• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, February 3, 2022

DISQO, a consumer insights platform, analyzed its traffic data from its platform to determine patterns in consumer engagement with and attitudes about new online financial services and cryptocurrency.

The data, released Wednesday, provides advertisers with insights into what people think and do relative to financial sectors across industries as brands and retailers consider changes to best serve tech-savvy consumers.

The findings show that investor confidence, not age or income, drives engagement with new services and currencies.

To understand these new investors and patterns, DISQO examined online behaviors using its platform of more than 10,000 visitors to cryptocurrency exchanges and Robinhood.

The analysis reveals that cryptocurrency and Robinhood traffic are driven by social media, but these investors have a completely different mindset than traditional financial investors.

Traffic to crypto exchanges rose by 98% between January and November 2020.

Visitors to these sites reached an all-time high in May 2021, when Elon Musk tweeted about dogecoin. In June, the price of dogecoin dropped by about half and visitors to crypto exchanges dropped by more than half in June and July. As of November, visitors had still not recovered to the May peak.

Robinhood experienced a similar peak. Between March and December 2020, Robinhood visits by DISQO audience members were flat. Visitors then doubled between November 2020 and January 2021, during Reddit users’ attempt to squeeze Gamestop short sellers. Between January 11 and January 27, 2021, driven by its status as a “meme stock,” the price of Gamestop stock took off, rising from $20 to $347.

The potential impact of these new services on traditional financial services were found by analyzing the demographics of DISQO audience members who visited cryptocurrency exchanges and Robinhood, as well as the websites of the top five traditional brokerage firms such as schwab.com, fidelity.com, etrade.com, tdameritrade.com, and edwardjones.com.

Compared to traditional brokers, where the share of internet users increase steadily with income, the share of visitors to cryptocurrency exchanges and Robinhood was stable across income groups.

Activity, defined by visits per user, rose slowly above $50,000 household income, and then rises dramatically among those with income above $125,000.

Cryptocurrency buyers were much more confident in managing their personal finances and less risk averse than non-buyers. They are much more likely to be male than female, with about two to three times as many men visiting cryptocurrency exchanges and Robinhood. A somewhat greater share of men visit traditional brokerage sites — 29% of men vs. 22% of women.

DISQO surveyed more than 2,700 audience members who visited either cryptocurrency exchanges or Robinhood about their attitudes toward personal finance, and whether they had bought cryptocurrency or individual stocks.

Cryptocurrency buyers were much more likely to agree somewhat or strongly with the statement "I prefer High Risk/High Reward investments."

They were also much less likely to agree with this statement: "Traditional banks are designed to serve people like me."

Cryptocurrency buyers were also more likely to expect they would be more successful than their parents.

It’s also important to note that the share of crypto exchange and Robinhood visitors peak among users ages 25 to 44 years old. Share of visitors to traditional brokers peak and level out at age 45 to 54.