Education
Pew Research Center: At least 16% of Americans have owned crypto
The poll seems to indicate that crypto investors skew younger and more male than the population as a whole.
A survey released by the Pew Research Center on Thursday found that roughly 16% of Americans have invested, traded or used some form of cryptocurrency. The number jumps to 31% for people aged 18–29, and even higher to 43% for males in the same age bracket. Black, Hispanic and Asian participants in the study were also each more likely to have invested in crypto than those who identified themselves as white. There seems to have been no disparity by income.
Pew Research Analyst Andrew Perrin said:
“We do see now that a large share of the American public has heard at least a little about cryptocurrencies. It was striking to see how there are demographic differences in awareness and use of cryptocurrencies.”
The survey’s sample consisted of 10,371 adults selected from the center’s American Trends Panel. The panel is recruited by a national random sampling of addresses, and then weighted by a host of factors including ethnicity, political party, gender and education.
Panel members were also polled on whether they had heard of cryptocurrencies at all. Nearly a quarter of respondents (24%) said that they had heard a lot about crypto, while nearly two-thirds (62%) said they had heard some. Approximately one-eighth (13%) had heard nothing at all about crypto. There is some variance by race, gender, age and income in the crosstabs for this question as well.
Asian Americans were the most likely by far (43%) to report knowing a lot about cryptocurrency. Only between 25% and 29% of all other ethnic groups reported being very knowledgeable about cryptocurrency. While crypto investment rates did not vary across income brackets, the rate of respondents claiming a high knowledge of crypto did increase in proportion to income here. Much like with crypto investment rates, there was a strong correlation between youth and being male when it came to self-reported crypto knowledge.
In 2015, Pew did a survey that asked similar (although not exactly identical) questions about Bitcoin (BTC), rather than cryptocurrencies as a whole. At that time, the results were quite different. Only 1% of those polled said they had invested in Bitcoin, themselves, and only 48% had even heard of Bitcoin at all. Respondents who had heard of Bitcoin skewed towards white, college-educated males with high incomes.
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El Salvador to build 20 ‘Bitcoin Schools’ with surplus from Bitcoin Trust
The government will use the “surplus” from its Bitcoin Trust account that currently contains 1,120 BTC.
The government of El Salvador is embarking on its next Bitcoin-related project which involves building schools using profits the nation has made on the asset.
Profits or the “surplus” from the state’s Bitcoin Trust account will be channeled into the construction of 20 schools according to President Nayib Bukele. On Nov. 2, the Press Secretary of the Presidency tweeted:
“When this project was started, we had not made as much money in FIDEBITCOIN [state BTC Trust account] as we have made now. So we have decided to make the first 20 Bitcoin Schools.”
Bukele’s spokesperson also stated that profits from previous BTC purchases will go towards benefiting the people and no Salvadoran taxes will be touched for the new project.
Local media reported that the construction of the 20 new schools will support the expansion of cryptocurrency education for locals and be part of the 400 schools planned for the “My New School” program. In October 2020, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) approved the financing of $200 million to El Salvador for the education expansion incentive.
In mid-October, the President announced that the government will spend $4 million from the Bitcoin Trust to construct a new veterinary hospital in the capital San Salvador.
El Salvador’s controversial Bitcoin Law officially came into effect on Sept. 7, but its inaugural day of legal tender status was marred by technical glitches with the state Chivo wallet.
On Oct. 28, Cointelegraph reported that El Salvador purchased a further 420 BTC bringing its total stash to 1,120 BTC. At current prices of $63K, this is worth around $70.5 million.
Related: El Salvador acts on Bitcoin price dip and buys 150 BTC
El Salvador BTC, a Twitter feed tracking the nation’s Bitcoin purchases, reported that $12 million in profit has been made so far, based on an average purchase price of $53,062.
