Crypto User Demographics Statistics 2026: Who Owns Crypto Now

Global cryptocurrency ownership reached 741 million users in 2025, up 12.4% from 659 million in 2024, according to Crypto.com’s Market Sizing Report. The expansion landed unevenly across age, gender, and geography, and the most-cited demographic narratives from the last cycle no longer hold.

In the United States, 27% of men and 11% of women reported using or investing in cryptocurrency in Pew Research Center’s January 2026 survey of 8,512 US adults. The headline gap between intent and behavior, global owners say they prefer crypto payments while US household data shows almost none of them transact, sits underneath every other number on this page. The female-adoption inflection that early reporting expected has stalled, and the 30-44 age bracket has overtaken the under-30 cohort that headline coverage still assumes leads the asset class.

Key Takeaways

• Global cryptocurrency owners reached 741 million in 2025, a 12.4% year-over-year rise driven by Bitcoin and Ethereum growth.
• Pew Research’s January 2026 survey found Americans aged 30-49 lead crypto use at 28%, ahead of the 26% rate for 18-29, reversing the assumption that the youngest cohort dominates.
• The Federal Reserve’s 2024 SHED survey put US adult crypto use at 8%, down from 12% in 2021, showing the asset class has not recovered its pre-FTX peak.
• Triple-A’s global data shows 61% of crypto owners are male and 39% are female, and the gap is widening in 2026 US polling.
• India ranked first in Chainalysis’s 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index, with the United States at rank 2 and Pakistan at rank 3.
• Asian adults lead US adoption at 25%, while White, Hispanic, and Black Americans cluster around 18% to 20% in Pew’s 2026 numbers.

Editor’s Choice

• Total global crypto owners reached 741 million in 2025, up from 659 million in 2024.
• Bitcoin ownership grew to 365 million users, representing 49.3% of global crypto owners.
• The US accounts for approximately 30% of American adults, or 70.4 million crypto owners, according to Security.org’s 2026 report.
• Hong Kong leads country-level ownership at 31.0%, followed by the UAE at 24.4% and Singapore at 19.3%.
• Triple-A measured global ownership at 6.8% of the world population as of its 2024 reading.
• US men aged 30-49 reach 40% crypto engagement in Pew’s January 2026 survey, the highest single-subgroup rate Pew measured.

Recent Developments

• June 2026: Pew Research published the 8,512-adult survey showing about 1 in 5 Americans have used cryptocurrency, including 40% of men aged 30-49.
• May 2026: Motley Fool’s Cryptocurrency Investor Trends Survey put US ownership at about 22%, with 16% owning directly and 6% holding through an ETF.
• May 2025: The Federal Reserve’s SHED report covering 2024 found 8% of US adults used cryptocurrency, with 7% holding as investment.
• June 2025: Gallup’s poll of 2,017 US adults found 14% report owning bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, against 17% among investors.
• June 2025: Chainalysis released its 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index ranking 151 countries, with APAC value received up 69% year-over-year to $2.36 trillion.

Global Crypto Ownership

• Crypto.com’s Market Sizing Report counted 741 million owners worldwide at the close of 2025.
• The annual addition of 12.4% outpaced the 8.3% Bitcoin-holder growth, indicating altcoin and stablecoin holders drove the marginal gains.
• Triple-A’s 2024 baseline of over 560 million owners at 6.8% of the world population anchored the year-over-year comparison.
• Ethereum holders climbed 22.6% to 175 million, the fastest cohort growth among the major chains.
• Ethereum’s share of global owners reached 23.6%, up from a smaller base the prior year.
• Triple-A’s CAGR of 99% in digital currency ownership from 2018 to 2023 compares against traditional payment growth of 8% over the same window.
• World-average ownership across Triple-A’s country sample sat at 6.9%.
• Crypto.com’s methodology blends on-chain data with blended parameters to estimate global ownership, a different lens from Triple-A’s survey-weighted approach.

Source: Crypto.com Market Sizing Report 2025, Triple-A Global Cryptocurrency Ownership 2024

By the numbers: Crypto.com counted 741 million global owners in 2025, up from 659 million in 2024 at a 12.4% annual rate. The world’s owner pool has more than doubled since Triple-A’s 2020 reading, even as country-level ownership rates remain modest outside the top quartile of jurisdictions.

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Crypto Ownership by Gender

• Triple-A measured global crypto ownership at 61% male and 39% female in its 2024 snapshot.
• Pew Research’s January 2026 US survey found 27% of men have used crypto compared with 11% of women.
• Gallup’s June 2025 poll put US men aged 18-49 at 25% ownership and women 18-49 at 8%, a roughly 3-to-1 spread.
• Motley Fool’s May 2026 survey of 2,000 American adults found 34% of male respondents own crypto versus 11% of female respondents.
• US men aged 30-49 specifically reach 40% crypto engagement in Pew’s reading, the highest single-subgroup rate across age and gender combined.
• Among older Americans, men aged 50+ own at 12% while women 50+ own at 9% in Gallup’s data, the smallest gender gap by cohort.
• Female adoption has not closed the gap despite a decade of “women in crypto” reporting that anticipated convergence; in fact, the male cohort’s growth from 2021 to 2026 has widened the spread across every primary source measured here.

