The Dutch have €2.2 billion tied up in cryptocurrencies, survey shows

The amount of money Dutch people have invested in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether has risen to an estimated 2.2 billion euros. The amount invested now stands about thirteen times higher than in 2018, according to a report by market researcher Multiscope based on a survey of over 4,000 Dutch people.

According to the researchers, roughly 1.9 million Dutch people have invested money in cryptocurrencies representing close to 8 percent of the group’s available capital. On average, men have placed slightly more of their wealth in cryptocurrencies than women. While women have placed 6 percent in cryptocurrency, men have invested 8 percent. Most investors said they are in it for the longer term. They do not have a specific return on investment or price point in mind that would trigger them to sell off their holdings.

Multiscope noted that people over 50 generally have the highest amount of money in crypto. On average they spent 1,360 euros per person. The group aged 18 to 34 and the group aged 35 to 49 have invested an average of around 1,140 euros. The average investment in 2018 was still about 200 euros, according to the researchers.

Three-quarters of crypto owners said they want to keep the coins in their possession for as long as possible. The others aim for a return of at least 1,000 percent. On average, young people are only satisfied when their investment increases in value by 1,970 percent. Those who are over 50 years of age said they are pleased with a more modest tripling of their investment.

Recently, the value of digital currencies have again come under considerable pressure mainly due to the problems at cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Before the weekend, FTX announced that it is requesting a postponement of payment. Sam Bankman-Frieds' crypto empire began to falter due to the depreciation of FTX's own currency, the FTT.

The cryptocurrency exchange then struggled with liquidity problems as a result. The competing crypto exchange, Binance, then announced that it wanted to take over FTX, but after conducting due diligence it declined to do so. The 1 billion dollars that FTX customers held at FTX now seems to have vanished without a trace.

Bitcoin has already lost almost a fifth of its value this month, partly due to the problems at FTX. On Sunday, the coin was worth about $16,600. FTX's token, FTT, was down about 5 percent. The loss for that currency is about 90 percent this month.