33 Eye-Opening Cryptocurrency Statistics 2022

Cryptocurrencies have totally taken the world by storm. They’ve not only proven to be a very large financial market, though known for volatility, but they’ve also managed to enter the public consciousness at large!

Even if you don’t trade cryptocurrencies yourself, you’ve likely heard of them, and discussed them to some length with people you know.

Because of how big the cryptocurrency market is, you’re likely wondering how you can get into it, and what the statistics of the market are like.

However, of course, understanding cryptocurrencies requires quite a lot of knowledge and research, and even much of that knowledge often goes over an individual’s head.

As a result, you will definitely want to take a look at some of the amazing statistics that we have dug up just for you! 

Cryptocurrency Statistics

Read on below to find out some of the eye-opening cryptocurrency statistics that will help you to better understand the cryptocurrency market and its current standings in 2022!

1. Blockchain Size

Cryptocurrencies and other crypto projects are all stored in what is known as the ‘Blockchain’, which is a massive series of codes that helps to point users in the direction of their crypto assets, including cryptocurrencies, and things like NFTs.

Of course, because the blockchain is simply made up of code, each individual code that points to each unit of currency or each unique NFT actually takes up very little memory space.

However, the exponential growth of the blockchain for Bitcoin alone has seen it reach a totally massive size of over 320 GB! This size is set to grow year upon year! This shows just how big the Bitcoin market is, and how many investments it has drawn.

2. A New Name

More than 50% of individuals involved in the cryptocurrency market prefer to instead opt for the term ‘Virtual currency’. This catch-all term helps crypto to shake off the negative reputation that the word has earned. 

3. High Carbon Emissions

Unfortunately, one of the biggest drawbacks of cryptocurrencies is the high carbon emissions that they are associated with. For every $1 billion that flows into the Bitcoin market alone, over 5.4 million tons of CO2 emissions take place. 

This has led many to be heavily critical of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, though efforts are being made to curb the carbon footprint of the blockchain.

4. Growing Usage

Recent research has shown that over 16% of Americans are now actively using cryptocurrency in some form, whether it be simply investing in it, collecting it, or actively using it as a form of legal tender.

This means that there are around 53 million people in the United States alone that are using cryptocurrencies!

5. Cryptocurrency Mania

Of course, there is much more to cryptocurrencies than simply the ever-popular Bitcoin! At the time of writing this, there are currently around 21,500 cryptocurrencies currently in circulation, which is incredibly impressive.

However, this does point to how volatile the market can be, as many of those currencies are fad currencies that very quickly experience total crashes as quickly as they rise in popularity!

6. Bitcoin ATMs

Bitcoin ATMs are very similar to standard ATMs that we all recognize, and they are now popping up all over the world. They allow Bitcoin owners to get direct access to their Bitcoin balances, and make use of their own coins.

There are now well over 15,000 individual Bitcoin ATMs dotted globally across the world. It is likely that this number will only continue to grow over the coming years. 

7. Mining Boom

Cryptocurrencies need to be mined before they can then be minted and sold on the market. The act of Bitcoin mining has helped to earn well over $20 billion per year in cumulative income for those involved in Bitcoin mining. 

It is incredibly likely that this number will continue to rise as Bitcoins grow more and more in popularity, and become more and more accessible to everyday people!

8. More Transactions

As of 2020, more than 700 billion digital payments have been made involving Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies! This equates to around a 14% growth over all previous years.

Once again, it is likely that this number will continue to rise over the years, as the value of some of the top cryptocurrencies continues to grow.

9. Tesla And Crypto

Very few S&P 500 companies have ever publicly announced that they have directly involved themselves with the crypto market.

In fact, the first-ever S&P 500 company to announce direct involvement with cryptocurrency was Tesla, which announced that it had invested in and acquired a strong number of Bitcoins.

The usage of cryptocurrencies amongst the world’s most powerful companies is likely to grow as acceptance of cryptocurrencies also grows. 

This is further proof that the cryptocurrency market is growing at an incredible rate and that cryptocurrencies are most definitely here to stay.