The takeaway: The cross-source consensus puts US male ownership between 25% and 34%, against female ownership between 8% and 11%, per Gallup and Motley Fool. The convergence narrative many publications adopted in 2021 has not arrived; the 2025-2026 cohort of new holders skews male as decisively as the 2017 cohort did.

Crypto Ownership by Age Group

• Pew’s January 2026 cohort split shows 26% for ages 18-29, 28% for ages 30-49, and 10% for those 50 and older.
• Security.org’s 2026 report bucketed owners differently, placing 19% in the 18-29 bracket, 32% in 30-44, 31% in 45-59, and 17% in 60+.
• Combined, roughly two-thirds of all crypto owners fall into the 30-59 age range under Security.org’s framing.
• JPMorgan Chase Institute’s banking data found 20% of millennials transferred funds to crypto accounts, against 11% of Generation X and 4% of baby boomers by mid-2022.
• Motley Fool’s forward-looking question found 49% of Gen Z and 46% of millennials say they are likely to buy crypto within the next year, compared with 26% of Gen X and 11% of boomers.
• Triple-A’s global numbers show 34% of crypto owners fall between 25-34 years old, the largest single age bucket globally.
• Pew’s data underscores a generational reframing: The 30-49 group now leads adoption, not the youngest brackets that early “digital native” narratives assumed.

Crypto Ownership by Race and Ethnicity

• Pew Research’s January 2026 data shows Asian adults lead US adoption at 25%, while White, Hispanic, and Black Americans cluster around 18% to 20%.
• White American ownership rose from 13% in 2021 to 18% in 2026, the largest absolute increase among major demographic groups in Pew’s panel.
• JPMorgan Chase Institute’s millennial-level data found Asian individuals lead at 27%, with Black and Hispanic individuals approximately equal at 21%, and White individuals at 20%.
• The race-cohort spread in JPMCI’s banking data tracks closely with Pew’s survey result despite the two studies using radically different methodologies. Chase de-identified transaction records versus the American Trends Panel, which strengthens the underlying signal.
• Usage increases with income across all racial groups in JPMCI’s sample, controlling for the age effect.
• The Asian-American leadership effect held across millennials at median income levels in JPMCI’s 2015-2022 banking-data window, suggesting it predates the 2024-2026 ETF cycle.

Source: Pew Research Center (January 2026), JPMorgan Chase Institute (2022 study)

Top Countries by Crypto Adoption

Source: Chainalysis 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index

• Chainalysis’s 2025 index ranked India first, the United States second, and Pakistan third across its four weighted sub-indices.
• The index covers all 151 countries with sufficient data on each sub-index, weighted by population size and purchasing power.
• APAC value received grew 69% year-over-year, with transaction volume rising from $1.4 trillion to $2.36 trillion in the 12 months ending June 2025.
• Latin America posted 63% growth, Sub-Saharan Africa 52%, North America 49%, and Europe 42% in the same window.
• The 2025 methodology introduced an institutional component capturing transfers exceeding $1 million, reflecting professional-investor participation.
• Triple-A measured country-level ownership rates highest in Hong Kong at 31.0%, the UAE at 24.4%, Singapore at 19.3%, Turkey at 18.9%, Argentina at 17.6%, Thailand at 17.5%, and Brazil at 17.5%.
• Seven of Chainalysis’s top 10 are lower-middle or upper-middle income economies, while institutional value concentrates in the US and UK, two distinct crypto economies developing in parallel, with the Cross-border remittance corridor as the connecting tissue between them.

Key finding: Chainalysis’s 2025 index found APAC value received grew 69% year-over-year, with regional transaction volume rising from $1.4 trillion to $2.36 trillion in the 12 months ending June 2025. The expansion was led by India (rank 1) and Vietnam (rank 4); both economies pair high remittance flows with deep grassroots adoption that the Cross-border remittance channel does not fully capture.

US Household Crypto Use

• The Federal Reserve’s 2024 SHED found 8% of US adults used cryptocurrency for either investment or transactions, down from 12% in 2021.
• Investment use accounted for 7% of US adults in the prior 12 months, the dominant category.
• Transactional use was much smaller: 2% used crypto to buy something or make a payment, and 1% used it to send money to friends or family.
• Security.org’s parallel reading put US ownership higher at approximately 30% of American adults, or 70.4 million people, up slightly from 27% in 2024.
• The Fed-vs-Security.org gap reflects methodology differences (Fed surveys households and counts active use in the past 12 months; Security.org counts any current holding, including dormant wallets), and both readings can be simultaneously correct.
• Security.org’s 2026 reading still trails the 33% peak observed in 2022.
• Transactional crypto use concentrates among unbanked populations at 5%, compared with 2% for banked adults, the same population overlap CoinLaw covers in its underbanked or unbanked households coverage.

