Federal Reserve Survey Shows Decline in US Crypto Ownership and Usage
Summary:
The latest survey from the Federal Reserve indicates a drop in the number of US adults owning or using cryptocurrencies to approximately 18 million. The study, which reported a decline in crypto usage from 12% in 2021 to 7% in 2023, also found that only 1% of adults used crypto as a payment method. These findings contrast Coinbase's claim that 1 in 5 Americans own cryptocurrencies. The survey also highlighted demographic variations in crypto usage, revealing that higher-income earners and millennials were more likely to use crypto, and men were three times more likely to engage in crypto activities than women.
The latest annual household survey from the Federal Reserve revealed that the count of American adults owning or utilizing cryptocurrencies subsided to nearly 18 million last year. The Fed's Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) published on May 21 indicated a decline in cryptocurrency usage among US adults to 7%, a drop from 10% in 2022 and 12% in 2021 during the 12 months leading up to October of the previous year. Only 1% of adults affirmed cryptocurrency use as a means of payment or transferring funds, a dip of half from 2022, whereas 7% bought or kept cryptocurrencies as part of their investments.
The Federal Reserve's findings markedly contradict Coinbase's oft-stated contention in its advocacy campaigns, which profess that 1 out of 5, or 52 million Americans, are cryptocurrency holders. Coinbase refrained from commenting on how it came to this conclusion.
Among the 1% that engaged in crypto transactions, almost 30% reported doing so because the recipient individual or entity preferred cryptocurrencies. The most scarcely mentioned cause was a distrust in banking systems. For the 1% transacting in cryptocurrencies, the primary reasons were quicker fund transfers and privacy worries.
The survey findings also suggested a likelihood for the higher income section, individuals earning $100,000 or above annually, to engage with crypto. Millennials, forming the age group of 30 to 44 years, constituted the major fraction of crypto users, closely tailed by Gen Z adults aged between 18 to 29 years. Men were discovered to be three times more likely to use crypto compared to women.
In terms of racial demographics, Black and Hispanic adults were discovered to be the predominant users of crypto for financial transactions. Meanwhile, Asian adults were the chief demographic investing in crypto while White adults were least likely to engage in any form of crypto usage.
The survey was administered in October 2023 with the participation of 11,488 US adults above the age of 18. The number of adults, as per the US Census Bureau's current population survey of March 2023, was taken as 258 million by the Fed for sample weighting.
Published At
5/23/2024 8:54:08 AM
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