10. Popular Blockchain Wallets

An incredible number of people across the world are currently making use of blockchain wallets, with almost 70 million people claiming to use such wallets as of the latest count.

Blockchain wallets are designed to allow users to store all of their information pertaining to cryptocurrencies, as well as all of their unique cryptocurrencies themselves.

This makes it much easier to keep track of cryptocurrencies, and also keep a close eye on the market value of each currency.

11. Social Media Craze

Social media is one of the most powerful avenues for driving cryptocurrency sales, and for keeping the market alive and thriving.

Pretty much every platform, from Facebook to Reddit, to Twitter, has a community of loyal cryptocurrency users who use the platforms to discuss the state of the market.

Because of this, there is on average a new social media post pertaining to cryptocurrencies every 2 seconds added to social media! 

12. Gender Awareness

A study has shown that more males are currently aware of the existence of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin than females. However, the difference in awareness between the two is still rather negligible.

Around 78% of male respondents to a survey reported that they were aware of Bitcoin, while around 71% of female respondents reported that they were aware of Bitcoin.

13. Bitcoin As A Safe Haven

Safe havens are incredibly attractive to people all over the world because they can guarantee a return on investment, and even a significant profit, even during times of overall economic downturn. 

Bitcoin is commonly held as a safe haven, especially amongst millennials, who look to it as a way to continue earning money even in times of financial crisis.

Over 67% of millennials believe Bitcoin to be a safe haven with greater stability than gold. Gold was once held as one of the world’s strongest safe havens; a market that will continue to grow in value even in times of economic downturn. 

This speaks to the potential value of Bitcoin moving into the future as a cryptocurrency that stands out and stands the test of time.

14. Bitcoin Mining’s Energy Usage

It is difficult to discuss Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies without also discussing the immense impact that it continues to have on the environment.

Research into energy usage from Bitcoin mining has shown that mining Bitcoin alone uses enough energy to power over 10 million homes for over a year.

This is a very striking and sobering statistic that shows, as much as there is great potential for financial freedom for investors in Bitcoin, its impact on the environment cannot be ignored, and must be tackled for the continued viability of cryptocurrency.

The environmental impact of cryptocurrencies and NFTs has led the blockchain to earn a massive number of critics that could directly impact the health of the crypto market.

15. Bitcoin’s Environmental Impact

Of course, with global warming continuing to have an impact on the health of the planet, and with more efforts needed to help protect the environment and prevent the growth of global warming, it stands out massively that Bitcoin mining alone could see global temperature climbing by another 2 degrees over the next few years.

This, once again, suggests that the Bitcoin mining market needs to be shifted to help protect the environment if it wishes to remain viable well into the future. 

Most electricity used for Bitcoin mining is generated using coal-based production processes.

16. Bitcoin Mining In China

Most Bitcoin mining operations are actually based in China, currently accounting for more than 72% of mining operations for the entire market.

This is a surprising statistic that actually becomes rather concerning when we consider that more than 66% of electricity in the country is actually generated using coal-powered sources. 

This explains to some degree why the blockchain itself has such a negative reputation, thanks to how much of it is powered by unclean power sources that are known for having a direct environmental impact!

17. Virtual Currency Bans

As of writing this, only two countries have currently imposed laws that outright ban the use of virtual currencies as legal tender and a means of payment. Both Ecuador and Indonesia have both banned virtual currencies of all shapes and forms as legal tender.

18. Low Crime

Cryptocurrency helps to put full control into the hands of those trading in it, which helps to make it easier to make a profit from it and use the market in any way an individual may see fit.

However, this also leads many to assume that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin could easily be used for illegal activities, or even to launder money from drugs.

However, research has actually surprisingly shown that the free-market potential of Bitcoin is not enough to entice illegal activity in the use of cryptocurrencies. In fact, only 1.1% of cryptocurrency transactions have ever proven to be illegal.

This means that very few are actually using cryptocurrency as a money laundering opportunity. 

