One in 10 Canadians aged 16 and older - about 3 million people - own a crypto asset such as Bitcoin, Ether or irreplaceable tokens (NFT). Of these, a third (35%) of cryptocurrency owners reported at least one fraud, scam, or crime victimization experience.

The most common are fraudulent crypto investment advisers, people who artificially inflate assets through misinformation, or people who commit scams to gain access to crypto wallets. These negative experiences were most common among people with lower incomes and less education.

According to the Dais research team, a national survey of 2,000 Canadian residents aged 16 and older was conducted online in October 2022.

The study identified four categories of threats to people who own crypto assets, including cyberattacks and examples of hackers exploiting technological vulnerabilities for financial theft, data breaches, and other criminal purposes.

Key findings include:

One in 10 Canadians (about 3 million people) own a crypto asset such as Bitcoin, ether or NFT.

One-third (35%) of owners report having experienced cryptocurrency fraud or scams, with the percentage higher among those with lower incomes and less education.

A large percentage of self-reported cryptocurrency owners are male, younger, college-educated and have higher incomes.

Nearly one in five (19 percent) owners reported that they had been the target of online harassment that made them fear for their safety, compared to 6 percent of those who did not own cryptocurrencies.

Canadians have extremely low trust in crypto asset exchanges, even before the FTX exchange collapsed in late 2022.

"Our first report on this topic provides the latest evidence that while federal financial regulators have made commendable efforts to protect Canadian crypto asset owners, more needs to be done to address cybersecurity and socio-technical threats, including by raising public awareness of these threats, protecting consumers, and protecting consumers." And a deeper understanding of the groups of Canadians who have been harmed, "said Andre Cote, coauthor of Consumer Reports and director of policy and research at Dais.