In this time of highly volatile foreign currencies, increasing reliance upon international transfers, and e-commerce still being a consistently growing sector, ever more people are asking if cryptocurrency is a viable alternative to traditional money and transactions. It’s not just individuals and businesses who are exploring the option of digital currency. Some of the world’s governments are actively looking into safe, ethereal monetary solutions to offer their citizens. For example, Sweden is currently drafting a plan to launch an e-krona coin. Also, the government of Iran has declared plans to develop its own cryptocurrency as a way to bypass American sanctions.
We here at StatSocial have asked ourselves “Who are cryptocurrency’s early adopters?” Below is a sampling of some of what we’ve discovered about the people who are currently most concerned with all things #crypto.
Methodology: We identified a random sample of 100,000 US-based Twitter users who are engaging with any one of the 1,500 cryptocurrency brands in our taxonomy. The following is a high-level analysis of this audience.
Demographics: Looking over our findings, we first notice that men are more engaged with cryptocurrency brands than women. Women, though, still make up one-third of the audience, which is a significant share.
Not surprisingly, the most over-indexed locations where crypto-enthusiasts live are San Francisco, New York, and Austin.
As for income-levels, we’ve found that crypto-matters are of greatest interest to those earning well. People making in excess of $100 thousand a year account for a full fifth of this audience. More than 78% are earning at least $50k annually.
Looking at our Top Interests taxonomy, the strongest affinities detected among this audience are for the finance and technology sectors
According to our data, the most predominant of these crypto-social-media-butterflies are male, tech and market savvy, and coastally located. So, who influences these butterflies? Where is the source of this butterfly effect? And can we quantify the level of affinity toward influential people and brands?
The most influential individual among crypto fans is Marc Andreessen, American software engineer, entrepreneur, and investor. Our audience follows Marc to a degree exceeding the average Twitter user by seven-and-a-half times.
Another name finding favor among the crypto-enthusiasts is Elon Musk. The SpaceX and Tesla founder is popular among the “cryptoids” to a degree exceeding the average by six times
StatSocial’s unique taxonomy allows us to categorize influencers by spheres. We can see the overall TOP 100 Influencers, as well as influencers in particular industries. If we focus on Business Influencers, we can drill down to the line of business: Management / CEOs, Real Estate, Technology, and the likes. For example, Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, John Legere, Richard Branson, and Tim Cook are the leading names among the most popular CEOs, while Gary Vaynerchuk is dominating the ranks in the Marketing / Advertising segment.
StatSocial’s taxonomy also offers unique insights into the brands with which this audience’s members are engaging most. Outside of the obvious leaders, which are crypto and Fintech platforms, other Top Brands include Tesla, Microsoft, Google, GitHub, and Amazon. These findings illustrate strong affinities among this audience for innovation and technology.
At this stage, we’ve gotten some idea of who the crypto fans are and who they are inspired by. At StatSocial, however, we do not just scratch the surface. Instead, we measure affinities across a vast array of parameters. That established, let’s zoom into the Top Media preferences among this group.
The crypto-enthusiasts love watching ‘Shark Tank’ and reading blogs on Medium. ‘Business Insider’ and ‘Bloomberg’ are the main sources of news with this group. If cryptoids are investing online, they want to be on top of the latest finance news and trends, as reported by these publications.
As for Movie genres, interestingly, Bollywood movies is leading the list. This insight suggests that the Hindi-speaking population is well-represented among crypto-enthusiasts.
From Movies, let’s move on to the Top YouTube Channels for this audience. A large share of the most popular channels are education- and finance-focused, which is consistent with expectation. We see a strong affinities for investment gurus and tech influencers. It is clear that the crypto-enthusiasts are keen on self-development, learning from others, and all things tech and finance.
These insights offer a clearer understanding of who the crypto-enthusiasts are as a group and what common interests they tend to share. The typical representatives of this group live in coastal hubs and are comfortably middle and upper-middle-class. They read business news publications, such as ‘Bloomberg’ and ‘Business Insider,’ watch educational and investment videos on YouTube, and follow tech and finance influencers across social networks. Cryptoids are all about innovation and self-growth. Based on the movie preferences, we can also conclude that a decent share of crypto enthusiasts are of Indian descent.
From these insights we would conclude that online and offline sources of business and technology news would be avenues that those seeking to reach this audience would be well-advised in pursuing. Fintech-focused conferences and forums, as well as personal-growth / educational YouTube vlogs are platforms toward which the crypto-community gravitates in their quest to receive and exchange knowledge. With this analysis in mind, advertisers can reach cryptoids and more effectively establish relationships with the community.
Authored by Stacy Tsultsumova