19. Etherium – Bitcoin’s Biggest Competition

Etherium is another highly popular cryptocurrency and currently stands as Bitcoin’s biggest competition in the cryptocurrency market. In 2020 alone, Etherium experienced an incredibly impressive usage rate of around 1 million transactions every single day.

This is a totally incredible rate that proves Etherium could very easily become the market leader in the foreseeable future. Bitcoin, on the other hand, proved to only be used in around 330,000 transactions daily over the course of 2020.

This is more than four times lower than the rate that Ethereum managed to reach! 

This trend has continued to display itself across the years, and it is likely that Etherium’s influence may continue to grow, year upon year!

20. Crypto Malware

Of course, as with any explosive online venture, the cryptocurrency boom has seen many unwitting crypto investors finding themselves victims to malware.

In January 2020 alone, it was found that over 600 million unique viruses and pieces of malware were released into crypto markets across the internet. 

This number continues to increase year upon year and is a testament to how new the Cryptocurrency market is in comparison to much of the content on the internet.

Over the years, with the increased release of cryptocurrency malware, more crypto trading platforms will become more stable, making it safer for everyday people to get involved. 

One of the most dangerous pieces of crypto-malware involves cryptojacking, which causes a device to mine for crypto in the background without knowing, which can directly impact the health of a device, and lead to heavily increased energy usage!

21. High Confidence

Retailers, and even independent crypto traders have cited an interest in investing in cryptocurrencies.

In 2020 alone, many institutions and retailers expressed interest in breaking into the cryptocurrency market, either through investing in things like Bitcoin or Ethereum or by offering the opportunity to pay for goods or services through the use of cryptocurrencies. 

In fact, in a 2021 survey, it was found that more than 97% of individuals and retailers expressed an interest in breaking into the cryptocurrency market and view it as a very viable source of income!

22. New Coins

An impressive number of new virtual coins are minted every single day. In fact, research in 2021 showed that there are now around 900 new coins being produced every single day.

Of course, this means that a massive number of virtual currencies flounder right out of the gate, but this speaks to the power of the blockchain as a free market. 

The market for cryptocurrencies has always been on a steady rise, and while it has definitely experienced a fair share of dramatic falls, it is likely that it will only continue to grow, as evidenced by statistics such as this!

23. Individual Bitcoins

It may seem like a hard thing to keep track of, but careful control over the blockchain has shown that, as of 2022, there are now over 19 million bitcoins currently in existence across the blockchain.

Of course, this number will naturally continue to rise over the coming years, as more coins are mined, but this is an incredibly massive number.

It is also incredibly impressive when we consider that each individual Bitcoin has a massive value that continues to grow year after year!

And of course, with the current rate of mining, there are certainly more Bitcoins waiting to be added to this collection!

24. The First Bitcoin Transaction

Of course, the actual use of Bitcoins as a legal tender is still very much a work in progress, as the market needs to work out how exactly the process will work.

However, numerous purchases have been made using Bitcoin as legal tender. In fact, the first-ever transaction that made use of Bitcoin as a legal tender involved the purchase of two pizzas, in 2010.

This transaction cost around 10,000 Bitcoins, and was equivalent to around 90 million dollars! 

25. Large Percentage Of Online Transactions

Despite still being a long way from being accepted as a common legal tender amongst average people, Bitcoin usage currently accounts for $6 billion dollars of all daily online transactions.

This is a massive number and puts it only slightly behind America’s most preferred online payment methods, Visa Cards, and MasterCard.

This shows that the market is definitely there, and people are definitely willing to make use of Bitcoin and Ethereum to make online transactions! 

26. Bitcoin Corners The Market

There are a massive number of cryptocurrency owners all across the world who own varying amounts of all kinds of different virtual currencies.

However, of those massive numbers, up to 65% of those cryptocurrency owners are Bitcoin owners.

This truly shows just how massive Bitcoin is within the world of cryptocurrencies, and potentially the uphill battle that Etherium may face if it ever plans to overtake Bitcoin at the market leaders! 

