Most respondents reported using a "digital wallet," but we suspect many couldn’t distinguish between non-custodial and custodial wallets.
For example: 🇸🇻 El Salvador’s Chivo Wallet is custodial, but many respondents likely categorized it as non-custodial.
🇰🇷 South Korea ranks fairly low in overall Bitcoin ownership, yet among those who do own it, over 50% use it weekly, the highest rate in our study. This high frequency of use likely reflects trading-oriented behavior, reinforced by the country’s unusually high reliance on exchange custody and minimal use of physical and digital wallets. It is relevant to note that interviews suggest lingering mistrust in the industry following the collapse of Terra/Luna in May 2022, led by Korean entrepreneur Do Kwon.
🇭🇰Hong Kong, 🇨🇳China, 🇷🇺Russia,🇨🇭 Switzerland, and 🇮🇹Italy report the highest use of physical hardware wallets in our study between 7-10%.
A clear takeaway for educators and builders: most people don’t yet understand custody models.
🌐 SPENDING
Next, we were curious how often (among those who hold/held bitcoin) respondents have transacted with bitcoin - aka, how often they’ve treated it like “peer-to-peer electronic cash.”
Here’s what they said:
🟠 16% never used it (84% have transacted!)
🟠 37% use it 1–2x per year
🟠 14% use it monthly
🟠 34% use it more than once a week
So yes-around the world, people are spending their bitcoin.