Those 1,120 #BTC that @nayibbukele and @PresidenciaSV have purchased for El Salvador at an average price of $53,062, worth $59.43 million at the time of purchase, are now worth $71.42 million
— ElSalvadorBTC (@ElSalvadorBTC_) November 2, 2021
The account also tracks the $30 stimulus handout that the government gave to citizens to encourage the adoption of Bitcoin. The $30 in BTC given to Salvadorans on July 9 is now worth around $38, the tracker reported on Nov. 2. Anthony Pompliano's brother Joe commented:
“More citizens now have Bitcoin wallets than traditional bank accounts, and for the first time in their life, they have seen their purchasing power appreciate by more than 30%. This is a fascinating experiment.”
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Wharton accepts crypto payments for blockchain program tuition fees
The six-week program costs $3,800 and the Ivy League university expects to attract thousands of students each year.
Crypto adoption scores another win with the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, but there’s a catch.
The Wharton School, one of the premier business schools in the United States, will accept Bitcoin (BTC) and other forms of cryptocurrencies for tuition fees, Bloomberg reports. However, the adoption is limited to its new online blockchain and digital assets program scheduled to start in January.
Titled Economics of Blockchain and Digital Assets, the six-week program costs $3,800, and the university expects to attract thousands of students each year. The Wharton School will use Coinbase Commerce, the e-commerce platform of the United States-based crypto exchange, to accept crypto payments.
Wharton is currently offering an introductory class to crypto and blockchain via the online education platform Coursera, which is part of a more extensive course about financial technologies or fintech.
Related: Anyone who studies Bitcoin ends up investing in it, says Scaramucci
The business school made news earlier this year when it received a generous $5 million gift in Bitcoin. An anonymous benefactor gifted $5 million, roughly translated to 118 BTC, in May. The Wharton School reportedly exchanged the donation to fiat immediately, which would be worth more than $7 million at today’s Bitcoin price.
As Cointelegraph reported, the World Economic Forum recently partnered with the Blockchain and Digital Asset Project at the Wharton School. Led by Professor Kevin Werbach, the project aims to address the business and regulatory aspects of distributed ledger technology.
Anyone who studies Bitcoin ends up investing in it, says Scaramucci
Understanding Bitcoin inevitably leads to growing adoption, according to SkyBridge Capital CEO Anthony Scaramucci.
Investors who carefully study Bitcoin (BTC) are eventually convinced to own a stake in the cryptocurrency, according to SkyBridge Capital CEO and founder Anthony Scaramucci.
In a Monday interview with CNBC’s Capital Connection, Scaramucci — who also served a 10-day stint as President Donald Trump's communications director — urged investors to “do the homework on Bitcoin” and “understand what it is,” suggesting reading the white paper written by anonymous Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.
Understanding of Bitcoin inevitably leads to growing adoption as many prominent investors around the world realize the potential of the cryptocurrency, Scaramucci said:
“Anybody that does the homework ends up investing into it. Look at Ray Dalio, a Bitcoin skeptic, now a bitcoin investor.”
The executive added that other world-known investors like Paul Tudor Jones and American billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller have also bought Bitcoin. “These are brilliant guys who did the homework and drew a conclusion that they needed to own a piece of bitcoin,” he said.
Scaramucci notedd that Bitcoin has grown over 100,000% since its inception in January 2009. “If you had one cent in Bitcoin and 99 cents in cash over the last decade, you outperformed everything. Just think about that,” Scaramucci noted.
Related: PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel says he ‘underinvested’ in Bitcoin
Scaramucci’s remarks come as Bitcoin sits near its new all-time highs recorded last week, with BTC trading at $63,277 at the time of writing, according to data from CoinGecko. On Oct. 20, Bitcoin hit above $67,000 for the first time in its history. The cryptocurrency was trading around $13,000 just one year ago.
A number of big-name investors around the world claimed that Bitcoin is not particularly easy to use. According to major crypto industry investor Tim Draper, Bitcoin’s lack of ease of use is the main impediment to the mass adoption of cryptocurrency. American billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban argued last year that Bitcoin needs to be easy enough that “grandma can use it” before the mass adoption will occur.