Fed survey shows 10% use crypto

TLDR

A new Federal Reserve survey finds about 10% of US adults used or owned crypto in 2025, showing a modest adoption rebound mostly for investment, not payments.

1. The Fed reports roughly 10% of adults interacted with crypto in 2025, up from 7% in 2024 but still below the 12% peak in 2021.
2. Around 9% used crypto as an investment, while only 2% used it for payments and 1% for remittances, with usage skewed to younger, higher income adults.
3. The rebound is linked to spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, while real world payment use remains niche, so the main impact is on investment flows, not everyday commerce.

Deep Dive

1. What The Fed Found

The Federal Reserves 2025 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking reports that about 10% of US adults used or held cryptocurrency in 2025, up from 7% in 2024 and the highest level since 2022, but still below the roughly 12% adoption at the 2021 boom peak.

Crypto-focused outlets summarizing the Fed report note that this one in ten figure covers any use case, including investment, payments, or sending money to family and friends, and is based on a nationally representative sample of nearly 13,000 adults surveyed in October 2025.

2. How Americans Use Crypto

The Fed data shows crypto is overwhelmingly treated as an investment product. Around 9% of adults used crypto for investment, while only about 2% used it for payments and 1% for remittances such as sending money to family or friends. That pattern appears in multiple summaries of the Fed report, including detailed breakdowns of use cases.

Usage is concentrated among adults under 45 and those with above median incomes, while lower income households are less represented among active investors, according to analyses of the same survey. Among unbanked adults, about 6% reported using crypto for transactions compared with around 2% of banked adults, implying a small but noticeable role in financial access.

3. Why It Matters For Markets

The Fed survey and accompanying coverage link the 2025 uptick in participation to the launch and growth of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, which give retail users an easier brokerage based on ramp into digital asset exposure. These ETF channels appear to have driven much of the recovery in ownership without requiring people to touch exchanges directly.

At the same time, the fact that payment usage is stuck in the low single digits suggests that merchant tools, stablecoin rails, and user experience still have a long way to go before crypto becomes a common daily spending medium.

Conclusion

The Feds finding that around one in ten US adults used or owned crypto in 2025 confirms that digital assets are now a meaningful, but not dominant, part of household finances. Adoption has recovered from post crash lows, driven mostly by investment products like spot ETFs, while everyday payment usage remains a niche. For crypto users and builders, the signal is clear: investment demand is established, and the next frontier is turning more of that ownership into practical, low friction payment and remittance use.