💳 credit, debit, or bit?

it’s been some time since TSLA (tesla) began accepting bitcoin as payment for car purchasers and el salvador adopted bitcoin as legal tender since september last year

• we’d expect that cryptocurrency is now an integral part of everyday transactions (rather than just buying web3 things), but really to what extent has it become?

turns out, not that much…

• though nine in ten americans say they've heard of crypto, only 16% say they've ever held crypto

• another survey by the fed suggests that just 12% of americans used crypto in 2021, largely as an investment and not as a currency

  • notably, only 2% said they used crypto to buy something or make a payment

here’s something interesting…

• results of that fed survey suggest that crypto was primarily seen as an investment vehicle by mostly high-income citizens

  • imo: in the end, it’s only those with extra extra dry powder that’d have the comfort of dabbling with such a novel and highly volatile asset (rationally speaking)

• the survey also suggests that the 2% who used crypto as a payment method were more likely to be “unbanked, lower income, and without a credit card”

  • per yahoo finance / fed:

  • “nearly 6 in 10 [of those 2%] earned less than $50,000, and 13% lacked a bank account — compared with 6% of adults who did not use cryptocurrency.”

  • “more than a quarter of transactional crypto users lacked a credit card, versus 17% of non-crypto users.”

• imo: not sure how i feel about that

  • on the bright side, yes, crypto opens up a new option of payment for those with less opportunities or optionalities in the traditional financial system

  • but on the other hand, so much of the price movements of crypto itself that these low-income users depend on are most likely moved by high-income, high-volume accounts trading their ways in and out

    • 36% of employees want to be paid in crypto (per sofi), and im guessing one of the main reasons is the aspect of instant paycheck transfer (rather than having to wait a few days for the bank to process it), which i have a feeling is a more attractive and immediate for those “living paycheck to paycheck”

crypto’s awesome, but history always tells us that awesome things can have dark sides to it as well.

maybe i need to learn more to have a better opinion / conclusion. i’ll keep y’all updated with my learnings!

💡 something im thinking about

that's all, folks 🐒

as always, i’m no financial advisor! (i’m no substitute for professional financial services)

buy me a coffee :)