Coin of the realm

Ask a financial adviser what the young do with their money and you may hear that they have all bought crypto. Ask the Federal Reserve and you will hear that 8% of American adults used it for anything at all last year.^{3Federal Reserve BoardEconomic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024: Banking and Credit1 May 2025} The truth lies in the gap between those two statements, and it is narrower, younger and far more male than the lore suggests.

Begin with the most flattering number. In a Pew survey fielded in September 2021, 31% of Americans aged 18 to 29 said they had ever invested in, traded or used a cryptocurrency, against 16% of adults overall.^{1Pew Research Center16% of Americans say they have ever invested in, traded or used cryptocurrency11 Nov 2021} Young adults were, on that measure, twice as likely as the average American to have dabbled. When Pew asked again in February 2024, 17% of all adults said yes, with 10,133 respondents.^{2Pew Research CenterMajority of Americans aren't confident in the safety and reliability of cryptocurrency24 Oct 2024} The headline looks like a movement that has held its ground.

• 2021
• 2024

A young man's game. America, share who have ever invested in, traded or used crypto, ages 18-29, %

	2021	2024
Men 18-29	43	42
Women 18-29	19	17

Source: Pew Research Center, surveys of September 2021 and February 2024¹²

It is not quite that. “Ever” is a ratchet: nobody who bought a coin in 2021 can un-buy the fact. A survey asking whether you have ever done something can only rise, or stay level while people quietly stop. The Fed’s survey, which asks about the past year, tells the less excitable story. The share of adults using crypto for investment or payments went 12%, 10%, 7% and 8% between 2021 and 2024.^{3Federal Reserve BoardEconomic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024: Banking and Credit1 May 2025} Of the 8% in 2024, 7% held it as an investment and only 2% used it to buy something or make a payment.^{3Federal Reserve BoardEconomic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024: Banking and Credit1 May 2025} Money that cannot be spent is, as a currency, a modest success.

Now divide the young by sex. Pew’s 2021 survey found 43% of men aged 18 to 29 had tried crypto and 19% of women.^{1Pew Research Center16% of Americans say they have ever invested in, traded or used cryptocurrency11 Nov 2021} In 2024 the figures were 42% and 17%.^{2Pew Research CenterMajority of Americans aren't confident in the safety and reliability of cryptocurrency24 Oct 2024} The gap, more than two to one, did not close. The popular “young people and crypto” story is mostly a story about young men, and it did not budge through a bear market, a series of exchange failures and a change of mood. Whatever draws men in their twenties to coins, it is evidently not the price chart.

The strongest objection is that surveys miss the action. People under-report speculative habits; an online panel may under-sample the very young; and the people who hold the most crypto are not the ones who answer. That is fair, and it cuts both ways. The Fed’s own footnote warns that, because its survey is conducted online, the sample “may be more technologically connected than the overall population”, which would push the crypto number up, not down.^{3Federal Reserve BoardEconomic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024: Banking and Credit1 May 2025} Nor does any sampling quirk explain why use fell by a third in three years in the Fed’s own annual series.

A second objection is that the young are early, and numbers lag adoption. Perhaps. But adoption needs a use, and the Fed finds that few have one. Among adults who sent crypto to friends or family, 28% made at least one international transfer,^{3Federal Reserve BoardEconomic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024: Banking and Credit1 May 2025} a genuine niche, and one where the unbanked do rather better than the rest: 5% of them used crypto for transactions, against 2% of those with bank accounts.^{3Federal Reserve BoardEconomic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024: Banking and Credit1 May 2025} Remittances are a business. They are not a generation.

There is also a matter of trust. Pew found that 63% of adults had little or no confidence in the safety and reliability of crypto, and only 5% were extremely or very confident.^{2Pew Research CenterMajority of Americans aren't confident in the safety and reliability of cryptocurrency24 Oct 2024} A product that most of its own potential customers regard as unreliable will struggle to become a habit, whatever its enthusiasts post.

What should an observer conclude? That “the young” is a lazy unit of analysis. About four in 10 young men have tried crypto, fewer than two in 10 young women have, and a shrinking minority of everyone uses it in any given year. That is a hobby with a strong following in one demographic, rather like fantasy football or a certain kind of watch.

Crypto’s promoters like to say that it is the future’s money. For now it is the present’s pastime, and a gendered one.