Almost nine million Germans own cryptocurrencies - survey shows gender and age differences

Almost nine million people in Germany aged 18 and over currently own cryptocurrencies. This corresponds to a share of 12.8 percent of the adult population, according to a representative survey by the opinion institute YouGov on behalf of the management and technology consultancy BearingPoint.

4.9 percent of those surveyed have owned Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies in the past, but have already exited the market. There is also a potential of 11.4 percent (around 7.9 million people) who do not yet hold digital currencies but can imagine buying them. However, the vast majority of adults in Germany view the digital asset class with distance: 67.4 percent do not own any cryptocurrencies and are categorically ruling this out in the future.

On average, crypto owners are male and young.

The differences between genders and age groups are particularly pronounced. While 18.8 percent of men hold digital coins in their portfolio, the rate for women is only 7.2 percent. Among those aged 25 to 34, almost a third (28.4 percent) own cryptocurrencies, while the asset class hardly plays a role among the generation aged 55 and over.

Bitcoin remains the undisputed market leader among active crypto investors in Germany: three quarters of the owners (74.6 percent) hold shares of the original cryptocurrency in their portfolio. Ethereum follows a long way behind in second place (33.1 percent), while a good fifth of investors rely on Solana (22.7 percent). XRP (18.1 percent), Cardano (13.6 percent) and the best-known memecoin Dogecoin (13.0 percent) also each reach double-digit percentage values.

There is a clear risk awareness among the population as a whole: almost a third of those surveyed (32.7 percent) classify cryptocurrencies primarily as a highly speculative product.