Cryptos: more and more Americans are trying them, but adoption is stagnating

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In the United States, 22% of adults have already held or used cryptocurrencies, compared to 18% in 2025. However, only 13% have used them in the last twelve months, an unchanged proportion. Published on October 27, an Ipsos survey reveals the sector's difficulties in retaining its users.

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Among Americans who had not used cryptos in a year, 11% had already owned or used them, compared to 5% in 2025. In other words, more people tried the experiment without continuing their use.

Curiosity is the primary motivation for purchasing, cited by 34% of current or past owners, ahead of long-term investment (25%) and short-term speculation (18%).

Purchasing intentions are also stagnating: 17% of respondents plan to hold or use cryptos in the future, compared to 16% a year earlier.

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However, Americans are very critical of their financial system. Only 19% consider it secure and 63% believe it needs to be modernized to deal with cyberattacks and threats linked to artificial intelligence.

This distrust does not, however, benefit crypto platforms. Only 4% of respondents place high trust in centralized exchanges, such as Coinbase or Kraken, compared to 5% in decentralized platforms, such as Uniswap. For comparison, major US banks receive 42% trust and credit unions 48%.

The survey was carried out from September 8 to 16 among 1,545 adults, with a margin of error of 2.8 points. It was commissioned by the DeFi Education Fund, an American lobby group favorable to decentralized finance.

Only 2% of Americans are very familiar with decentralized finance (DeFi), while 92% have little or no knowledge of it. However, 40% say they are at least somewhat willing to try it. Among them, 85% would consider using it to save, 82% to send money to their loved ones and the same number to earn interest.

The regulations do not seem to be enough to convince. When Ipsos mentions a federal law imposing more obligations on crypto companies, the proportion of people willing to try DeFi only increases from 40% to 42%. Ease of use is also a barrier: 13% of respondents say that more accessible products could convince them.

The survey thus reveals a paradox: Americans want more control over their money, but crypto solutions are still struggling to gain their trust. However, it does not make it possible to establish precisely why certain users have abandoned cryptocurrencies.

Machine-translated from French