More than one-third — or 37% — of Singapore residents are already using or are interested in using cryptocurrencies to pay for purchases, according to the latest research from Worldpay from FIS, a payment platform. But nearly half — or 47% — of Singaporean respondents said that they were not interested in using cryptocurrencies for payments.

Fast facts

  • According to Worldpay from FIS’ Generation Pay research that was based on a survey, respondents from Generation Y — also known as Millenials, who were born in the 1980s or the first half of the 1990s — were the most open to paying with cryptocurrencies, with 58% of them either already using crypto or willing. In comparison, only 16% of baby boomers expressed openness to crypto payments.
  • Overall, the respondents who were open to crypto payments vastly preferred central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), with 23% preferring government-backed digital money versus only 11% preferring private cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin for payment. But 29% of Gen Ys and 24% of Gen Zs said they had no preference and would use both CBDCs and cryptocurrencies.
  • Respondents who preferred using cryptocurrencies said it was primarily because it was decentralized and gave them more autonomy over their money. Respondents who preferred CBDCs said it was because it was more secure being backed by the government.
  • The reasons that people cited against using cryptocurrencies included the perception that crypto wallets were more vulnerable (31%) and that cryptocurrencies could be used in illegal activities (30%).
  • “We are currently in the second wave of wide crypto buying, with quite a bit of institutional money entering the market, but still a few years out from mainstream cryptocurrency usage,” said Phil Pomford, general manager for global ecommerce, APAC, WorldPay from FIS, in an email to Forkast.News.
  • “Various challenges still exist within the ecosystem. For instance, in APAC, crypto merchants are struggling to navigate new regulations or find a partner bank in the region. Some settlement banks are also not willing to process transactions for crypto merchants through their banking facilities,” Pomford added. “Nonetheless, we see demand for crypto rising in certain sectors such as NFT marketplaces which are built on DLT and require the usage of cryptocurrencies.”