Number of cryptos owned

Crypto portfolio size

According to the recent Global Crypto Literacy Survey, most respondents who own crypto report owning more than one kind of cryptocurrency or crypto token.

In Mexico and Brazil, the number of cryptos owned ranged from one to five. In the U.S., the average respondent owned six cryptocurrencies.

A basket approach to cryptocurrency ownership

What’s interesting about this data is that it shows the average cryptocurrency investor is interested in broader exposure to the market than just owning a single kind of crypto asset.

This diversified investing approach to crypto also runs counter to the narratives that dominate social media (where much of the news and commentary about the crypto industry comes from).

One of the major themes across crypto media, usually dominated by outspoken influencers, is the idea of maximalism. To sum up maximalism simply, it’s when one person or group of people think that their way is the best way —  and really the only way. There are bitcoin maximalist, ethereum maximalist, etc. 

A true maximalist only invests in the asset they champion and often think that all other investments and assets are, well, misguided.

Based on social media alone, newcomers to crypto might think that investing has to be done in some kind of maximalist, tribal fashion. But, as the data from the Crypto Literacy Survey show, the average crypto investor is using the basket style approach to investing.

In reality, because all of these crypto technologies are so new, a diversified approach makes sense. So far, there are clear market leaders, but there are also new kinds of cryptocurrencies and tokens being developed all the time for new kinds of applications and use cases. Just think about the rise in market share of DeFi assets, or NFT assets in the past year. 

It will be interesting overtime to see how the crypto basket approach changes or evolves and what kinds of crypto assets become mainstays and which fall out of favor.

Learn more about this and other topics by taking courses in the bitcoin, NFT, DeFi, and security sections of the site. And be sure to take the crypto literacy quiz.