Transforming Their Headlines into Your Thought Leadership

One of the main roles of Communicators is to help businesses and their leaders “see around corners” to contemplate what might be ahead and how the business can evolve for that future state. In 2024 planning, I would wager that most Comms professionals understood that the U.S. and global elections would dominate mindshare and be a frequent topic of conversation across the media landscape. I wrote this piece to help Communications Professionals better understand the approach we took in developing one of Grayscale’s 2024 anchor thought leadership projects.?

In Fall 2023, Grayscale won its lawsuit against the SEC to bring spot Bitcoin ETPs to market, and there was increased momentum and bipartisan engagement around crypto legislation; it felt like we’d begun to turn a corner as the crypto winter began to melt. We began to see new TradFi and client interest in the crypto asset class. We felt the community becoming more vocal again in expressing optimism for crypto’s future. We noticed that the “Bitcoin dead” narrative wasn’t part of the broader discourse, solidifying what many believers had been saying for a while: Bitcoin, and the crypto industry at large, is here to stay.

One of the core challenges I’ve seen in the 3.5+ years I’ve been at Grayscale is that “crypto” is often misunderstood. With my Communications consultant hat on, I could argue that the industry has a reputational issue – one that doesn’t match the reality of what’s taking place in the space (I can happily dig deeper into that conversation on a different day).

With that background context, we began to contemplate Grayscale’s role in 2024: how could we best support the industry, while maintaining our identity as a nonpartisan asset manager? We have long been committed to being an educational partner – to supporting all those interested in embarking on a crypto learning journey. We have seen firsthand that once folks start to learn about Bitcoin, Ether, and the blockchain, they become more open to the potential benefits of the technological innovation and/or more excited about the investment thesis for the asset class. So, we decided to put a variety of our hypotheses about likely American voters and crypto investing to the test – literally – by commissioning a third-party market research firm, The Harris Poll, to conduct a three-part national survey on exactly this topic: “Election 2024: The Role of Crypto.”

Here's what was important to us:

1. Ensuring the efficacy and overall soundness of the research.
2. Ensuring the sample size was thoughtfully sourced and properly nationally representative.
3. Ensuring questions captured a range of Americans’ feelings, behaviors, and motivations related to macro topics, crypto, and the pending US election.
4. Ensuring we were able to connect back to some topics of importance to Grayscale’s business, especially crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs).?
5. Ensuring the survey was conducted so it wasn’t just a singular moment in time, but able to capture potential trends.

The national survey was administered in November 2023, May 2024, and September 2024 to capture how Americans’ views might change over time. In parallel during this time frame, we experienced the approval of Bitcoin and Ether ETPs, the emergence of crypto-focused Super PACs, continued interest in crypto from institutional and retail investors alike, and crypto regulatory progress around the world, to name a few of many developments.

Some survey findings to bring this to life:

• ?More than half (53%) of likely American voters are familiar with crypto – a September 2024 figure that increased from 47% in December 2023.
• 2 in 5 likely American voters (40%) are paying more attention to candidates’ positions on Bitcoin and/or other crypto assets in this election compared to all other previous elections – a September 2024 figure that increased from 34% in December 2023.
• 56% of likely American voters say they are more likely to vote for a candidate that is interested in staying educated/informed about crypto than one who is not – a September 2024 figure that increased from 48% in December 2023.?
• Nearly three quarters (71%) of likely American voters say that it is “critical that political leaders embrace new technologies” to ensure America’s workforce remains competitive globally – a September 2024 figure that increased from 67% in December 2023.

The beauty of the data is that you are free to draw whatever conclusions or parallels you see fit. And, hopefully, when you think of Grayscale, you recall reading this post and seeing this trend data – understanding that Grayscale commissioned it because we are genuinely passionate about this industry, how its perceived, and how it continues to evolve (and we have been so since Grayscale’s founding in 2015).

One thing I’ve been thinking a lot about, is at what point (if any) will the narrative shift? – From the crypto industry being niche to mainstay? From it being fraught with fraud to a technological innovation that’s transforming the future of finance? From it being [held by a bunch of bros in a basement OR insert any other crypto stereotype] to it being held by some of the world’s largest investors and financial institutions as a legitimate asset class?

Time will tell, but for now, I invite you to dig into the data to decide for yourself: www.grayscale.com/elections.?

?(This Is fully my opinion, not the opinion of Grayscale, and all related disclosures about the research can be found at the link.)

This information should not be relied upon as research, investment advice, or a recommendation regarding any products, strategies, or any investment in particular. This material is strictly for illustrative, educational, or informational purposes and is subject to change. Any opinions expressed are only solely my own and do not necessarily express the views or opinions of Grayscale. There is not enough information contained in this content to make an investment decision and any information contained herein should not be used as a basis for this purpose. ??