33% Americans will own Bitcoin by the end of 2022, top financial advisor says

• Ric Edelman said that he expects crypto mass adoptions as even traditional players are now getting into the industry.
• An increasing number of crypto users/owners are getting comfortable with getting their salaries in digital assets.

The number of cryptocurrency users/owners in the United States is growing faster than expected. During a recent CNBC interview, Ric Edelman from Edelman Financial Engines said that he expects one-third of all Americans to own Bitcoin by the end of 2022.

Edelman further goes on to explain the reason behind this mass adoption of Bitcoin. Currently, just less than 10% of Americans are already invested in Bitcoin. He said that Bitcoin is going mainstream not only among retail players but also institutional players and traditional institutions.

Governments, corporations and pension funds all are gaining exposure to crypto, especially Bitcoin. Besides, other investment advisors are also getting increasingly involved in Bitcoin. Edelman expects this trend to get more common and expand in the future.

Holding a contrarian view from other market analysts, Edelman stays confident that the U.S. SEC will approve a spot Bitcoin ETF this year in 2022. If this turns out to be true, we can expect a massive liquidity influx taking place in Bitcoin. The SEC has so far rejected dozens of applications for the spot Bitcoin ETF.

Edelman believes that the U.S. SEC has been running out of excuses as a lot of their concerns have been addressed relating to investor manipulation and investor security.

54% of crypto natives ready to accept salaries in Bitcoin

A leading specialized payment platform Paysafe recently conducted a survey that showed that 54 percent of crypto owners are ready to accept their salaries in digital assets. The survey was conducted across 2000 crypto owners across the U.S. and the U.K.

One of the top reasons behind it is that people consider digital assets as smart investments. Besides, they also believe that crypto provides them with greater financial flexibility. These crypto owners also believe that payments in crypto will hold the key to mass adoption. The press release notes:

Additionally, 22% of all crypto owners said they would invest more in crypto if more retailers accepted it as a form of payment, and 17% said the same if more countries accepted cryptocurrencies as legal tender. Overall, 59% of respondents agree that the lack of real-world applications for cryptocurrencies, such as payments, is currently preventing crypto from reaching its full potential.

Commenting on all these findings, Chirag Patel, CEO, Digital Wallets at Paysafe, said: “Interest in defi and the metaverse has reached a whole new level recently and, with that, positive sentiment towards cryptocurrencies continues to increase. However, it’s clear that many people are still crying out for more practical use cases to bring crypto into the real world – in particular, being able to use it as a payment method, and this is something we are committed to driving at Paysafe.”