Laura Varas: We haven't asked specific financial fluency questions around cryptocurrency, so we can't provide specific data at this time on American adults' understanding of cryptocurrency, including all its risks and benefits, but our research shows that consumers are using crypto—and in a dangerous way:

One in four U.S. households now used crypto in 2021 (excluding households without any assets), with use almost tripling in the past year. That equates to 25 million households. In 2020, 8 percent of households said they used crypto; in 2021, that rose to 22 percent.
Most (78%) of those who use crypto are trading crypto. (22% use it for payments; 66% only trade; and 12% do both.)
Three in four crypto users (72%) say they use crypto because "high volatility creates opportunities to make money trading." And 15 million households trade specifically for the volatility.
Many are driven by a fear of missing out: Forty-four percent of crypto users strongly agree with the comment "Possibly missing out on investment growth is a bigger worry to me than the risk of losing money in the short term." That's compared with only 16 percent of non-users.
Crypto use is greater among young consumers, with 39 percent of Gen Z, 38 percent of millennials, 27 percent Gen X, and only 6 percent of boomers saying they used crypto in 2021.

[Note: The above data is from our 2021 survey wave of our Investor Quantitative (IQ) Database, with 5,794 participants nationally fielded in September 2021. Overall, the IQ Database has more than 65,000 U.S. households dating back to 2010 and more than 100 million datapoints on consumer buying patterns and competitive insights. Research report: Crypto, Securities Lending & Fractional Shares: Balancing Access vs. Risk in Innovation (March 2022)]

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Cryptocurrency in 401(k)s

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