How Many Americans Own Crypto? Between 9% and 42%, Depending on Who Asks

How many Americans own crypto? In 2026 alone, the published answers range from 9% to 42%. Gallup found 9% of adults in June. The National Cryptocurrency Association says one in four. Security.org puts it at 30%. An online survey by Omni Calculator found 42%. That’s a gap of more than 80 million people.

They aren’t all asking the same thing, or asking the same kind of people. Some count who owns crypto today. Others count who used it in the past year, or has ever tried it. Some pick respondents at random. Others survey whoever signs up online. And one counts only people who already hold crypto.

Short answer: about 9 to 10% of US adults own crypto at any given time, or roughly 24 to 27 million people, according to the most careful surveys from Gallup, the Federal Reserve and the SEC. About 15 to 17% have owned or used it at some point. Higher figures mostly come from online opt-in polls and industry groups.

At a glance

• 9% of US adults own crypto, down from 14% in 2025, according to Gallup’s June 2026 survey.
• 10% of adults used crypto in the past year, but only 2% used it to pay for something, according to the Federal Reserve.
• 8.7% of Americans owned crypto at any one time between January 2024 and April 2025, but 14.9% owned it at some point during those 15 months, according to the SEC.
• 17% of adults have ever invested in, traded or used crypto, and 39% of them no longer have any, according to Pew Research Center.
• 42% vs. 17%: the share of men and women aged 18 to 29 who have ever used crypto, according to Pew.
• About 24 to 27 million US adults own crypto, based on the most careful surveys and the Census Bureau’s adult population. (Calculated.)
• 9% to 42%: the range of US crypto ownership estimates published in 2026.

From Strict to Loose: The Crypto Ownership Ladder

“Owning crypto” sounds like a simple yes or no. It is not. Some surveys ask whether people own crypto today. Others ask whether they used it in the past year, or have ever touched it. Some count households instead of people. Each wording produces a different number, and the gap between the strictest and loosest is nearly tenfold.

The crypto ownership ladderShare of US adults, from the strictest definition to the loosest

The bottom of the ladder shows how much the time frame matters. The SEC asked the same panel 7,500 people about their crypto every three months for over a year. At any one moment, about 8.7% owned some. But only 4.4% owned it every time they were asked, while 14.9% owned it at least once. The same people, measured three ways, give three different answers.

The middle rungs change the question. The Federal Reserve asks whether people bought, held or used crypto in the past year, not whether they hold it today. Pew asks whether they have ever invested in, traded or used it. Both questions are wider than “own now,” so both catch more people.

The top three rungs ask roughly the same question as the bottom ones, whether people own crypto now, but get answers three to five times higher. The difference isn’t the wording. It’s who answers. So the honest answer depends on the definition. Owned it now, in the most careful surveys: about 9%. Owned it at some point recently: about 15%. Ever tried it: about 17%.

Who Gets Asked Changes the Answer

The surveys at the top of the ladder ask roughly the same question as the ones at the bottom. So why do they find three to five times as many crypto owners? The biggest difference is how they pick the people they ask.

How each survey found its respondents

All of these surveys were done online. That isn’t the difference. What matters is whether people were invited at random or chose to take part.

In a random sample, the survey picks who gets asked, for example by sampling home addresses, and only those people can answer. In an opt-in sample, anyone who sees an ad or joins a survey site can take part. The SEC’s own report explains why that matters. A random sample “avoids bots and multiple responses by the same person, both of which are common with opt-in surveys.” It also cites Pew Research Center findings that opt-in samples are about half as accurate as random ones.

Crypto is a topic where that gap could be large. People who spend time on survey sites and online platforms are likely to be more comfortable with digital money than the population as a whole.

The random-sample surveys also agree with each other. The SEC found 8.7%. Gallup found 9%. The Fed found 9% bought or held crypto in the past year. Pew’s figures point the same way: 17% of adults have ever used crypto, and 61% of them still have it. That works out to about 10% who own it now. (Calculated from Pew’s figures.)

Even the careful surveys may run slightly high. The Fed notes that because its survey is done online, its sample “may be more technologically connected than the overall population,” which could raise the share reporting crypto use.

None of this means the higher figures are made up. It means they come from different kinds of samples, and the four surveys built to represent the whole country land in the same place: about 9 to 10% of adults.

Ownership is a revolving door

A single percentage makes crypto ownership look fixed: a set group of people who own it. The SEC’s survey shows something else. It asked the same panel of Americans about their crypto every three months, from January 2024 to April 2025. The overall share stayed steady at about 8.7%. But the people inside that share kept changing.

Over those 15 months, 14.9% of the population owned crypto at least once. Only 4.4% owned it every time they were asked.

What happened to people who owned crypto at some pointSEC panel, January 2024 to April 2025

So only about three in ten people who owned crypto during that time held it the whole way through. The biggest group came and went more than once.

