Finder’s NFT Adoption Index measures the growth of NFTs worldwide through an ongoing survey of internet users in 26 countries.
Key US NFT adoption trends for September 2022 report
US NFT ownership
6.6M Americans own an NFT.
Gender split
US men are 2.9x more likely to own NFT.
Men 4%
Women 1%
NFT adoption statistics in the US
NFT ownership in the US is in line with what we saw last month, with 3% saying they own an NFT, following 3% the month before.
This is in line with the global average of 3% who say they own an NFT.
India leads the way at 7%, with Germany at the other end of the spectrum with 1%.
Men in the US more likely than women to own an NFT
In the US aproximately 4% of men say they own an NFT compared to 1% of women.
There is a wide gap in adoption of NFTs between men and women. On average roughly 2% of women say they own an NFT globally, compared to 4% of men. India has the highest adoption of NFTs for men, with 8% of men saying they have bought the asset compared to Japan which has the lowest uptake among men at 1%. Vietnam has the most women who said they own an NFT, with 5% saying they’ve bought an NFT, compared to just 1% in Germany who said the same.
The gap in ownership between men and women is at its widest in United States, where 4% of men say they own NFT, compared to 1% of women. The smallest gap in adoption of NFTs is in Japan, where 2% of women say they have an NFT compared to 1% of men.
Age trends for NFT ownership in the US
Those aged 18-34 in the US lead the way in terms of the NFT ownership, with 5% saying they have one or more NFTs. Those aged 55+ are the group least likely to own NFT, making up just 1% owning an NFT.
Methodology
Finder regularly survey individuals across 26 countries to analyze NFT adoption rates, investment diversification and the demographics of investors.
Beginning in April 2022, Finder switched its method to a three-month rolling average. The July 2022 report will be the first to present data using the three-month rolling average, which is made up of responses gathered between April and June 2022. The August report will display May through July 2022 and so forth. So far the survey using the new method has garnered 272,257 responses.
The survey is designed by Finder and conducted by Google in all territories except for the first run in Australia, where the survey is conducted by Qualtrics/SAP.
Participants are internet, smartphone and Google AdMob users or Qualtrics research panel participants. Sample sizes range from 1,000 to 2,500 people and are directly proportional to population size. Participating countries are selected based on global Finder site traffic and availability on research platforms.
Survey results are analyzed using Google’s Data Studio, which provides weighted averages for the top-level responses, along with breakdowns for sex and age.
Finder previously asked people whether they owned or planned to own NFTs in a diffent survey. The method for that survey and the reults differ to the latest iteration and are not comparable.
According to new research from Finder.com, 2.8% of American internet users currently own a non-fungible token — or an NFT. Finder polled more than 28,000 people in an online survey across 20 countries to compare NFT ownership, revealing the US ranks third last for NFT adoption.
However, while just 2.8% of the 2,001 US internet users surveyed said they currently own NFTs, an additional 3.9% said they plan to acquire some. This means NFT adoption in the United States could soon hit 6.7%.
American men are more likely to own NFTs than women, with 4.6% men compared to 1.2% of women saying they have at least one NFT. The NFT gender gap in America of 3.3 percentage points is higher than the global gender gap of 2.7 percentage points.
People ages 25 to 34 are the most likely to have NFTs in the United States (3.4%). This is followed by those ages 55 to 64 and 65+ (2.9% each) and 45 to 54 (2.7%).
Which country has the most NFT owners?
The Philippines has the most NFT owners (32%) out of the 20 countries compared, followed by Thailand (27%), Malaysia (24%), the UAE (23%) and Vietnam (17%). On the other end of the spectrum, Japan has the smallest percentage of Internet users with NFTs (2%), followed by the UK and the US (3% each), Germany (4%), Australia (5%) and Canada (6%).
Finder’s cryptocurrency editor, Keegan Francis, says the countries with higher levels of adoption typically have a lower average wage of working citizens. People are quitting their jobs because they can make more money trading NFTs or playing NFT play-to-earn games. Additionally, NFTs may serve as the nexus through which they enter the cryptocurrency industry in general. Exchanges can be difficult to obtain an account on if you don’t have government identification. These NFT games don’t require ID, and yet allow you to make money. Once you’ve made some money in cryptocurrency, you can trade it for whatever else you might want, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.
Nigeria is expected to have the biggest growth in NFT adoption from 13.7% to 35.3% – an increase of 22 percentage points. Other countries that are expected to see huge growth in NFT adoption include Peru, Venezuela and United Arab Emirates.
In 18 of the 20 countries surveyed, men are more likely to have NFTs than women. Of these, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and Malaysia have the biggest gender gaps.
Meanwhile, in two countries, women are more likely to have non-fungible tokens. Thailand has a female-led gap of 7 percentage points, while Venezuela has a gap of 2 percentage points.
How many people know what an NFT is?
While NFT adoption is forecast to increase around the world in future, a large number of people still don’t know what NFTs are. Japan has the highest percentage of people who said they don’t know what NFTs are (90%), followed by Germany (83%) and the United Kingdom (79%). On the other end of the spectrum, the Philippines recorded the lowest percentage at 49%, followed by Nigeria (52%) and Thailand (53%).
There is a strong correlation between those who know what NFTs are and those who own NFTs. This suggests ownership will increase as people become aware of NFTs.
Finder used Google Survey to poll 28,723 Internet users across 20 countries. Due to the varying Google infrastructure in each territory, not all surveys were nationally representative. Where a nationally representative sample was unavailable, a natural fall/convenience sample was used. For these, Google didn’t use stratified sampling but did apply weights to the survey results if the demographics of the survey respondents didn’t vary too far from demographics data. The details of Google’s survey methodology can be found here.
The high percentage of results in some countries are likely due to gaming NFTs, where investors can pay internet users (often called scholars) to play a game on their behalf. In many cases, the players gets paid but the investor earns the NFT. As the majority of the players in these countries are scholars, the results may be skewed by people who responded with a yes because they earn money playing these games, may not actually own NFTs.
Colombia: A convenience sample of 1,502
United States: Representative sample of 2,001
United Kingdom: Representative sample of 2,023
Australia: Representative sample of 1,000
Argentina: A convenience sample of 1,505
Venezuela: A convenience sample of 1,003
Peru: A convenience sample of 1,202
Thailand: A convenience sample of 852
Japan: Representative sample 2,001
Brazil: Representative sample 2,002
Vietnam: A convenience sample of 2,005
Germany: Representative sample of 2,000
Malaysia: A convenience sample of 1,502
Canada: Representative sample of 1,201
Singapore: A convenience sample of 1,002
United Arab Emirates: A convenience sample of 1,004
The Philippines: A convenience sample of 1,507
Hong Kong: A convenience sample of 1,001
South Africa: A convenience sample of 1,205
Nigeria: A convenience sample of 1,205
Image: Getty
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Richard Laycock is Finder’s NYC-based senior content marketing manager & insights editor, spending the last decade data diving, writing and editing articles about all things personal finance. His musings can be found across the web including on NASDAQ, MoneyMag, Yahoo Finance and Travel Weekly. Richard studied Media at Macquarie University, including a semester abroad at The Missouri School of Journalism (MIZZOU).
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