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
