$40 billion of new stimulus money could go to bitcoin and stocks, Mizuho says

• Mizuho surveyed 235 respondents with household incomes below $150,000 about their stimulus checks.
• It found $40 billion of the $380 billion in direct stimulus checks could go to bitcoin and stocks.
• More respondents said they would be putting money into bitcoin than stocks overall.

A survey conducted by Mizuho found that $40 billion of COVID-19 relief bill funds sent to Americans could go to bitcoin and stocks.

Mizuho analysts, led by Dan Dolev, spoke with approximately 235 people with a household income of $150,000 or less in a survey released on Monday.

The team found that roughly 40% of respondents said they planned on using at least a portion of their stimulus money to invest in bitcoin or stocks.

Mizuho calculated that this means nearly $40 billion of the $380 billion in stimulus checks could go to the assets.

The survey also found that investors are more likely to put their stimulus money into bitcoin than stocks.

Of the respondents who said they plan on investing, 61% said they would be investing in bitcoin versus just 39% who said they would be putting money into stocks.

"The survey predicts that bitcoin will account for 60% of total incremental investment spend," Dan Dolev, Senior Equity Analyst for Mizuho wrote. "We calculate it could add as much as 2-3% to bitcoin's current $1.1 trillion market value."

Bitcoin hit record highs of over $61,000 per coin over the weekend as stimulus hopes and institutional investor demand boosted the digital asset. However, on Monday the cryptocurrency gave back most of those gains.

Dolev highlighted a number of crypto-related firms that he believes could benefit from investors' stimulus check moves including, Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Square.

In an interview with CNBC on Monday, Dolev said he was "very surprised" by the survey results, so he had his team spend a lot of time "sanity-checking" the data.

The analyst added that although the survey data was surprising, he believes it is an accurate representation of how consumers might spend their stimulus money.

"It is what it is," Dolev concluded.