Cryptocurrency enthusiasm falls sharply in Netherlands

Dutch consumers' enthusiasm for cryptocurrency fell sharply over the past year, the Dutch authority on financial markets AFM said in a report published on Wednesday. The authority attributes the decreased enthusiasm to large price falls in the crypto market this year, NU.nl report.

The AFM surveyed the Dutch on cryptocurrency in October. 61 percent of respondents said that the digital coins have become less attractive. The number of Dutch people who own cryptocurrency decreased by 18 percent this year, from 580 thousand to 480 thousand. Crypto owners have also become less active in trading and more critical on digital coins.

Two thirds of the Dutch who own cryptocurrencies invested les than a thousand euros in them. About 3 percent invested more than 10 thousand euros. A small proportion of the population see cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, the rest as a way to make profit.

This year the world's best known crypto bitcoin lost approximately 80 percent of its value, dropping from a high of nearly 20 thousand dollars in December to just under 4 thousand dollars at the time of writing, according to figures from Coinbase.