June was sort of a rough month for cryptocurrency, to say the least. Bitcoin has cratered in value, exchange platform Coinbase laid off over 1,000 employees, and casual and serious investors alike have seen their assets evaporate into the online ether.  

This bottoming out of the market has more or less led to a run on investments, with almost half (46%) of all cryptocurrency investors reporting having sold off at least a small amount of their assets in recent weeks. In fact, over a quarter (26%) report having cashed out “a lot” or “all” of their crypto investments.

The data further shows that the primary group of sellers turns out to be the lowest income crypto investors. 

Unsurprisingly, those with higher income are more willing to weather the storm with their assets. 

Regardless of the ability to bear with the downturn, however, nearly a quarter of the Gen Pop has been affected, or know someone who has been, in some way by the flushing out of crypto’s value.

This number may seem high, and that’s because it is. Current CivicScience cryptocurrency tracking shows that just under a quarter of the Gen Pop has invested in cryptocurrency in general. 

Which might imply that more or less everyone with crypto investments has been negatively affected by the recent downturn. 

And this, of course, is reflected in the volatility barrier for new entrants to the asset. 

Interestingly, this also cues into the idea that crypto has maybe, finally peaked in popularity:

But this sentiment seems to be more prevalent among those currently not invested in the stock market, as opposed to those who are.

Which is an interesting dichotomy. Perhaps regular investors are used to financial swings and assume one of the most volatile financial assets available will just bounce back up eventually, whereas the observers on the outside assume differently. 

However, that perception may not be unfounded. And those who follow tech trends reflect similar numbers.

So while the Gen Pop may think that crypto has jumped the shark, those who follow the markets and trends in tech don’t. 

While this parallel sentiment is understandable, something that doesn’t quite match up with it is why the Gen Pop is hesitant to invest in crypto in the first place. Namely, concerns over legitimacy have skyrocketed since late May. 

The end of May and the beginning of June, you may remember, came at a particular inflection point of crypto collapse. Celsius, the crypto exchange platform, halted customer withdrawals (and later declared bankruptcy), while Bitcoin had collapsed 25% over the course of five days. 

And those who think cryptocurrency is past its prime, do tend to think that it’s because it’s somehow lost its legitimacy over the last few weeks, and not primarily because of its volatility.

Perhaps the average market observer sees legitimacy linked to stability. The coming weeks will demonstrate how the crypto market, and its major investors, will respond to its first significant downswing.