Belgian security company NGRAVE, revealed from a survey conducted by them in collaboration with Efani, and Unstoppable Domains to more than 2,000 people in 87 countries, data that he described as alarming in terms of the security of crypto assets belonging to investors.
The research, which focused on analyzing attitudes towards asset security in the cryptocurrency industry to provide a personal assessment of respondents’ wallet security measures, revealed that more than half of users of cryptocurrencies (54%) still keep their backups in a paper wallet. Additionally, 50% of respondents said that if someone found their backup, their keys would be compromised.
However, despite the fact that more than half of crypto investors choose to use paper backups for their security keys, this figure represents a decrease from the previous year (67%).
Ruben Merre, CEO and co-founder of NGRAVE, opined that this trend speaks in favor of the use of metallic backups, which grew significantly from 15.8% to 25% over the course of the last 12 months. He also pointed out that other backup options, such as social backups through Shamir Secret Sharing (SSS)or keep a backup on your own computer, have remained stable.
“In order to overcome this situation, and for the cryptocurrency industry to achieve mass adoption, investors must be able to trust that their assets will remain safe and secure. We are proud to lead the way towards a more secure, reliable and innovative crypto landscape.”said Merre representing the work of NGRAVE.
In this sense, said survey also left referenced that 62% of respondents store some of their crypto on multiple exchangeswhile a third of people would store more than 40% of their assets on a single exchange, a practice that leaves them vulnerable to a single point of attack.
On the other hand, regarding the wallets, The survey also revealed that 6 in 10 respondents would use a hardware wallet, likewise one in 10 owns but does not use a hardware wallet, and 3 in 10 do not own a hardware wallet. It should also be noted that in the last year, the use of physical wallets based on QR codes doubled from 10.4% to 21%.
For his part, Merré noted that the results of his annual security self-audit show that there are glaring gaps in the methods investors are using to ensure the safety of their assets, especially at a time when high-profile and high-profile breaches value are becoming more common.
“If the sector wants to avoid the hacks we have seen in recent months, the industry still has a long way to go to improve the security of crypto assets for investors around the world”Merre commented.
Other surprising facts
Through the survey, in addition to data around security, it also revealed important statistics regarding the blockchain and crypto world that will remain for the record, after the high adoption peak between 2020 and 2021. Some of these results obtained are:
The gender imbalance of the industry was revealed, Cryptocurrency ownership is overwhelmingly male-dominated, with 95.4% being the result in the survey.
According to the results, almost 1 in 2 investors joined the industry after 2019with an adoption peak in 2021.
When it comes to portfolio size and wealth distribution:
“The 80/20 rule is also a reality in the retail cryptocurrency market, with 20% of investors holding more than 80% of the wealth”they pointed out.
They also pointed out that one in five respondents owns more than $100,000, while half of those surveyed have portfolios of less than $20,000.
The number of users who claimed to verify their identity through KYC increased from 85% to 93%.
The number of users making a test transaction has remained stable at about 6 out of 10, as has the number laundering addresses at 7 out of 10.
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