, moving from accumulating to holding crypto assets.

Kucoin posted a report titled “IntoThe Cryptoverse, which states that nearly three million (14%) Saudis aged 18 to 60 have either invested or traded cryptocurrency in the past six months. The report's authors draw attention to the changing attitude of Saudi citizens towards digital assets.

“In the first quarter of 2022, 49% of ownerscryptocurrencies were set to increase their investments in the next six months. The onset of a bearish market trend in the second quarter led to a change in investor sentiment towards more conservative strategies related to cryptocurrency ownership,” the report says.

According to Kucoin, since the beginning of the second quarter, about31% of cryptocurrency owners in the country said they want to “maintain their cryptocurrency balance as is rather than increase their investment.” Investors with lower incomes tended to liquidate portions of their portfolios during the same period.

Analysts claim that 76% of respondents haveless than one year of experience investing in cryptocurrencies. About 49% of these investors only started trading or investing in cryptocurrency in the last six months. According to researchers, the high proportion of newcomers to the field indicates the need for crypto education in Saudi Arabia.

About 51% of respondents said that theyinvest in cryptocurrencies because they “believe that this is the future of finance.” Nearly 44% said they invest in digital assets because they “can bring them higher returns in the long term compared to other types of financial investments.”

The report states that “84% of crypto investorsturning to social media such as YouTube and Twitter to conduct their research.” Just over a third of respondents – 35% – rely on online communities when searching for information related to cryptocurrencies.

Almost 50% of investors are purchasing digitalcurrencies for fiat money and participate in spot trading on a monthly basis. According to the report, this “involves trading, buying and selling at current market value as the only form of cryptocurrency trading considered halal by some scholars in the Arab world.”

The data collected by Kucoin is not very different, but it differs from the figures given in the report by the analytical agency YouGov. According to their data, 18% of Saudi Arabian citizens have invested in cryptocurrencies.