Crypto asset holders in the U.K. use centralized exchanges and believe their assets to be mostly profitable.

The research from HMRC, Kantar UK, and the United Kingdom's tax authority shows that young men who consider cryptocurrencies to be a "fun investment" are the most common crypto asset holders in Great Britain.

The study, which used a sample of 5,916 United Kingdom adults, including 713 crypto asset owners, aimed to determine the proportion of people who own cryptocurrencies and to find out what they hold and how they buy it.

The report showed that 10% of the U.K. citizens have or had crypto, with 55% never selling any (which is equivalent to 5% of the adult population). Only 7% are holding more than £5,000 (around $6000) in value, while 52% of current owners have holdings worth up to £1,000 ($1200).

Other findings that are not surprising include the fact that crypto owners tend to be younger than the general population with 76% of them being 45 years old, and mostly they are male (69%). A vast majority of them hold cryptocurrencies (79%), while the second most popular type of asset is utility tokens (20%).

The most significant takeaway is that the majority of owners buy crypto from “centralized exchanges” and sell or exchange their assets on these platforms.

The majority of owners reported making a profit (63%) when disposing of cryptoassets, 14% said they made a loss, and another 14% revealed that they broke even. The survey was conducted between February 2021 and June 2021, so the data should be attributed to 2020.

HMRC, on July 5, announced a call for evidence paper, saying it was planning to investigate whether the administrative hassles and costs could be reduced for taxpayers who participate in the crypto industry.