Source: Federal Reserve SHED (May 2025 report covering 2024), Security.org 2026 Cryptocurrency Adoption Report

Investment vs Payment Behavior

• Triple-A’s global survey found 65% of digital currency owners prefer crypto payments when asked about transaction preferences.
• The Federal Reserve’s 2024 SHED shows only 2% of US adults used cryptocurrency to buy something or make a payment in the prior 12 months.
• The two figures cover different populations (Triple-A’s global owner pool versus the Fed’s full US-adult sample), so they cannot be subtracted directly; the gap between stated preference and revealed US household behavior is best read as directional, not numeric.
• Among those who do transact in crypto, 35% cited that the person or business receiving the money preferred cryptocurrency, 18% cited speed, and 13% cited cost.
• Distrust-based motivations are minor; only 5% cited safety concerns and just 3% mentioned lack of trust in banks in the Fed’s data.
• The investment-first US pattern aligns with Security.org’s finding that 51% of crypto owners cite potential price increases as their top motivation.
• This pattern matters for the DeFi protocols and tokenized commodities markets because both depend on transactional crypto use, not passive holding, the very behavior US household data shows is still small.
• JPMorgan Chase Institute’s banking data put the median crypto transfer at approximately $620, reinforcing the small-purchase pattern.

Income and Education Patterns

• Pew Research’s January 2026 survey shows crypto use rises with income: 27% of upper-income households against around 20% of middle-income and 16% of lower-income Americans.
• Gallup found college graduates at 19% ownership and upper-income Americans at 19% in its June 2025 poll.
• JPMorgan Chase Institute reported usage increases with income across all racial groups in its banking-data sample.
• Almost 15% of crypto-account users have net transfers of over one month’s worth of pay in JPMCI’s data, a concentrated-exposure pattern among engaged holders.
• Political ideology shows a notable lean; political conservatives report 18% ownership in Gallup’s reading, above the national average.
• Pew’s 2026 numbers reinforce the partisan tilt: Republicans are now more likely than Democrats to have used crypto (22% vs 17%).
• The income concentration sits alongside a behavioral risk: lower-income individuals transferred funds when bitcoin was trading at $45,400, compared with higher-income individuals at $42,400, suggesting worse timing among the income cohort least able to absorb drawdowns.

Source: Pew Research Center January 2026, Gallup June 2025 poll

Most-Held Cryptocurrencies Among Owners

• Security.org’s 2026 report ranked the top US holdings as Bitcoin (74%), Ethereum (53%), Dogecoin (25%), and Solana (20%), unchanged from the prior year.
• Globally, Bitcoin reaches 365 million holders, 49.3% of all crypto owners per Crypto.com’s Market Sizing Report.
• Ethereum owners climbed 22.6% year-over-year to 175 million, representing 23.6% of global owners.
• Bitcoin’s 49.3% share plus Ethereum’s 23.6% share together account for about 73% of global crypto owners by holder count.
• Bitcoin holder growth of 8.3% lagged Ethereum’s 22.6% in 2025, suggesting altcoin adoption ran faster than the Bitcoin-only cohort.
• The four-coin US holding pattern has held for the second consecutive year in Security.org’s tracking.
• This concentration matters for reading the broader global crypto adoption trends, where 74% of US holders own Bitcoin and headline ownership figures move with BTC sentiment more than with any single altcoin cycle.

What are the demographics of cryptocurrency users?

US crypto users skew male, with 27% of men against 11% of women reporting use in Pew Research’s January 2026 survey. The age peak sits at 28% for the 30-49 bracket, ahead of 26% for 18-29 and 10% for 50 and older. Asian Americans lead by race at 25%, and the bitcoin statistics coverage links these demographic patterns to wallet-level activity.

Which countries have the most cryptocurrency holders?

By absolute volume and adoption-index ranking, India, the United States, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Brazil lead Chainalysis’s 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index. By ownership percentage of population, Hong Kong at 31.0%, the UAE at 24.4%, and Singapore at 19.3% lead Triple-A’s data. The two metrics measure different things. Chainalysis weights activity and transaction value; Triple-A weights raw ownership share.

How does crypto ownership break down by race and age?

Pew Research’s January 2026 survey shows Asian adults leading at 25%, with White, Hispanic, and Black Americans clustered around 18% to 20%, and a 30-49 age peak at 28% that exceeds the 18-29 cohort. JPMorgan Chase Institute’s banking data confirms the Asian-American lead at the millennial level at 27%, with Black and Hispanic millennials at 21% and White millennials at 20%, two methodologies pointing to the same demographic pattern. The cryptocurrency adoption statistics hub aggregates these cuts alongside country-level data.

Conclusion

741 million global owners mark continued expansion this year, but the US adult ownership rate of 8% in the Fed’s 2024 SHED data still trails the 12% peak measured in 2021. Male adoption has pulled away from female adoption across every primary source; the 30-49 age cohort leads US use, and Asian Americans lead by race at 25%. The US-specific cryptocurrency adoption picture by country layers in the geographic detail this demographic cut leaves out.

The intent-behavior wedge between Triple-A’s 65% stated payment preference and the Fed’s 2% transactional use is the demographic story that matters most for the next refresh.