Buying and selling went on all the time. Each quarter, about 2.8% of the population bought crypto, and between 0.9% and 1.6% sold some. Yet the overall ownership rate barely moved. The SEC’s explanation is that many buyers already owned crypto and were adding more, while many sellers sold only part of what they had.

Pew found the same pattern over a longer stretch. Of Americans who have ever invested in, traded or used crypto, 39% no longer have any, up from 31% in 2023. Leaving is more common at the lower end of the income scale. Among lower-income Americans who have used crypto, 51% no longer have any, compared with 32% of middle-income and 36% of upper-income users.

This is one reason surveys disagree. A survey taken on a given day catches whoever happens to hold crypto that day. Ask about the past year, or about ever, and the number grows, because many people have been in and out.

Up, Down or Flat?

Is crypto ownership growing? It depends on which survey you read, and when it was taken.

What each survey says about the trend

The two longest probability-based series are the most useful. The Fed has asked about crypto every year since 2021. The share who used or held it in the prior year fell from 12% in 2021 to 10% in 2022 and 7% in 2023, then recovered to 8% in 2024 and 10% in 2025. That’s a recovery, not a new high. Pew found the share who have ever used crypto unchanged from 2021 to early 2024.

Gallup’s drop may come down to timing. Its latest survey ran in June 2026, after Bitcoin had lost nearly half its value from its 2025 peak, according to Gallup. Gallup attributes the decline to “steep declines in cryptocurrency values.”

The longer view is clearer among investors, Americans with at least $10,000 to invest. Gallup has tracked them since 2018.

Even after the 2026 drop, ownership among investors is almost twice its 2021 level.

The two surveys with the highest readings report growth. Security.org’s figure has stayed between 27% and 33% since 2022 and rose to 30% in 2026. The NCA says 12 million more Americans became crypto holders in a single year.

So the careful surveys show no clear, lasting boom. The Fed’s measure is below its 2021 level, Pew’s is unchanged, and the SEC found ownership stable from early 2024 to early 2025. The main exception is Gallup’s investor series, which remains well above 2021 despite its 2026 drop. What the careful surveys do show is that ownership rises and falls with prices.

What Owners Actually Do With It

Crypto was built to be money you can spend. Most Americans who own it treat it as an investment instead.

Mostly held, rarely spent. In the Federal Reserve’s 2025 survey, 10% of adults used crypto in some way in the prior year. Most of them held it as an investment: 9% bought or held it that way. Only 2% used it to buy something or make a payment, and 1% used it to send money to friends or family.

When people did pay with crypto, it was usually because someone else wanted it. The most common reason, given by 26% of those who paid with crypto, was that the person or business receiving the money preferred it. Faster transfers (19%), privacy (17%) and lower cost (14%) followed. Paying with crypto was more common among adults without a bank account: 6% did so, compared with 2% of those with one.

An industry survey tells a different story. The National Cryptocurrency Association says 40% of crypto holders use it to shop, and 41% send it to friends and family. That sounds far higher than the Fed’s 2%, but the two count different groups. The NCA surveyed only crypto holders. The Fed surveyed all adults. Even so, they don’t line up. If 40% of holders shop with crypto, and holders make up about 9–10% of adults, that would be about 4% of all adults, roughly double what the Fed found. (Calculated from the published figures.)

Bitcoin dominates. Among crypto owners in Security.org’s 2026 survey, 74% hold Bitcoin. Next come Ethereum (53%), Dogecoin (25%) and Solana (20%).

In Omni Calculator’s January 2026 survey, about three in four owners said their crypto was worth less than $5,000. The most common range was $100 to $999 (28%), followed by $1,000 to $4,999 (25%). Only 13% held $10,000 or more. Half said they first bought crypto to invest or grow their money.

Not every investment paid off. Among Americans who have used crypto, 38% told Pew their investments did worse than expected, and 20% said they did better.

From Percentages to People

Most surveys report a percentage. Headlines want a number of people. Turning one into the other takes a population figure, and even small differences in the percentage become millions of people.

The Census Bureau counted 269.8 million US residents aged 18 and over on July 1, 2025. At that size, every 1 percentage point equals about 2.7 million adults.

What each survey’s share means in peopleBased on 269.8 million US adults

Calculated by applying each survey’s share to the Census adult population. Surveys were taken at different times, so these are approximate.

So the answer to “how many Americans own crypto?” runs from about 23 million to over 110 million. The three random-sample surveys that ask about owning or holding crypto now (the SEC, Gallup and the Fed) put it at roughly 23 to 27 million adults.

Two published headcounts can be checked this way. The NCA’s “over 67 million” matches its own “one in four.” But security.org does not. It says 30% of American adults, “or 70.4 million people,” own crypto. But 30% of US adults are about 80.9 million. And 70.4 million is only about 26% of adults. The page doesn’t say which population it used.