27. Blockchain Projects

In late 2020 alone, there were more than 1000 corporate blockchain projects at varying points in production. Blockchain projects often go through fairly excruciating testing before they are officially kickstarted.

This means that, though 1000 is a sizable number when it comes to blockchain projects, only around 30% of them will see the light of day in a prompt manner. 

Once again, this goes to show how exciting blockchain technology has proven to be, due to how enticing it has proven to be to not only multiple people across the world, but also to numerous corporations, looking to cash in on the technology and the potential that it offers. 

28. Cost Of Mining

As well as having a serious environmental impact, the actual act of mining bitcoin also has a serious impact on the wallet of the person mining for it.

Mining bitcoin uses up an incredibly significant amount of electricity, and the average cost for a widespread Bitcoin mining project is around $1,576 per year! This is a totally massive number that has made mining bitcoin inaccessible for many.

There is potential for these costs to go down in the foreseeable future as we develop more energy-efficient ways to mine for Bitcoin, but for the time being it not only has a massive environmental impact, but also a massive financial impact!

29. Bitcoin Verification

Once again, because the actual use of Bitcoin as a legal tender in transactions is still very much in its infancy, any transaction that does make use of Bitcoin needs to be properly verified and vetted before the transaction is complete.

However, this verification process takes up an incredible ten minutes! This is so that the coins can be checked, and thus the transaction can then move on as scheduled.

30. Blockchain Adoption In Banks

Although the blockchain, and various cryptocurrencies have had an uphill battle with regards to being recognized by banks and other ‘official’ institutions, the adoption of blockchain technology in banks could help to save them billions of dollars for the foreseeable future.

Blockchain technology could help banks to automate processes such as money laundry checks, payment processes, and all kinds of other operations that currently require not only many man hours, but billions of dollars to sufficiently fund. 

If blockchain technology were fully adopted by banks by 2030, then over $27 billion dollars could be saved altogether! This is a massive sum, and this statistic says a lot about the potential power of blockchain technology, when applied correctly! 

31. Cryptocurrencies In South America

Within South America, Peru is still the largest market when it comes to cryptocurrencies and other blockchain technologies. Peru has the largest cryptocurrency market at around 16% of the entire market, which makes it easily the largest in South America. 

Latin America as a whole managed to accumulate over $25 billion dollars in cryptocurrency in 2020, and the continued popularity of crypto in Latin America is largely thanks to how easy the blockchain makes it to move money around without incurring heavy additional charges.

32. Mining Bitcoin Uses More Electricity Than The Entirety Of Argentina

You read that right… As we have already addressed, the act of Bitcoin mining is incredibly energy intensive, and requires the use of a massive amount of electricity.

There are some very stark statistics that make it clear just how much electricity is required to mine even a single Bitcoin, but perhaps no statistic makes this stark fact clearer than this one.

Bitcoin miners make use of over 121 terawatt hours every year, which is more than the entirety of Argentina uses alone!

This once again shows how a big shake up is needed in the world of cryptocurrency to lessen the impact on the environment and on energy supplies.

33. Daily Cryptocurrency Trade Volumes

The trade volume of cryptocurrencies has steadily increased every single day, and currently is at around $35 billion every single day! This is a truly impressive number that is not likely to change any time soon!

If anything, this number is likely to continue to grow as more currencies grow, and as blockchain technologies become more accessible to the mainstream.

To Wrap Up

We hope that this list has not only proven engaging, but also that it has proven very enlightening.

The world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology can be incredibly confusing and daunting, so we hope that this list has helped you to get a more firm grip on it all, and where you might fit in amongst it all!

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Is Crypto Crashing?

The reason why any markets crash is simply because people are finding themselves less likely to take a risk and invest much money. This is most of the time as a result of rising inflation, or even changes to interest rates! 

Is Cryptocurrency A Good Investment?

Cryptocurrency is a good investment provided you know what you are doing. You should still make sure that your investment portfolio is diverse and varied, for best returns and lower risk.

Is There A Future For Crypto?

Most definitely. Market analysts have already predicted that, by 2030, the market for cryptocurrencies will triple in size!