Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies have millions of users
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are receiving more and more attention, but the fact of the matter is, the market is still in its infancy. To put things into perspective, its capitalization is currently about six times lower than Google -- and even less compared to Apple, which is the most valuable publicly-traded company in the world.
What we do not know exactly is how many people own cryptocurrency. It may be a small market in the grand scheme of things, but according to new report from Cambridge Judge Business School, between 2.9 and 5.8 million people in 38 countries use Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies.
The market cap I mentioned earlier is based on the coins that are in circulation (available to buy, more exactly), so that would mean that users have, on average, between $18,966 and $37,932 in cryptocurrencies. That is a pretty substantial sum, if you consider how volatile and young this market is.
Another tidbit from the report is the number of people that are full-time employees in the cryptocurrency sector. That would be at least 1,876. The report states that it may be "likely well above two thousand when large mining organizations and other organizations that did not provide headcount figures are added." Most work at exchanges.
In my article How to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum I implied that exchanges do care about the legal aspect of trading, hence all the verification involved before being allowed to buy coins. The report confirms that, saying that 52 percent of the small exchanges have a government license. When it comes to large exchanges, that figure drops to 35 percent.
To learn more about what's in the report, you can read it in full here.
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