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About 1 in 5 Americans have used crypto; Republicans’ use has ticked up

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About 1 in 5 Americans have used crypto; Republicans’ use has ticked up

Even after years of buzz, the use of cryptocurrency has remained fairly stable in the United States. Today, about one-in-five U.S. adults (19%) say they’ve invested in or used a cryptocurrency – about on par with the 16% who said this in 2021.

But for the first time, there is a partisan gap in use. Republicans’ crypto use has ticked up from 16% in 2021 to 22% today, and they are now more likely than Democrats to say they’ve used it, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in January 2026.

Crypto has become part of the national political conversation in recent years. The Trump administration has set out to make America the “crypto capital of the world,” including steps to allow crypto firms to become banks.

About this research

This Pew Research Center analysis looks at Americans’ personal experiences with cryptocurrency over time.

Why did we do this?

Pew Research Center does research to inform the public, journalists and decision-makers. Studying the public’s views and experiences with cryptocurrency is part of our long-standing research on technology, e-commerce, online privacy and security, and related topics.

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Learn more about Pew Research Center.

How did we do this?

For the 2026 data, we surveyed 8,512 U.S. adults from Jan. 20 to 26, 2026. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel. The survey represents the views of the full U.S. adult population.

Here are the questions used for this analysis, the topline and the survey methodology.

Who uses cryptocurrency?

Some of the biggest demographic differences in cryptocurrency use are by gender, age and income.


Men under 50 stand out for being crypto users; Republicans are more likely to use it than Democrats

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% of U.S. adults who say they have ever invested in, traded or used a cryptocurrency such as bitcoin or ether

* Estimates for Asian adults are representative of English speakers only.
Note: White, Black and Asian adults include those who report being only one race and are not Hispanic. Hispanics are of any race. Family income tiers are based on adjusted 2024 earnings.

Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Jan. 20-26, 2026.

PEW RESEARCH CENTER


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Men under 50 stand out for being crypto users; Republicans are more likely to use it than Democrats

% of U.S. adults who say they have ever invested in, traded or used a cryptocurrency such as bitcoin or ether

Demographic %
U.S. adults U.S. Adults 19
Men Gender 27
Women Gender 11
Ages 18-29 Age 26
30-49 Age 28
50+ Age 10
Men 18-29 Male and Age 38
30-49 Male and Age 40
50+ Male and Age 14
Women 18-29 Female and Age 15
30-49 Female and Age 17
50+ Female and Age 6
White Race/Ethnicity 18
Hispanic Race/Ethnicity 19
Black Race/Ethnicity 20
Asian* Race/Ethnicity 25
Upper income Income 27
Middle income Income 20
Lower income Income 16
Rep/Lean Rep Party 22
Dem/Lean Dem Party 17

* Estimates for Asian adults are representative of English speakers only.
Note: White, Black and Asian adults include those who report being only one race and are not Hispanic. Hispanics are of any race. Family income tiers are based on adjusted 2024 earnings.

Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Jan. 20-26, 2026.

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PEW RESEARCH CENTER


By gender and age

As was true in past surveys, young men stand out for their use of crypto:

  • 38% of men ages 18 to 29 say they have ever invested in, traded or used cryptocurrency, compared with 15% of women in the same age range.
  • 40% of men ages 30 to 49 have done this, compared with 17% of women in this age group.

Crypto use among men and women ages 30 to 49 has gone up since 2021. And men 50 and older are also more likely to have ever used crypto today than in 2021.

By income

About one-in-four adults in upper-income households (27%) have invested in or used crypto, up from 23% in 2024 and 17% in 2021.

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By comparison, 20% of middle-income Americans have used crypto, up slightly from 17% in 2021. Use has not changed among lower-income Americans (16% this year vs. 15% in 2021).

By party

Republicans are now more likely than Democrats to have invested in, traded or used crypto (22% vs. 17%). Before this year, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents were as likely as Democrats and Democratic leaners to say they’d done so. But GOP crypto use has grown from 16% in 2021 to 22% now, while Democrats’ use has held steady at 17%.

By race and ethnicity

A quarter of Asian adults say they have ever invested in, traded or used crypto – which is similar to Black and Hispanic adults. White adults remain less likely to be crypto users than Asian adults but are on par with Black and Hispanic adults for the first time. This is partially due to crypto use among White Americans ticking up from 13% in 2021 to 18% today.

For more about Americans and cryptocurrency, read our 2024 analysis, which has information on:

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, the topline and the survey methodology.

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Crypto

Strategy Is No Longer Just Going to “Inoculate the Market,” Selling Crypto May Be Much More Common. Here’s What That Could Mean for the Stock | The Motley Fool

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Strategy Is No Longer Just Going to “Inoculate the Market,” Selling Crypto May Be Much More Common. Here’s What That Could Mean for the Stock | The Motley Fool

When Strategy (MSTR 0.69%) sold a modest amount of Bitcoin earlier this year, it was a noteworthy development given that the company’s business has centered around buying up as much of the cryptocurrency as it can, and vowing to never sell. And it often boasts of being the largest corporate holder of the digital currency.

The company brushed off the sale of 32 Bitcoins, with management saying it simply wanted to “inoculate the market.” Well, now it appears that Strategy is doing much more than just that, and there could be more significant cryptocurrency sales in the future.

Image source: Getty Images.

