The Norwegian ownership rate of cryptocurrencies declined from 10% to 8% in 2023, a 20% (2 pp) decline. This decline closely resembles the result of our 2019 survey, where the ownership rate declined from 5% to 4% after the brutal bear market of 2018.
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In Short
We find a decline in the Norwegian ownership rate of crypto. Nonetheless, we also find vast demographic differences within the Norwegian ownership concentration of crypto. We find that nearly a quarter of all respondents believe they will acquire crypto within the next ten years, with a strong concentration among respondents aged 39 and younger. This generational divide is a global phenomenon and far from unique to Norway. We further compare the Norwegian numbers with global survey data and web traffic data and find that the tendency in Norway reflects the global trend. India represents an outlier in terms of web traffic trends.
Takeaways
8 percent of all Norwegian adults own crypto
345,000 Norwegians own crypto - A decline of 75,000 from 2022
Widening gender gap 13% of all men own crypto, vs. 4% female
Firi, Coinbase and Binance dominate the Norwegian crypto market
1 million Norwegian crypto owners by 2033?
Two thirds of Norwegian crypto investors own BTC
Reduced retail activity is a global phenomenon
Indian web traffic to crypto exchanges increases 28%, U.S. web traffic falls 33%
Growth in Norwegian DeFi and NFT usage in 2023
Executive summary
The Norwegian ownership rate of bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies declined from 10% to 8% in 2023, a 20% (2 percentage points) decline. This decline closely resembles the result of our 2019 survey, where the ownership rate declined from 5% to 4% after the brutal bear market of 2018.
Norway vs. the world
Norway’s 8.1% adoption rate is well behind the global 11.9% average. In Turkey and Argentina, the two countries topping the crypto adoption list, the annual inflation rate in 2022 was 64.2% and 94.8%, respectively. While the Norwegian adoption rate is low compared to the global average, we note a considerable retail exodus across the crypto market, with exchange traffic declining by 25% since the summer of 2022. Exchange traffic from Norwegian IPs fell by 17% in the same period, suggesting that Norwegian crypto traders maintain an active level compared to the global mean.
Demographics
The Norwegian crypto gender gap widened slightly compared to last year. 13% of all Norwegian men own crypto, compared to only 4% of all Norwegian females. The archetype Norwegian crypto owner is a male, aged 20 to 39, living in an urban area. While most of the decline in ownership originates from this age group, there are more crypto owners than equity owners among young adults in Norway.
The generational divide is likely to ensue
23% of all respondents believe they will acquire crypto within the next ten years. 40% of all respondents aged 39 and younger believe they will acquire crypto within the next years, whereas 12% of the respondents aged 40 or more believed the same. This generational divide is a global phenomenon, and far from unique to Norway.
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