For years, cryptocurrency was associated with people who distrusted traditional institutions. Many early adopters were drawn to digital assets as an alternative to banks, governments, and centralized financial systems.
Over time, however, cryptocurrency has moved from the margins of investing into the financial mainstream. Millions of people now buy crypto alongside stocks, retirement accounts, and other traditional investments. Still, crypto’s role as an investment strategy is not well understood.
To address this and other gaps, the Urban Institute conducted a nationally representative survey (N = 3,194) in January 2026. We asked respondents about their financial attitudes and behaviors, including their experiences with cryptocurrencies and other investments.
Key Takeaways
- Approximately 17 percent of US adults own or have owned cryptocurrency. Most adults (69 percent) have never owned cryptocurrency but are aware of it.
- Almost half of crypto owners (45 percent) say they use cryptocurrency primarily to diversify their investment portfolios.
- Many crypto owners also save in traditional financial accounts, including checking accounts (87 percent), retirement accounts (67 percent), high‑yield savings accounts (36 percent), and money market accounts (27 percent).
- Crypto owners also commonly hold retail investments, including individual stocks (45 percent), fractional shares (33 percent), meme stocks (7 percent), options contracts (8 percent), and futures contracts (7 percent).
Rather than to replace traditional investment strategies, many people are using cryptocurrency as part of a broader portfolio diversification strategy. As policymakers and regulators develop guardrails for this growing industry, they must create policies and regulations that allow people to invest in digital assets while protecting them from harm.
Crypto owners skew male, Asian, and higher income
According to Urban’s survey, more than two-thirds (69 percent) of people in the US have never owned cryptocurrency but have heard of it, showing broad awareness of the digital asset.
Approximately 17 percent of US adults own or have owned cryptocurrency. Roughly half of this group currently owns crypto and the other half previously owned crypto but no longer does. In the rest of this article, “crypto owners” refers to the 9 percent of US adults who currently own cryptocurrency unless otherwise noted.
Among our survey respondents, crypto owners skew male and are disproportionately Asian. Men are about two and a half times more likely than women to own crypto (13 percent versus 5 percent). Asian respondents are about three times as likely as Black and White respondents to own crypto (23 percent versus 7 percent and 8 percent).
Crypto ownership spans income groups but is most prevalent among people with higher incomes. Nineteen percent of people with household incomes at or above $150,000 own cryptocurrency. Ten percent of those with incomes of $50,000 to $149,999 and 4 percent of those with incomes under $50,000 report owning crypto.
Most crypto owners use established coins, have owned them for years, and hold small balances
Bitcoin is the most commonly held cryptocurrency (held by 71 percent of crypto owners), followed by Ethereum (41 percent). This reflects a reliance on more established and widely recognized digital assets, rather than newer alternatives.
A majority of people who own cryptocurrency have owned it for several years. Nearly a quarter of crypto owners (24 percent) say they first purchased crypto two to three years ago, and 39 percent say they first purchased it more than three years ago.
People’s crypto balances are generally modest: about 41 percent of crypto owners report balances of less than $250. Open-ended survey responses suggest this may be attributable to cautiousness. One respondent said they were using crypto to “test growth,” and another that they were “just in the learning phase.”
Still, a sizable minority of crypto owners have more substantial investments. More than a third (37 percent) report balances exceeding $1,000.
Most use crypto as an investment strategy
When asked how they have used crypto in the past 12 months, most people (60 percent) say they have used it as a long‑term investment strategy, and about a quarter (27 percent) that they have used it as a short‑term investment strategy. Only 7 percent have used it to pay for goods or services.
Similarly, nearly half of crypto owners (45 percent) say they have used crypto primarily to diversify their investment portfolios. In open-ended responses, people said they owned crypto “as an investment experiment,” “to learn how to use it,” and because they thought buying it “was a gold rush moment.”
People's other top reasons for owning crypto were curiosity about new technologies (37 percent) and a belief that crypto is the future (27 percent). Only 2 percent of crypto owners say they own it because they do not trust banks, which suggests that current owners may differ from early adopters who were driven by ideological considerations.
Crypto owners are investing in crypto alongside other strategies
The majority of crypto owners also report saving in traditional financial accounts, including checking accounts (87 percent), retirement accounts (67 percent), high‑yield savings accounts (36 percent), and money market accounts (27 percent).