Counting Records, Not Answers

Every figure so far comes from asking people. One study counted what they actually did with their money.

The JPMorgan Chase Institute looked at the checking accounts of nearly 5 million Chase customers and tracked who moved money into crypto accounts. Before 2020, 3% had ever done so. By June 2022, 13% had. That’s close to what Pew found in surveys around the same time: 17% of adults said they had ever invested in, traded or used crypto.

Bank records avoid some of the problems with surveys. People can’t misremember or exaggerate a transfer. But they have limits of their own. The data covers only Chase customers. It shows money moving to crypto platforms, not what was bought, how much, or whether it’s still held. Anyone who bought crypto through another bank, an app, or a friend doesn’t appear.

A Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland study tracked households instead of people. Using a consumer panel of 15,000 to 25,000 households per survey, it found the share owning crypto rose from 2% in 2018 to 11% in 2022.

These sources point the same way as the careful surveys. Somewhere around one in ten Americans holds crypto at a given time, and more have tried it at some point. With 269.8 million US adults, according to the Census Bureau, each percentage point is about 2.7 million people. So 9 to 10% means roughly 24 to 27 million adults. (Calculated from Census figures.)

Numbers that don’t survive checking

Not every crypto ownership figure you’ll find online holds up. These are the ones that didn’t, once traced back to their sources. Before quoting any crypto ownership figure, check three things: when the survey was taken, what exactly it asked, and how it picked the people who answered.

• “30% of American adults, or 70.4 million people, own crypto.” Security.org’s two figures don’t match. The Census Bureau counts about 269.8 million US adults, so 30% would be about 80.9 million. And 70.4 million is only about 26%. The page doesn’t say which population it used.
• “13.7% of Americans own crypto, about 46 million people.” Triple-A’s page gives no survey date, sample size or method, and its text refers to 2020 to 2022. It also calls 13.7% a share of “America’s total population” in one place and of “US adults” in another. The 46 million fits the total population, children included, not adults.
• “One in four American adults owns crypto.” The National Cryptocurrency Association’s survey questioned only crypto holders, 10,000 of them. Its report doesn’t explain how it worked out the share of all adults. Its full methodology is available only by email.
• “14% of Americans own crypto.” That was Gallup’s 2025 figure. Its June 2026 survey found 9%.
• “Almost 15% have transferred money into crypto accounts.” The JPMorgan Chase Institute’s report says this in its introduction, but its main findings say 13% by June 2022. It doesn’t explain the gap.
• “10% of Americans used crypto in 2025, the highest since 2021.” The Federal Reserve’s figure was also 10% in 2022. It’s a three-year high that matches 2022, not the highest since 2021.
• “The crypto market was valued at $6.34 billion in 2025.” The total value of all cryptocurrencies runs to trillions of dollars. Omni Calculator’s report doesn’t say what its figure counts.

What nobody publishes

Some numbers look like they should exist, but they don’t. Their absence explains why so many pages rely on opt-in polls and industry estimates.

The biggest gap is a real headcount. Every figure in this article is either a survey estimate or a count of something else. No agency counts how many Americans actually hold crypto. Company account numbers can’t fill the gap, since one person can have accounts on several platforms, and an account isn’t proof anything is in it.

The Federal Reserve’s most detailed survey of family wealth doesn’t help either. Its 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, released in October 2026, folds crypto into “other financial assets,” alongside lawsuit proceeds, estates and money lent to others. That category covers 9.7% of families, but there’s no separate figure for crypto. The only household estimate, 4.3%, comes from a St. Louis Fed analysis of the 2022 survey.

Tax data can’t answer the question as it’s built. The IRS asks every taxpayer whether they received, sold or otherwise disposed of a digital asset during the year. Someone who bought Bitcoin and simply held it answers “No.” Brokers now report crypto sales on Form 1099-DA, but that covers only sales made through brokers. The IRS hasn’t published counts from either.

Bank records are dated. The JPMorgan Chase Institute’s study of checking account transfers ends in June 2022, and covers only Chase customers.

Even some published surveys keep their methods back. The National Cryptocurrency Association’s report says its full methodology, including how its results were weighted, is available only by email.

Until any of this changes, the best answer comes from comparing careful surveys, not from a single count.

How to check it yourself

Every number in this article comes from a page anyone can open. Here’s where to find each one.

