More Americans Have Tried Crypto, But Few Are Sticking With It: Survey

In brief

• Some 22% of U.S. adults have ever owned or used crypto, up from 18% in 2025, but past-year use held at 13%, and the growth came mostly from lapsed users.
• Only 19% say the financial system is secure, and 63% say it needs an upgrade to combat threats like AI and cybercrime. Yet just 4% trust crypto exchanges.
• Only 2% are very familiar with DeFi, though 40% say they’d be at least somewhat likely to try it.

More Americans have tried crypto than a year ago. Far fewer are still using it.

Some 22% of U.S. adults say they have ever owned or used crypto, up from 18% in 2025, according to a national survey conducted by Ipsos for the DeFi Education Fund, a crypto policy advocacy group. But the share who used crypto in the past 12 months held flat at 13%.

The growth came almost entirely from people who have stepped away. Among Americans who hadn’t used crypto in the past year, the share who had ever owned or used it more than doubled, to 11% from 5%. Plans to buy are flat, too: 17% say they’re likely to own or use crypto in the future, compared with 16% last year.

Men were more than twice as likely as women to have used crypto in the past year, 18% to 8%, and adults under 60 were far more likely to have used it than older Americans. Curiosity remains the top reason people tried crypto, cited by 34% of those who have owned it, followed by long-term investment at 25%.