Crypto owners also commonly hold retail investments, including individual stocks (45 percent) and fractional shares (33 percent). These types of investments are riskier and more volatile than mutual funds or exchange-traded funds, because they are tied to a single stock.
These data suggest people are investing in crypto alongside other investment strategies of varying risk profiles rather than treating crypto as an alternative to the financial system.
Current crypto owners are more likely to be satisfied with their crypto’s performance
Just under half of crypto investors who use crypto as a long-term investment strategy (43 percent) say their cryptocurrency holdings’ performance has met their expectations. Roughly equal shares report better‑than‑expected (25 percent) and worse‑than‑expected (21 percent) outcomes.
Nevertheless, the majority of all crypto owners (55 percent) say crypto has had little to no impact on their overall finances, a result that is unsurprising given that most have invested relatively small amounts.
Former Crypto Owners
About 8 percent of survey respondents say they previously owned cryptocurrency but no longer do. Just like among current owners, substantial shares of former owners say they primarily owned crypto to diversify their investment portfolios (30 percent) and because they were interested in new technologies generally (28 percent).
But former crypto owners were more driven by a desire to make money. Nearly half of former owners (45 percent) say one of their primary reasons for purchasing crypto was to make money, compared with just 11 percent of current owners.
Among people who reported using crypto as a long-term investment strategy, former owners were twice as likely as current owners to say their investments performed worse than they expected (39 percent versus 21 percent). They were also more than twice as likely as current owners to say crypto had a somewhat negative or very negative impact on their overall finances (28 percent versus 11 percent).
Former owners most frequently cited losing money (32 percent), excessive price volatility (28 percent), and concerns about security (28 percent) as the main reasons they stopped investing in crypto. These findings illuminate the range of crypto investors’ attitudes and experiences.
Policymakers, regulators, and financial institutions can ensure people use crypto safely and responsibly
There has been a recent surge of regulation and federal actions around digital assets. With the passage of the GENIUS Act and the proposed CLARITY Act, much of the momentum has focused on stablecoins, a digital asset pegged to the US dollar. Both bills would facilitate broader integration of crypto into mainstream financial markets, in some cases with fewer regulatory guardrails than other financial services.
The Trump administration’s recent executive order “Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors” would also further integrate crypto with financial markets by including digital assets in retirement accounts via both exchange-traded funds and direct holdings. Proponents of this policy suggest it could provide new opportunities for people historically excluded from traditional investments. Opponents warn that the volatility of digital assets could jeopardize the long-term savings of workers, especially people with low and moderate incomes, young adults, and other vulnerable groups.
Our findings underscore the importance of effective regulations and safeguards as crypto becomes more integrated into financial activities. These could involve the following:
- Requiring exchanges, banks, and other crypto providers to provide clear, standardized disclosures about investment risks, price volatility, and the possibility of financial loss.
- Enacting stronger advertising and marketing standards to ensure crypto platforms do not overstate expected returns or downplay risks.
- Establishing robust and accessible recourse mechanisms that allow consumers to report and resolve issues such as fraud, platform failures, and asset loss.
Stronger consumer protections will be critical to building consumers’ trust in crypto markets and ensuring people can use crypto safely and responsibly.
ABOUT THE DATA
In January 2026, the Urban Institute fielded a survey through the Understanding America Study (UAS), a national online consumer panel administered by the University of Southern California. The survey was fielded to 6,413 adults, 3,194 of whom completed it. Poststratification weights were generated to bring the survey sample in line with the demographics of the national population.
All differences in outcomes between groups reported in the text of this article are statistically significant at a 5 percent level using a survey design–adjusted two-sample t-test. Where multiple comparisons were made, p values were adjusted using a Bonferroni correction. Quotes are from survey responses of “Other,” where respondents had the option to elaborate.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was produced through the Financial Well-Being Hub and funded in part by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. We are grateful to them and to all our funders, who make it possible for Urban to advance its mission.
The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. Funders do not determine research findings or the insights and recommendations of our experts. More information on our funding principles is available here.
We thank Orson Aguilar, Marlene Orozco, Tonantzin Carmona, Justine Davenport, and Signe-Mary McKernan for their expert review and thoughtful feedback and Aaron R. Williams for his data and methodology review.