1. Fed: 10% used crypto, 9% bought or held it. Open the Federal Reserve’s “Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025.” Go to the Banking section, then Cryptocurrency. Table 33 shows each year from 2021 to 2025.
2. SEC: 8.7%, 14.9% and 4.4%. Open the SEC paper “Cryptocurrency Owners in the U.S. Population: Four Findings From THRIVE.” The 8.7% is Finding #1. The 14.9% and 4.4% are in Finding #4 and Figure 4. The four ownership patterns are in Figure 5.
3. Gallup: 9%, down from 14%. Read Gallup’s “U.S. Crypto Ownership Falls From 2025 High,” published September 21, 2026. The figure for all adults is in the second paragraph. The investor trend since 2018 is in the opening lines.
4. Pew: 17% ever used, 61% still own. Read Pew’s “Majority of Americans aren’t confident in the safety and reliability of cryptocurrency.” 17% is under “Who uses cryptocurrency?” The 61% is under “Some past cryptocurrency users no longer have it.”
5. Census: 269.8 million US adults. Download the Census Bureau’s population estimates for July 1, 2025. The figure is in the “United States” row, under “Resident Population Age 18 Years and Older.”
6. Security.org: 30% and 70.4 million. Both are in the first Key Finding. The sample size is in the Methodology section at the bottom.
7. Omni Calculator: 42%. It’s the first Report Highlight. The survey method, 500 adults on Prolific, is in the last two paragraphs.
8. NCA: “one in four.” It’s on the report’s introduction page. The methodology statement is near the end, and doesn’t explain how the share of all adults was calculated.
9. Survey of Consumer Finances: no separate crypto figure. Open “Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025.” Crypto falls under “Other” in Table 3. Appendix A lists what that category includes.
10. IRS: the tax question. Read “Digital assets” on IRS.gov, under “About the digital assets question on your tax return.” The question asks about receiving or selling crypto, not holding it.
11. JPMorgan Chase Institute: 13%. Open “The Dynamics and Demographics of U.S. Household Crypto-Asset Use.” The 13% is in the main finding.

If a figure here no longer matches its source, the source may have been updated since October 2026.

Where these numbers come from

The figures in this article come from the source closest to the data wherever one could be found: agencies’ own reports, pollsters’ own releases, and companies’ own pages. Where a number was calculated from published figures, such as converting a percentage into people, it’s labelled that way.

Most of the strongest figures come from public bodies with no commercial stake in the answer. The Federal Reserve, the SEC’s Office of the Investor Advocate, the Census Bureau and the IRS publish their data as part of their work. So do the Federal Reserve Banks of St. Louis and Cleveland, whose research is cited here. The SEC paper notes that it reflects its authors’ views, not necessarily those of the Commission.

Gallup and Pew Research Center are independent research organizations. Neither sells crypto or crypto services.

Other sources have a closer interest in the topic. The National Cryptocurrency Association is an industry group. Its advisory board includes PayPal’s head of crypto, and its report is written to make the case for crypto’s growth. Triple-A is a crypto payments company, and its ownership page ends with a pitch for its payment services. The JPMorgan Chase Institute is part of a bank, and its data comes only from Chase’s own customers.

Security.org and Omni Calculator are commercial websites that publish their own surveys. Security.org’s report sits alongside advice on protecting crypto, including the use of hardware wallets.

For what crypto holders gamble with it, see our crypto gambling statistics. If you find an error, tell us and we will correct it with the date shown.

Sources

Every figure above traces to one of these.

1. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Economic Well-Being of US Households in 2025 | Federal Reservefederalreserve.gov
2. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of the Investor Advocate, Cryptocurrency Owners in the U.S. Population: Four Findings from THRIVEsec.gov
3. Gallup, U.S. Crypto Ownership Falls From 2025 Highnews.gallup.com
4. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Cryptocurrency Ownership among U.S. Householdsstlouisfed.org
5. Security.org, 2026 Cryptocurrency Adoption and Sentiment Reportsecurity.org
6. Omni Calculator, How Many People Own Cryptocurrency? (2026 Study)omnicalculator.com
7. National Cryptocurrency Association, One in Four U.S. Adults Now Use Crypto According to National Cryptocurrency Association’s 2026 State of Crypto Holders Reportbusinesswire.com
8. Pew Research Center, Majority of Americans aren’t confident in the safety and reliability of cryptocurrencypewresearch.org
9. Triple-A, Cryptocurrency ownership data: United Statestriple-a.io
10. National Cryptocurrency Association, 2026 Annual State of Crypto Holders Reportnca.org
11. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Financesfederalreserve.gov
12. U.S. Census Bureau, https\://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/tables/2020-2025/state/detail/SCPRC-EST2025-18+POP.xlsxwww2.census.gov
13. Internal Revenue Service, Digital assetsirs.gov
14. Internal Revenue Service, Form 1099-DA, Digital Asset Proceeds From Broker Transactionsirs.gov
15. JPMorgan Chase Institute, The Dynamics and Demographics of U.S. Household Crypto-Asset Usejpmorganchase.com
16. Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Do You Even Crypto, Bro? Cryptocurrencies in Household Financeclevelandfed.org