One in four Canadians own crypto, says OSC survey

Awareness is growing, too. Six in 10 respondents (59%) correctly identified the definition of cryptocurrency, up from 54% in 2023 and 51% in 2022. More than one third (34%) were aware of stablecoins and 24% had heard of RWA tokens.

The most common reason for buying crypto among investors was to diversify their investment portfolio (28%), followed by the expectation of long-term growth in asset value (27%) and as a speculative investment (26%). For those who didn’t invest in crypto, commonly cited reasons included not understanding it well enough and fear of being defrauded (both 43%), along with the asset being too risky (41%).

Half of crypto investors (51%) reported having holdings worth $10,000 or less.

Advisors hopping on the bandwagon

Another indication the asset class is going mainstream is that 39% of respondents with a financial advisor said their advisors had recommended crypto investments, up from 19% in 2023. More than half (53%) of all respondents reported having seen advertisements for crypto investing.

“Although many engage with crypto via self-directed means, investors with financial advisors are now more likely than before to cover crypto in their discussions,” the OSC team wrote in the report. “They are also now more likely to say that they seek their advisors’ opinions on crypto and that they have been recommended to allocate at least some portion of their investment portfolio to crypto.”

Though crypto owners professed a high level of knowledge about the asset class, only 6% knew crypto is regulated by provincial securities commissions and 9% by FINTRAC, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada. Both responses were up over previous surveys, however.

Despite downturn, investors keeping their tokens

“Ownership and adoption is clearly growing, and it’s growing at a rapid rate. It was actually surprising to me that ownership has jumped to 25%,” says Eric Richmond, country director and CEO of Coinbase Canada, which was identified in the OSC report as the most used crypto trading platform in Canada. “It’s clear that Canadians believe in this technology, believe in this asset class.”

Though prices for major coins have fallen considerably since the survey was taken—Bitcoin has declined 26.6% year to date and Ethereum, 35.9%—Richmond says investors are largely holding onto their assets. Though dollar-denominated assets under management have declined, in other words, the number of crypto units held on the platform has remained steady.

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“We’re definitely seeing the institutional adoption of this space,” he added, in reference to the broader recommendation of bitcoin and other tokens by advisors and availability of crypto exposure through exchange-traded funds. “Canadians are looking at this asset class as something to complement their overall portfolios.”

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About Michael McCullough

Michael is a financial writer and editor in Duncan, B.C. He’s a former managing editor of Canadian Business and editorial director of Canada Wide Media. He also writes for The Globe and Mail and BCBusiness.