FameEX Hot Topics | Fed Survey Finds 18M Americans Used or Owned Crypto Last Year

The number of U.S. adults reporting crypto ownership or usage dropped to around 18 million last year, according to the latest annual household survey from the Federal Reserve.

In the 12 months leading up to October last year, 7% of surveyed U.S. adults reported using crypto — down from 10% in 2022 and 12% in 2021, as per the Fed’s Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) published on May 21.

Only 1% of adults said they used crypto as a payment method or to send money, down by half from 2022, while 7% purchased or held crypto as an investment. Among those using crypto for financial transactions, nearly 30% did so because the recipient preferred crypto. The least cited reason was a lack of trust in banks.

The survey indicated that individuals with annual incomes of $100,000 or more were more likely to have used crypto for any reason. Millennials (ages 30 to 44) made up the largest share of crypto users, followed closely by adult Gen Zs (ages 18 to 29). Men were three times more likely to use crypto than women. 

Black and Hispanic adults were the most common crypto users for financial transactions. Asian adults were the largest demographic 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 participating U.S. adults aged 18 and older. The Fed weighted the sample against the 258 million adults according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s March 2023 current population survey.

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