Over 55% Prefer to Earn Crypto As Rewards — Q4 2020
Tags: Surveys, Announcements, Cryptocurrency, Trends, Bitcoin

Plutus Report | Over 55% Prefer to Earn Crypto As Rewards — Q4 2020 Plutus Follow Nov 12 · 4 min read

The value of the digital payments market has seen an increase of more than 50% over the last three years, reaching $4.7trn in value in 2020 according to Statista. With the advent of new technologies and payment solutions, this is expected to grow to $6.7trn by 2023.

In order to better understand the future needs of consumers, Plutus has conducted a survey which will help grasp the sentiments and preferences of general UK shoppers — especially as we head into the holiday season. In addition to discovering that the overall awareness and ownership of cryptocurrencies has increased since June of this year, we also found some very interesting insights that we thought would be valuable to share.

What Did We Discover?

Online Shopping is Accelerating

Our survey has found that the frequency of online shopping this year has increased due to the recent worldwide health crisis, especially amongst 18–29 age groups.

Debit Cards & PayPal Still Dominate

A majority of respondents chose debit cards and PayPal as their preferred payment methods while shopping online in the UK, with debit cards more popular between 18–29 and 45–60-year-olds, and PayPal more popular for survey respondents between 30–44 years old.

Cashback & Crypto Rewards are Highly Important

Cashback rewards is the second most important factor for consumers over availability of funds when deciding which payment method to use when checking out online.

Overall, the majority of participants (40%) prefer to convert their earned reward points to cash to spend elsewhere. A feature that is scarce amongst many traditional loyalty programmes where rewards are centralised and locked to a single retail chain.

Question: How would you prefer to get Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethreum and others?

The Public Want Widespread Adoption of Crypto

Further indicating that crypto adoption and awareness has accelerated towards mainstream adoption, the Plutus survey found that 81% of respondents who own Bitcoin, Ethereum or other cryptocurrencies would like to see more widespread merchant adoption of these assets in order to increase accessibility to spend crypto. Crypto awareness of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies reached 85.63% among participants.

Compared to the US, the UK market leads with 21.6% crypto ownership depending on which source you want to benchmark against. Data from a Finder survey the year prior revealed 14.4% of Americans own crypto.

Question: Have you heard of Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and others?

The following age groups represent crypto ownership:

18–29: 28.87%

28.87% 30–44: 24.62%

24.62% 45–60: 14.95%

14.95% Over 60: They’re less likely to own cryptocurrencies

People Want to Earn Crypto

There’s an overwhelming amount of interest in participants preferring to earn cryptocurrencies as loyalty reward points rather than buying or mining it.

40% of the surveyed population would be willing to pay £/€9.99 for a debit card that provided 3% back in cryptocurrency; a statistic that climbs higher for the 18–29 age range (53%). This is what Plutus currently offers and users can earn rewards of higher value than the subscription fee if they spend €333/mo with the Plutus Card on shopping.

Key takeaways for Plutus

Over 21% of UK respondents own Bitcoin and Crypto, whilst a majority of the citizens (over 85%) have heard of the digital assets. Over 55% would prefer to earn crypto as a loyalty reward for their everyday purchases with their debit card as opposed to buying crypto directly.

What Will be Done With This Data?

The 2020 survey returned a lot of fascinating information. We are witnessing a phase where UK consumers want to see cryptocurrencies more accessible and mainstream. Leveraging crypto rewards for e-commerce purchases can maximise the benefits for consumers and foster growth in the crypto space.

At Plutus, we look to discover trends early on that could service the needs of the future consumer, as evidenced by our early (2015) concept release of the world’s first decentralised loyalty rewards system. This report will help us continue to lead innovation within the sector to deliver groundbreaking solutions that bridge the gap between crypto and fiat; doing so in a decentralised and non-custodial manner that maintains the ethos of blockchain.

Download the full report, you can find it on our homepage: https://plutus.it/