Only 8% of Americans have a positive view of cryptocurrencies now, CNBC survey finds

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Sam Bankman-Fried, Founder and Managing Director of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, speaks at the Institute of International Finance (IIF) Annual Members Meeting in Washington, DC, Thursday, October 13, 2022.

ting shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images

After a series of crypto meltdowns, scandals and bankruptcies, Americans’ opinion of cryptocurrency has deteriorated sharply, with the CNBC All-America economic survey finding a majority in favor of strong regulation.

The survey shows that 43% of the public has a negative view of cryptocurrencies, up from 25% in March. The percentage of positive opinions fell to just 8% from 19%, and those who are neutral fell by almost half to 18% from 31%.

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CNBC All-America Economic Survey

It’s a dramatic fall for an investment that was touted as its own asset class and had a celebrated release party on the global stage with multiple Super Bowl ads and celebrity endorsements. This popularity has attracted many ordinary Americans to crypto and the survey shows that 24% of the public have invested, traded or used cryptocurrency in the past, up from 16% in March.

The survey of 800 Americans nationwide was conducted Nov. 26-30 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.5%. (The March results for crypto come from an NBC News survey.)

According to the survey, 42% of crypto investors now have a somewhat or very negative view of the asset, matching the result of 43% for all adults in the survey. The main difference: 17% of crypto investors are “very negative” versus 47% for non-crypto investors.

But this could still be a problem for the crypto to regain its credibility since reputation seems to be at the heart of its valuation.

“It’s a 90% retail market, which means mom-and-pop investor sentiment really matters,” said Brian Brook, CEO of Bitfury and former Comptroller of the Currency, at the CNBC Financial Advisor Summit. from this week. “And so when you read FTX stories on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, literally every day for 30 days, what he’s been doing is for new entrants, they’re scared. And so, therefore, liquidity is thinner than it would have been and people’s willingness to invest is weaker.”

Whether or not a respondent invests in crypto, they are likely to support regulation as tight as stocks or bonds. The survey found that 53% of the public saying crypto should have the same regulation and oversight as stocks and bonds, which includes 21% of all adults and 16% of crypto investors who want more regulations.

Negative opinions on crypto come at the same time as the public has soured on stocks. Just 26% say now is a good time to invest in stocks, down two points from last quarter’s survey and the most pessimistic level recorded in the survey’s 15-year history. 51% say it’s a bad time to invest, the third highest in the survey’s history, surpassed only by the pessimistic results of the previous two surveys.

(You can view the full survey here.)

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