53% of crypto-natives would rather get paid their salary in cryptocurrency

The top reasons for this include people seeing cryptocurrencies as a smart investment, believing that they’ll likely get paid in it soon anyway, and greater financial flexibility. The research ‘Inside the crypto community: Plotting the journey to mass adoption’ surveyed a cross section of 2,000 crypto owners living in the US and UK, including their attitudes towards the future of decentralised finance.

Over half (54%) of crypto owners agree that cryptocurrency is the future of finance and will take over as the dominant form of international currency. This was also the primary motivation for owning crypto in the first place, ahead of making money from trading or investing. However, the research suggests this conclusion has come through careful consideration – and that crypto owners have had concerns along the way. In fact, 70% of people admitted to having doubts about investing in crypto at some point since they started trading, with nearly half (49%) of all crypto owners having cashed out either some or all of their cryptocurrency assets at some point as a result.

According to crypto owners, payments hold the key to mass crypto adoption. The top reason for not wanting to be paid in cryptocurrency is that it can’t be used to make payments widely enough at present (24%). Additionally, 22% of all crypto owners said they would invest more in crypto if more retailers accepted it as a form of payment, and 17% said the same if more countries accepted cryptocurrencies as legal tender. Overall, 59% of respondents agree that the lack of real-world applications for cryptocurrencies, such as payments, is currently preventing crypto from reaching its full potential.

Despite some of these potential stumbling blocks, crypto owners are optimistic on the timeline to widespread adoption. Over half (60%) agree that you’ll be able to use crypto to make online purchases with many more online retailers this time next year, while 47% agree that accepting cryptocurrencies in physical stores will become commonplace within the next 12 months. Finally, nearly half of crypto owners (49%) believe that everyone will own cryptocurrency within the next five years.

Commenting on the findings, Chirag Patel, CEO, Digital Wallets at Paysafe, said: “Interest in defi and the metaverse has reached a whole new level recently and, with that, positive sentiment towards cryptocurrencies continues to increase. However, it’s clear that many people are still crying out for more practical use cases to bring crypto into the real world – in particular, being able to use it as a payment method, and this is something we are committed to driving at Paysafe.

"People can interact with cryptocurrencies through our digital wallets, Skrill and NETELLER, whether that’s for the very first time or as a more seasoned investor.”