To answer the question of how many people all over the word use Bitcoin in 2018, probably the best answer would be simply –a lot. It’s impossible to get a single number as an answer, especially as it’s an evergreen trend with growing popularity. However, looking at some stats could give us a good picture of the imposing popularity the bitcoin has worldwide.
The essentials about the bitcoin users
- There are around 22 million set up wallets for bitcoin in the world.
- Approximately five percent of all Americans are bitcoin users.
- Cambridge University study showed there are between 2.9 to 5.8 million active bitcoin users
- There are more than 13 million bitcoin users in the leading exchange Coinbase.
- The rarely included emerging markets’ users are most likely in the millions.
Let’s take a closer look at this imposing figures.
22 Million Bitcoin Wallets Worldwide
As reported by Bitinfocharts.com, there are almost 22 million set up bitcoin wallets globally. However, this figure is not very revealing, as many bitcoin users have a number of bitcoin wallets and use several wallet addresses in order to protect their financial privacy and transactions. Therefore, the number of bitcoin wallets is not indicative of the number of bitcoin users which is most likely less than 22 million.
5 Percent of Americans Hold Bitcoin
The Global Blockchain Council and SurveyMonkey showed in the recent report that 60% of 5.000 surveyed Americans have heard of bitcoin, out of which five percent are bitcoin holders. If we broaden these stats to the entire US population, that would show approximately 16 million Americans were actively using bitcoin.
2.9 to 5.8 Million Bitcoin Users
Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance has repeatedly informed that “current number of unique active users of cryptocurrency wallets is estimated to be between 2.9 and 5.8 million.” as shown in their studies. The important distinction is that these results refer to “active bitcoin users” rather than “bitcoin wallet holders.” This illustrates how many people are actually using bitcoin regularly as opposed to the investors who only buy and hold.
The Cambridge University study was very comprehensive in its nature; data was collected from more than 100 cryptocurrency companies, based in 38 countries. In other words, the study includes more than 75 percent of the global blockchain industry. Considering the remaining companies, the total number of global active bitcoin users can only be higher than the study’s findings.
Source/More: The Growing Number of Bitcoin Users in 2018 – JOSIC
