Brazilians Invest More in Cryptocurrency Than in the Stock Market

The survey, commissioned by Coinbase and Hashdex, found that while savings accounts were Brazil's most used investment instrument, cryptocurrency was more popular

A new poll commissioned by Hashdex and Coinbase with Datafolha and Paradigma Education has found that cryptocurrency is more popular than other investment options, including stocks and gold, among Brazilians.

The poll, which interviewed over 2,000 people in different parts of the country, found that the most popular investment tool was a savings account.

The second most popular investment option was real estate, with 31% of the sample having dipped their toes into these opportunities.

Cryptocurrency (16%) ranked as the fifth most popular investment in the country, behind other options such as money under the mattress (24%) and investment funds (19%). Nonetheless, crypto scored big wins against other traditional investments, including dollars and foreign currency, bonds, gold and stock.

Crypto’s remarkable position, even overcoming options like the U.S. dollar, has experts thinking about the profile of the Brazilian investor and how citizens prefer stablecoins to actual physical banknotes.

“These results show that a group of Brazilian investors are high-risk, high-reward market participants. They have a preference for exposure to an extremely volatile asset that is sensitive to news events, without a counterpart in hard currency in the portfolio,” said analysis manager at fintech Nomad, Paula Zogbi.

This is also related to the appreciation that Brazilians, in general, have of cryptocurrency, with 29% of the polled stating that cryptocurrency was similar to bets and 45% comparing them directly to stocks.

“This finding from the survey by Hashdex underscores the size of the crypto market in Brazil and the interest of the population in this asset class. However, there is still room to expand knowledge about other investment processes linked to crypto, like staking, for example. This data reinforces the need to expand knowledge about this asset class so that more Brazilians can take advantage of its potential,” said CEO of Hashdex, Marcelo Sampaio.