Crypto Ownership in America Jumps to 1 in 4 Adults, New Survey Finds

In just one year, roughly 12 million more Americans became crypto holders.

That’s according to a new report from the National Cryptocurrency Association, which found that one in four U.S. adults now owns cryptocurrency — a sharp jump from one in five Americans just a year ago.

But perhaps more notable than the growth itself is who’s actually driving it. “It’s not just the crypto bros and pros, but the Joes and the Schmoes,” National Cryptocurrency Association Vice President of External Affairs Ali Tager told Coinage in a new interview at Consensus 2026. “It is housewives and parents and nurses and ranchers that are building on the blockchain.”

The NCA’s “2026 State of Crypto Holders Report,” conducted with The Harris Poll, surveyed 10,000 crypto holders across the U.S. and paints a picture of an industry that increasingly looks less like a speculative niche and more like mainstream financial infrastructure quietly embedding itself into everyday life.

“We're really trying to shine a spotlight on the positives that crypto is bringing to real people across the country,” Tager said. “The loudest voices are so often the ones that dominate the conversation.”

For years, crypto coverage has largely revolved around scandals, volatility, and speculation. Sam Bankman-Fried. Meme coins. Rug pulls. But the NCA’s data suggests that underneath those headlines, adoption has continued to spread well beyond the stereotype of young men trading tokens online.

According to the report, more new crypto holders now work in construction than in finance. Roughly one-third are women. More holders are over the age of 55 than under 25. And perhaps most importantly, people increasingly appear to be using crypto for practical reasons — not just investing.

Last year, only around 20% of crypto holders reported using digital assets day to day. This year, the NCA says that number has doubled. “Now 40% of crypto holders telling us that they are sending crypto to friends and family,” Tager said. “They're spending crypto at small businesses and large enterprises online and in stores.”

The report found that 41% of holders now send crypto to friends and family, while 40% use crypto to shop and make payments. About 30% of crypto holders also accept crypto payments for their businesses. That shift has coincided with the rise of stablecoins, which have increasingly become the bridge between traditional finance and crypto rails.

“Stablecoins are such a perfect example of a bridge between the tradfi world and the DeFi world,” Tager said. “It is a digital asset, but it's pegged to a real world asset.” The report also suggests that growing integration with familiar financial institutions may be accelerating mainstream trust in crypto itself. Nearly one-third of respondents said the most positive shift in their perception of crypto came from seeing companies like PayPal, Visa, and banks begin integrating blockchain technology into their products.

And notably, 69% of crypto holders said they trust crypto, compared to 65% who said they trust traditional banking. That doesn’t necessarily mean Americans are abandoning banks. In many ways, the opposite is happening. Crypto infrastructure is increasingly being absorbed into traditional financial systems, often invisibly.

“I believe that in a few years, we're going to get to a place where people aren't even really talking about crypto anymore because it's just quietly powering most of what we do,” Tager said. The comparison mirrors the evolution of the internet itself — once a standalone category of “internet companies,” before becoming simply part of nearly every business on earth.

Still, even as adoption grows, the industry continues to face an education problem.

“The number one barrier to entry by far was the knowledge gap,” Tager said. “They don't get what crypto is, how it works, who's backing it, how to buy, trade, hold, sell.”

That disconnect has increasingly become central to the NCA’s mission as policymakers in Washington continue debating legislation around stablecoins and market structure through bills like the GENIUS Act and Clarity Act.While crypto regulation has become more bipartisan in recent years, the NCA’s research found that roughly two-thirds of Americans still don’t believe policymakers understand crypto well enough to properly regulate it.

At the same time, consumers broadly support clearer rules around the industry.

“Everyday consumers, whether they hold crypto or not, they believe in smart, clear policy and regulation,” Tager said. “They want to know where, when and how they can use their digital assets.”

For Tager, though, the most compelling stories around crypto adoption aren’t necessarily happening in Washington at all.

One example she highlighted involved a woman named Karin, who turned to crypto after discovering her husband had secretly removed her from shared bank accounts years earlier.

“She taught herself how to trade crypto so that she could make her own money, have ownership, have sovereignty, have financial freedom, and something that nobody could ever take away from her,” Tager said. Karin eventually fled her home with her four children and a cold wallet holding her savings.

“Traditional systems failed her,” Tager said.

Stories like that, she argues, are increasingly shaping crypto’s next phase — not speculative mania, but normalization.