Americans holding or using crypto fell from 11% in 2021 to 8% in 2022, per the Fed’s 2022 Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households report – released this month.
The Fed attributed the drop in holding and using crypto to the fall in digital asset prices last year.
However, the percentage of Americans undertaking crypto transactions remained unchanged from 2021. Only 3% of respondents said they used crypto to make a financial transaction in the 12 months prior to the survey – underscoring that using crypto for transactions is less common than holding cryptocurrency as an investment.
According to the survey, 2% of respondents used crypto to make purchases or payments, and 2% used it to send money to friends or family.
The respondents cited three main reasons for conducting crypto transactions: to send funds faster, for the privacy of transactions, and if the person or business receiving the funds preferred crypto.
The Fed stated that individuals with a higher financial risk appetite were more likely to use crypto as an investment or for transactions. The results showed a quarter of those with higher risk tolerance used crypto in the previous year compared to only 4% of those not at all willing to take financial risks.
Crypto usage differed across demographic and socioeconomic factors
According to the report, crypto usage was more common among younger adults and men for both investment and transactions.
Leaving aside age and gender, a variety of factors like income, race, and ethnicity impacted whether crypto was used as an investment or for transactions. For instance, high-income individuals earning over $100,000 or more per year were more likely than lower-income groups to invest in cryptocurrency.
But individuals earning less than $25,000 per year were more likely than high-income individuals to use crypto for transactions.
Furthermore, the survey showed that Asians in the U.S. are more likely to hold crypto as an investment than other ethnic groups. On the other hand, Black and Hispanic respondents were more likely to use crypto for transactions than White or Asians.
5% of unbanked Americans used crypto to make transactions compared with 3% of banked individuals, the survey results indicate. Irrespective of bank account ownership, 8% of respondents who used nonbank check cashing or money orders conducted crypto transactions compared to 2% of individuals who did not.
The Federal Reserve concluded that:
“…use of cryptocurrency for financial transactions remained very low, even among groups who were more likely to use cryptocurrency in this way.”
However, Sebastian Derivaux, the founder of Steakhouse Financial, noted:
“8% penetration rate in transaction usage in a target group is quite strong regarding how early and UX-deficient it is. Or the US banking system is really bad.”
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