According to the “Blackrock People & Money 2024” report, 43 percent of Portuguese investors claim to own crypto assets, almost double the European average of 22 percent. This data places Portugal ahead of countries such as the Netherlands (40 percent) and Switzerland (34 percent) in the European leadership in terms of adoption of cryptoactives. “We are seeing a shift towards cryptocurrencies in Europe, as just over one in five investors indicated investing in cryptocurrencies,” Blackrock said in a statement.

For André Themudo, director of Blackrock in Portugal, the high percentage of Portuguese investors in relation to the European average who invest in cryptoactives is a sign of the country's low levels of financial literacy. “Those with more financial literacy will invest less in crypto assets”, says the person responsible for the North American management company in a report by ECO.

This reality is also reflected in the study's conclusions, which point to the fact that the younger generations in Portugal – who are also those who invest the most in crypto assets – “report that they do not have enough financial knowledge to invest.”

The data regarding the popularity of cryptoactives among investors is reflected in the recognised great risk aversion by the majority of Portuguese people, which is reflected in more than 50 percent of families' financial assets remaining allocated to bank deposits with little or no remuneration.

This dichotomy can be explained by the fact that, for the purposes of this study, YouGov and Blackrock considered as an investor only someone who owns one or more of the following investment products: stocks, mutual funds, bonds, listed funds (known as ETFs), investment portfolio managed by digital investment platform/robo-advisor, crowdfunding/venture capital or cryptocurrency. Thus, savers who have their savings solely invested in deposits were left out of the group of “investors”.

And this could also be the reason why Portugal is not only one of only three countries among the 14 analysed to reduce its base of new investors between 2022 and 2024, but is also the country that registered the biggest drop in new investors in the last two years, with a contraction of 12 percent.

This retraction in the number of new investors in Portugal may also be related to the financial and educational scenario in the country. Among those who do not invest their savings, 69 percent say that lack of money is the main reason for not investing their money, a figure slightly higher than the European average of 65 percent.

This data suggests that economic challenges may be affecting the investment capacity of the Portuguese people more severely than their European peers, despite the fact that there are several investment solutions on the market that allow investments from very low values. “The survey results highlight the need for greater financial education in Portugal, allowing investors to start with just 1 euro investment through various digital investment applications that offer access to a wide range of profitable opportunities”, highlights André Themudo.