1 in 5 U.S. Adults Have Used or Owned Crypto, While Active Adoption Stalls
Summary
- 22% of U.S. adults have owned or used crypto, but the share that used it in the past 12 months was flat at 13%.
- Trust in crypto services was lower than in traditional financial institutions, with 4% for crypto exchanges and 5% for decentralized platforms.
- Awareness of DeFi was just 2%, but 40% said they would be willing to use it if services were available, mainly for savings, interest income and remittances.
Forecast Trend Report by Period
More U.S. adults have owned or used cryptocurrency, but the share that actually used it over the past year was unchanged. Intentions to use crypto in the future also remained close to last year's level.
Decrypt, a cryptocurrency-focused media outlet, reported on Oct. 28 that 22% of U.S. adults said they had owned or used crypto in a survey conducted by Ipsos for the DeFi Education Fund. That was up 4 percentage points from 18% a year earlier. By contrast, 13% said they had used crypto in the past 12 months, unchanged from last year.
The share of respondents with prior crypto experience but no recent use also increased. Among people who had not used crypto in the past year, 11% said they had previously owned or used it, up from 5% last year. Another 17% said they intended to own or use crypto in the future, little changed from 16% a year earlier.
Recent usage was higher among men, at 18%, than among women, at 8%. Curiosity was the most common reason people first tried crypto, cited by 34% of respondents. Long-term investing followed at 25%.
Trust in crypto services lagged traditional financial institutions. Just 4% said they trusted crypto exchanges, while 5% said the same of decentralized platforms. That compared with 42% for large commercial banks and 48% for credit unions. Still, 63% said the broader financial system needs improvement to respond to cybercrime and threats tied to artificial intelligence.
Awareness of decentralized finance, or DeFi, was low, though stated willingness to use it was relatively high. Only 2% said they were familiar with DeFi, but 40% said they would be willing to use such services if they were offered. More than 80% of those respondents said they would use them for savings, interest income or remittances.
Interest in learning more has declined. The share of respondents who said they wanted more information on stablecoins and DeFi fell to 7% and 8%, respectively, from 11% for each last year.
The survey was conducted from Sept. 8 to Sept. 16 among 1,545 U.S. adults. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
YM Lee
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