A new demographic of investors have been flocking to buy Bitcoin in the wake of the pandemic, driving the cryptocurrency to a three-year high.
Photo: AFP
The digital currency has been roll over the past three months, up 50 percent to about $26,000 per unit.
Cryptocurrency firm Easy Crypto chief executive Janine Grainger credited Bitcoin's recent rise to more institutional investment in the crypto market and the asset losing its tag as a novelty investment.
"When [crypto assets] first came out there was this view that it was this fringe, weird thing that would disappear but they have been going 10 years now and they seem to be going from strength to strength."
She said when she first started Easy Crytpo its customer based was skewed toward young males but there had been a real change in in recent months, as more and more women and older investors bought crypto assets.
"Over the last three months we've had 49 percent female signs ups, 51 percent male....and we're also seeing a much stronger skew towards older customers.
"About 40 percent of our new customers onto the site are 50 years of age or older, so we're seeing a lot of people with potentially a lot of wealth behind them looking to crypto to diversify their own investment holdings."
She said the Covid-19 lockdowns forced people to adopt technology and improve their digital literacy and this helped to demystify cryptocurrencies.
Scams increase too
The Financial Markets Authority recently reported a sharp increase in scams that used cryptocurrencies, preying on the wider public's lack of understanding about the asset class.
Grainger said she had seen a lot of people getting caught out in broker scams, where people are promised large returns if they just hand over their money over to a third party, and a new scam that puports to give people an opportunity to people to invest in China's new digital Yuan - which is still yet to be developed.
"If you want to get involved in crypto the safest way to do so is to set up your own wallet and hold to hold your crypto yourself, that means you are the only person in charge of it, no one else has access to it.
"The second thing, and I think this applies to all investments, is that a good investment won't come and find you."