More than 100 million people globally are crypto users

A report from exchange Crypto.com estimated that there were 106 million crypto users around the world in January. This means that more than 100 million people around the world are now using cryptocurrencies - and a growing number of baby boomers and Gen Xers are becoming interested in bitcoin and other tokens.

Financial service advisory group deVere found 70% of its clients aged over 55 had already invested in digital currencies, or were planning to do so, in 2021, despite bitcoin and others being strongly associated with younger, millennial investors. Crypto.com's report said the surge in the price of bitcoin and other digital tokens had been a key driver of the increased interest in cryptocurrencies.

June and August in 2020 and January in 2021 were "exceptionally strong months" for increases in crypto users, according to Crypto.com research manager Kevin Wang.

"What we notice is that periods of strong growth come after periods of strong price performance in bitcoin."

Crypto.com also cited a boom in Ethereum's token ether and institutional cryptocurrency adoption by the likes of PayPal and MicroStrategy as driving interest.

Nigel Green, chief executive of deVere Group, said the firm's internal poll of 688 clients showed that the recent boom in cryptocurrencies "has captured the attention of people around the world - and not just so-called digital native younger generations."

Crypto.com's figure of 106 million users was reached by analyzing data from the blockchains upon which cryptocurrencies are based, as well as data from surveys and exchanges.

The exchange said that a number of caveats applied to the research. They include difficulties in knowing whether on-chain users still own crypto and in capturing traders who do not transact, or use exchanges, which could mean the figure could vary in either direction.

Caveats also apply to deVere's research, with an internal poll of clients unlikely to represent the baby boomer, or Gen X generations, as a whole.

Baby boomers are the generation born in roughly the 20 years after World War II, while Generation X is the generation born between roughly the early 1960s and early 1980s, according to common definitions.