Data spanning 95 countries from 2015 to 2022 indicates the vast majority of app downloads occurred when Bitcoin’s price was above US$20,000, the working paper from the Basel, Switzerland-based BIS says.

The analysis says if we assume each new user bought US$100 of Bitcoin in the month they installed the app and each month thereafter, 81% would have lost money.

The study raises “questions about the implications of greater crypto adoption for the economy and consumer welfare”, the paper’s authors wrote.

Other findings from the BIS – often referred to as the central bankers’ central bank – include that some 40% of app users were men under 35 and that less than 35% of all users globally were female.

Bitcoin reached a high of almost US$69,000 in November last year at the height of the pandemic-era speculative frenzy for digital coins stoked by ultra-low interest rates and stimulus cheques.

The world’s largest token has since plunged 75%, pressured by rapidly tightening monetary policy and a series of huge blowups at crypto outfits, most recently Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange.