(Kitco News) - The crypto winter has taken its toll on cryptocurrency investors in Canada, as the latest data from Finder.com shows that only 10% of Canadian adults currently own any crypto, down from 13% in 2021.
While these numbers can be disheartening, it’s not all that surprising to see such an outcome based on the performance of the crypto market since Bitcoin topped out near $69,000 back in November 2021.
Canada also happens to be one of the few countries to have a Bitcoin Spot ETF listed on its major stock exchanges. These products were quite popular when they were first launched in the middle of 2021, but interest has waned in recent months alongside the decline in crypto prices.
Some are even surprised that the level of adoption has remained as high as it has when taking the price pullbacks into consideration. This includes James Edwards, cryptocurrency specialist with Finder, who expected to see a more pronounced decline in adoption.
“We saw huge drops in the price of Bitcoin at the start of May and June and while we did see a reduction in the number of people holding cryptocurrency it’s not as severe as expected,” Edwards said.
Putting a positive spin on the number of crypto holders that remain, Edwards stated, “This suggests that while some people have sold, others are holding for the long term or may have actually bought cryptocurrency for the first time at what they consider to be a discount.”
Men continue to dominate crypto investments
Digging deeper into the data provided by Finder shows that the trend of men being the most active crypto traders continues to persist, with 72% of Canadian crypto owners identifying as male.
Women have actually seen a decline in their overall representation in the Canadian crypto market after comprising 39% of crypto holders based on data from Finder back in February.
When it comes to which cryptos Canadian investors prefer, Bitcoin (BTC) still ranks number one, with 34% of crypto hodlers in the country hodling, followed by Dogecoin (23%) and Ethereum (22%).
Looking at the population as a whole, roughly 3% of Canadians say they own Bitcoin, while
Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE) and Cardano (ADA) each got affirmative responses from 2% of those surveyed.
On the demographics front, younger Canadians aged 18 - 34 comprised the bulk of crypto owners at 54%, while those aged 55 and older were the least likely to own crypto, currently comprising just 14% of the Canadian crypto population.
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Increased activity from Canadian regulators
These insights into cryptocurrency adoption in Canada come as regulators in the country have been making moves to shore up their regulatory approach to the growing asset class.
On Monday, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) announced that crypto trading platforms will be expected to “provide a pre-registration undertaking to their principal regulator to continue operations while their application is reviewed.”
The main focus of these new measures is to address concerns related to investor protection following a series of high-profile implosions by cryptocurrency platforms.
“By giving these undertakings, crypto trading platforms agree to comply with terms and conditions that address investor protection concerns and are consistent with requirements currently applicable to registered platforms,” the CSA said.
This development is part of the “interim approach” introduced in the guidance on securities law requirements for crypto asset trading platforms released in March 2021 by the CSA and Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC).
