According to a recent report from the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, The percentage of Americans owning cryptocurrencies dropped last year. In the report, titled “Economic Well-Being of US Households by 2022,” the Fed writes that the number of homeowners will fall from 11% to 8% in 2022. This drop is mainly attributed to the fact that the entire crypto market fell in value last year.
The 10th annual Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) offers insight into the financial well-being of US adults & their families & provides important information about how people are faring in the economy: (1/5) https://t.co/V6WxP4qS4J https://t.co/hAeY7NGqPa
— Federal Reserve (@federalreserve) May 22, 2023
Number of crypto transactions remains the same
Since the US has about 332 million inhabitants, of which 256 million are adults, that is a decrease from about 28 million to 20 million crypto investors in the US.
Although the number of crypto owners in the US has decreased, the percentage that transacts crypto remained unchanged at 3%. In the survey, respondents indicated the main reasons why they use crypto to transact. These are the desire to transfer money quickly, the privacy offered by crypto transactions and because some people prefer to receive their money in crypto.
Nevertheless, that 3% is significantly lower than the 8% mentioned earlier. It is a sign that most people in the crypto industry only hold it as an investment and do not actively use it, for example as a means of payment.
Demographic factors
Digging deeper into the report reveals that people with a higher tolerance for risk are more likely to use and invest in crypto. It also appears that American crypto investors are still mainly male and young adults.
Money also plays a role. People with annual incomes above $100,000 own more and more crypto than Americans who earn less. Individuals earning less than $25,000 per year actually use crypto transactions more than the high earners.
.In addition, eEthnicity plays a role: Asians in the United States show a greater tendency to hold cryptocurrencies as investment assets, while black and Hispanic respondents are more likely to use crypto for transactions. The use among South Americans can be explained by the sky-high inflation in countries such as Venezuela and Argentina. The report shows that the use of cryptocurrencies for financial transactions is still in its early stages.