One in four Canadians now holds digital assets or crypto investment funds, according to a newly released survey by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). The level of adoption has increased substantially over the past two years.
According to Coinbase Canada Country Director Eric Richmond, the report confirms that digital assets have entered the financial mainstream.
“1 in 4 Canadians now own crypto, and trade more with Coinbase than any other platform in the country,” Richmond wrote on X. “Digital assets are now mainstream in Canada, and they look for platforms they can rely on to do just that.”
Ownership more than doubles
The findings show that 25% of Canadians now own crypto assets or crypto funds. This figure is up from just 10% in 2023 and 13% in 2022.
Nearly 39% of Canadian investors now own some form of crypto product.
Meanwhile, awareness continues to rise. Nearly 59% of Canadians can now correctly identify what a crypto asset is, compared with 54% in 2023 and 51% in 2022.
However, the survey also found that many Canadians still misunderstand how crypto works (especially in such areas as regulation, investor protection, insurance coverage, and so on).
More than speculation
The survey also shows that cryptocurrency is increasingly being used for more than speculation.
Among current crypto owners, 74% said they have actually used their digital assets. Meanwhile, 89% of stablecoin holders reported using their holdings. Notably, 20% of stablecoin owners said they had used them for international money transfers.
When asked why they bought crypto, Canadians most frequently cited portfolio diversification (28%), long-term belief in crypto and blockchain technology (27%), and speculative investing (26%).
Other common motivations included transferring money digitally.
Improving divergence
The survey also points to signs of improving investor diligence, which was pretty much absent during the early stages of crypto adoption.
Among crypto owners, 50% said they check whether a trading platform is registered before investing, up from 38% in the previous survey.