Federal Reserve’s latest annual household survey indicates the number of U.S. adults reporting crypto ownership or usage fell to approximately 18 million last year. According to the Household Economy and Decision Making Survey (SHED) published by the Fed on May 21, 7% of surveyed U.S. adults reported using crypto in the 12 months leading up to October of the previous year; this figure was 10% in 2022 and 12% in 2021.
Fed’s Crypto Research Gains Attention
Only 1% of adults said they used crypto as a payment method or to send money, a rate that has halved compared to 2022. Meanwhile, 7% of survey participants bought or held crypto as an investment.
The Fed’s results fall significantly short of Coinbase’s long-standing claim that 52 million Americans own cryptocurrency. Coinbase has not yet responded to a request for comment on how it arrived at this figure.
Nearly 30% of the 1% who used crypto for a financial transaction said it was because the recipient preferred crypto. The least cited reason was a lack of trust in banks. Overall, the survey reported that individuals with an annual income of $100,000 or more were more likely to use crypto for any reason.
What Are the Survey Details?
The survey also found that the largest share of crypto users were Millennials aged 30 to 44, followed by Generation Z adults aged 18 to 29. Men were three times more likely to use crypto than women. The most common crypto users in financial transactions were Black and Hispanic adults.
Asian adults were the largest demographic group using crypto as an investment, while White adults were the least likely to use crypto for any reason. The survey was conducted in October 2023 with 11,488 U.S. adults aged 18 and over. The Fed weighted the sample to represent 258 million adults based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s March 2023 updated population survey.