Strategy unveils a Bitcoin monetization program

On June 29, Strategy released a framework going forward that it says will “enhance liquidity, preserve long-term Bitcoin exposure, and support long-term value creation for shareholders.” Among the notable components is its Bitcoin monetization program.

Within that program, the company says it may sell some of its cryptocurrency holdings for multiple reasons, including to fund a USD reserve, fund dividends or interest expense, or to fund repurchases of digital credit securities or common stock.

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While the company says it remains committed to Bitcoin for the long term and it’s the company’s “primary treasury reserve asset,” it’s a significant change of course for Strategy, which was previously heavily against ever selling the digital asset.

Strategy Stock Quote

Today’s Change

(-0.69%) $-0.69

Current Price

$100.08

The stock is as risky and volatile as ever

Whether or not Strategy buys or sells Bitcoin doesn’t change the fact that this is a highly risky and speculative stock to own. While crypto fans may be disappointed in the company’s change in strategy, selling Bitcoin will likely not be enough to make the business any better or worse as an investment.

In just the past 12 months, the stock has plummeted a whopping 75% as volatility in digital assets has drastically weighed on its earnings, with the company incurring $12.8 billion in losses over the trailing 12 months, on revenue of $490 million.

That’s not likely to change significantly, even if Strategy offloads some of its crypto holdings, because with such a large exposure to Bitcoin, how the cryptocurrency performs will inevitably impact the company’s bottom line in a big way. This year, the leading cryptocurrency is down 28% as investor excitement around it has largely cooled off, which has proven disastrous for Strategy’s stock as well. And at this stage, there’s little reason to anticipate a recovery anytime soon.

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Crypto

An Easy-to-Miss Radio Traffic Jam Is Behind Many Home WiFi Slowdowns

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An Easy-to-Miss Radio Traffic Jam Is Behind Many Home WiFi Slowdowns

Key Takeaways

Your WiFi can feel rock-solid at midnight and oddly sluggish by breakfast, even when you have not touched a single setting. The culprit is often outside your walls: a crowded slice of public radio spectrum where your router has to negotiate space with every nearby network, plus a grab bag of household gadgets that leak interference. Add peak-hours demand and the signal-blocking quirks of building materials and weather, and “slow internet” starts to look less like a billing issue and more like an invisible traffic problem you are forced to share.

When WiFi slows down without warning

One day your home WiFi feels snappy, the next it drags, even though your router hasn’t moved and your internet plan hasn’t changed. That swing is real, and it’s usually not your imagination or a “bad day” from your ISP. WiFi lives on shared airwaves, and those airwaves get crowded, noisy, and sometimes just plain finicky.

Think of your connection as a conversation in a busy room. Your laptop and router may be talking just fine, but the room itself can fill up fast with other chatter. What looks like a mystery slowdown is often the result of invisible competition and interference that changes hour by hour.

The battle of competing networks

Most homes still rely heavily on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi bands, which are unlicensed spectrum in the US. That “free for everyone” reality is convenient, but it also means your network shares space with your neighbors, their smart TVs, their work laptops, and every nearby router doing the same thing.

Congestion has a rhythm. During common work-from-home and school-from-home windows, especially 8-10 AM, and again in the evening 6-10 PM, more devices are streaming, video calling, syncing, and downloading updates. Even if you pay for fast broadband, your WiFi link can become the bottleneck when the local radio environment gets packed.

Interference inside your home

Your own house can sabotage you. A microwave is the classic culprit because it can leak noise near 2.4 GHz, exactly where many WiFi networks still operate. Older cordless phones, some baby monitors, and even dense clusters of Bluetooth gadgets can add more clutter, especially in smaller apartments where everything sits close together.

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Then there’s physics. Concrete, metal, and even water (think aquariums or thick pipes in walls) absorb and scatter radio signals. A router shoved behind a TV, tucked into a cabinet, or stuck in a far corner forces your devices to “hear” through more obstacles, lowering speeds and making dropouts more likely.

Weather, channels, and what you can do tonight

Environmental changes can matter too. Higher humidity and rain can slightly increase signal loss, and shifting temperatures can change how radio waves propagate around a neighborhood. You might never notice on its own, but paired with congestion it can tip a marginal connection into a frustrating one.

The 2.4 GHz band is also channel-limited. In the US there are 11 channels, but only 1, 6, and 11 don’t overlap. Many routers default to “auto channel,” so nearby networks can hop around trying to escape interference, sometimes creating instability. Practical fixes: prefer 5 GHz (or 6 GHz if you have WiFi 6E/7 gear), place the router centrally and higher up, and use a WiFi analyzer app to pick a less crowded channel instead of leaving it on auto.

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Crypto

U.K.’s sanctions on cryptocurrency exchanges signal new focus on illicit digital financing – Compliance Week

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U.K.’s sanctions on cryptocurrency exchanges signal new focus on illicit digital financing – Compliance Week

Cryptocurrency exchanges believed to be financing Russia’s war in Ukraine have been sanctioned by the U.K. government in the first attempt to prevent evasion via “dark networks.” The move indicates a new focus on digital sanctions evasion, and compliance teams should expect these rules to develop further, potentially in the EU and other jurisdictions.


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Ruth Prickett graduated from Cambridge University with a BA hons in History and has specialized in business and finance journalism for the past 20 years. She was editor of Financial Management, the magazine…
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