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Anonymous A
on Feb 04, 2021
Global
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Estimating # of Cryptocurrency Owners (Market Sizing)

Hello community, how would you go about estimating the # of cryptocurrency owners in a market sizing case? Love to hear your thoughts.

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Luca
Coach
on Feb 04, 2021
BCG |NASA | SDA Bocconi & Cattolica partner | GMAT expert 780/800 score | 200+ students coached

Hello,

I think this is a market sizing where the top-down approach starting from population can work very well. In a nutshell:

  • Divide population into different segments  
  • For each segment approximate the percentage of people that invest their money  
  • Assume per each segment the percentage that could be interested in such a modern asset (e.g. people between 50 and 60 years old are likely to invest but maybe not so interested in cryptocurrency)  
  • Multiply the previous data to obtain the volume of cryptocurrency

Additional thoughts to put on the table and discuss:

  • People that have cryptocurrency without even knowing (banks or other investing entities handle their money)
  • The number can vary a lot over the time (e.g. after news on cryptocurrency regulations) 

You can also do a sanity check of the number comparing it with the total digitalized people of your country (if you have the data)  and see if the percentage makes sense.

Best,
Luca

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Ian
Coach
on Feb 04, 2021
Top US BCG / MBB Coach - 5,000 sessions |Tech, Platinion, Big 4 | 9/9 personal interviews passed | 95% candidate success

Hi there,

Classic top-down :)

Break down the pop by age (or income) groups. Then estimate the % of each group that invests. Then, estimate the % of that group that would be likely to pick crypto.

Hint: % investing is directly (positively) correlated with age and income. The % investing in crypto is directly (positively) correlated with income and likely negatively correlated with age.

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Clara
Coach
on Feb 05, 2021
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

This is the most classic type of market sizing tbh. 

You need to calculate total population, then segment it (ages or economic power, both would do) and then estimate % that are owners. 

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

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Antonello
Coach
on Feb 04, 2021
McKinsey | NASA | top 10 FT MBA professor for consulting interviews | 6+ years of coaching

Hi, in addition to the solutions proposed by the other coaches in the discussion, I would like to suggest similar cases in the platform to practice with:

  • https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-much-would-you-charge-to-clean-all-the-windows-in-seattle-4965
  • https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/market-sizing-milk-consumption-5087
  • https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-would-you-calculate-the-value-of-a-cow-4982
  • https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/estimate-number-of-traffic-lights-in-a-london-5692

Hope it helps,
Antonello

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Gaurav
Coach
on Feb 28, 2021
#1 MBB Coach(Placed 750+ in MBBs & 1250+ in Tier2)| The Only 360° coach(Ex-McKinsey+Certified Coach+Active recruiter)

Hi there, 

Top-down approach it is! When practicing and preparing for cases, I strongly recommend you do a sanity check to see how close you were to the actual data and to get an idea of numbers for market sizing like that. 

Cheers, 

GB

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