Despite being slow to regulate cryptocurrency, according to a recent Finder study, Australia is home to about 3.3 million Australians who hold or trade crypto. And with more and more Aussies turning towards decentralised finance, the nation’s banks are finally waking up to this growing customer demand.

Commonwealth Bank’s recent decision to allow trading of digital currency marks the first of Australia’s four big banks to offer crypto services and serves as an important step in placing Australia in a leadership position on cryptocurrency trading.

To find out who exactly these Aussie crypto customers are, we analysed the audiences of some of the most popular global crypto platforms in the country, including Gemini, CoinJar, Binance and Coinbase. Here’s what we found.

Crypto Crazy

Crypto Enthusiasts were the second largest tribe by community size and the largest tribe by core audience value. What sets this tribe apart is that their interests are almost exclusively crypto-related, which is not the case in other countries where crypto is more established. For example, in the US where crypto has already invaded the mainstream, we generally see Crypto Enthusiasts overlapping with Techie tribes, whereas Australia has yet to see a broader adoption of crypto among mainstream communities. Other correlating interests included Finance and Politics, with finance publications like Forbes and former PM Malcolm Turnbull both featuring among the top influencers.

Youth Culture

The biggest tribes in our study were Contemporary Culture Fans and Trendy Music Fans who showed a keen interest in dance music, Hip-Hop and popular sports such as AFL. Their passion for pop culture suggests Crypto already has some semblance of a mainstream following, with Gen Z influencers such as actress Chloë Grace Moretz emphasising its growing appeal among the younger generation.

Gaming

We also uncovered several tribes of devoted gaming tribes, spanning actual gamers to developers, as well as followers of esports. We generally consider these more devoted, sophisticated gamers to be a proxy for ‘tech-savvy youngsters’, which, again, speaks to the younger skew of the Australian crypto audience. These gamers’ interests correspond with our findings from our studies of crypto early adopters in the US and UK, and reflect the growing link between gaming and the world of digital assets.

Tech

Naturally, we came across a number of digitally-savvy types engaged with all things innovation and technology. Their engagement with influencers such as investing website Angel List and startup accelerator Y Combinator, suggest that these tribes are innately entrepreneurial with a clear interest in early-stage companies. We also saw several groups of web developers and engineers emerge, again highlighting the tech-savvy nature of the audience. These tecchie audiences, however, did not make it into the top 3 largest tribes of the study, suggesting that tech in general plays a relatively small role within the wider crypto audience.

Finance

We found an array of tribes from across the finance sector, from professional traders and speculators to Fintech Innovators following a number of financial publications. Given that finance is the industry that crypto promises to disrupt first, it’s no surprise to see so many in the industry are ahead of the curve. Top influencers included top tier business accounts such as the Business section of the New York Times and consulting heavyweight McKinsey & Company.

This broad range of audiences that emerged from our study reflects the growing number of customers across the country who are looking for easy and accessible ways to trade in crypto. And now that crypto is permeating into the mainstream financial services world via banks like CBA, we have a feeling that this growth is only just beginning.

Are you an APAC business looking to better understand, target and reach your ideal audience? Book a demo with our VP of Sales APAC, Andrew Nash.