With money courtesy of the federal government’s stimulus checks, Americans may try their luck on some cryptocurrencies and stocks.
Almost $40 billion of the latest round of direct pandemic package financial aid could be allocated on bitcoin and stocks, a new poll shows.
Analysts at Mizuho, led by Securities Managing chief Dan Dolev, spoke with around 235 people with a family income of $150,000 or less in a survey released on Monday.
Bitcoin investment attracts
The team found that around 40% of the respondents said they considered setting aside at least a portion of their stimulus paychecks to invest in digital assets or stocks.
Of the 235 individuals surveyed, around 200 said they expect to get the third round of direct stimulus checks in the coming days.
Almost 2 out of 5 payment recipients plan to allocate some portion of their money to invest. And stimulus check recipients prefer cryptocurrency over stocks, the survey shows.
Bitcoin (BTC) is expected to account for 61% of the total money invested, which could add as much as 3% to the virtual token’s market cap, Dolev said.
Bitcoin registered record highs of more than $61,000 per unit over the weekend as stimulus optimism, and institutional investor demand lifted the electronic asset. However, on Monday, bitcoin gave back most of those gains.
Pandemic checks to crypto
“The survey predicts that BTC will account for 60% of total incremental investment. We calculate it could add as much as 2-3% to the crypto’s current $1.1 trillion market value,” Dolev writes.
The nearly $2 trillion pandemic relief bill recently signed into law by United States President Joe Biden would see qualified Americans receive payments for $1,400 each.
Dolev said that although the poll figure was surprising, he believes it’s an accurate representation of how consumers might spend their stimulus checks.
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