Laura Varas: We haven't asked specific financial fluency questions around cryptocurrency, so we can't provide specific data at this time on American adults' understanding of cryptocurrency, including all its risks and benefits, but our research shows consumers are using crypto and in a dangerous way:

1 in 4 U.S. households now use crypto (as of 2021) with use almost tripling in the past year. Households using crypto equates to 25 million households. This figure is drawn from households with any amount of assets (excluding households without assets). In 2020, 8% of households said they used crypto. In 2021, that rose to 22%. (We did not ask the order of magnitude in crypto but plan to about whether consumers have a little or a lot.)
Most (78%) of those who use crypto are trading crypto. (22% use for payments. 66% only trade; 12% do both.)
3 of 4 crypto users (72%) say they use crypto because "high volatility creates opportunities to make money trading." And 15 million households trade specifically for the volatility.
Many are driven by a fear of missing out: 44% of crypto users strongly agree "Possibly missing out on investment growth is a bigger worry to me than the risk of losing money in the short term." That's compared to only 16% of non-users.
Crypto use is greater among young consumers with 39% of Gen Z, 38% of millennials, 27% Gen X but only 6% boomers saying they use crypto (2021).

Note: The above data is from our 2021 survey wave of our Investor Quantitative (IQ) Database with 5,794 participants nationally fielded in September 2021. Overall, the IQ Database has over 65,000 U.S. households dating back to 2010 and over 100 million datapoints on consumer buying patterns and competitive insights. Research report: Crypto, Securities Lending & Fractional Shares: Balancing Access vs. Risk in Innovation (March 2022)

Instant Insights /

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