Hvad driver amerikanerne virkelig til at investere i krypto?

Kryptopriserne har haft svært ved at holde sig siden Bitcoin (BTC ) toppede omkring $126,000 i oktober 2025. Da BTC-prisen mistede mere end 50 % af sin værdi, mistede folk interessen, og adoptionen tog et slag. Men adoptionen i USA har gjort et comeback i år, som bemærket i en Deutsche Bank (DB) undersøgelse af detailforbrugere (DB ).

Efter en jævn nedgang siden juli 2025 genvandt den amerikanske kryptoadoptionsrate i marts 12 %. Demografisk set er mænd og husholdninger med højere indkomst førende inden for kryptoadoption, selvom gradvise stigninger også ses blandt kvinder og lavindkomstinvestorer.

Undersøgelsen fra den tyske långiver omfattede 3.400 detailforbrugere i USA, Storbritannien og EU. I Storbritannien, hvor yngre forbrugere viste den hurtigste vækst i deltagelse, faldt adoptionen til 9 %, men forbliver højere på længere sigt, mens Europa holder sig stabilt på 7 %, skrev analytikerne i deres rapport tidligere i år.

Blandt aktiverne forbliver Bitcoin favoritten, med omkring 70 % af kryptoinvestorer på tværs af regioner, der ejer den største kryptovaluta, langt mere end ejerskab af stablecoins som USDT og USDC. Derudover angav 69 % af de amerikanske respondenter Bitcoin som deres foretrukne investering for fremtiden.

Men i lyset af kryptos svage præstation sammenlignet med traditionelle aktiver foretrækker investorer guld og S&P 500 frem for kryptovalutaer, selvom forskellen er lille i USA, hvor investorpreferecerne er mere jævnt fordelt mellem de tre.

Som TRM Labs bemærkede, faldt den globale detailkryptoaktivitet fra $1,1 billion i Q1 2025 til $979 milliarder i Q1 2026, efter et fald på 23 % i Q4 2025. Dette to‑på‑to fald var det stejleste siden bjørnemarkedet i 2022, drevet af reduceret detaildeltagelse i et globalt risikofrit miljø.

“Dette mønster er i overensstemmelse med, hvordan krypto har opført sig gennem de seneste markedscyklusser,” udtalte rapporten, og forklarede, at Bitcoin-afkast stemmer “overens med bredere makro‑regimer, med stærk præstation under perioder med likviditetsudvidelse og skarpe nedture under risikofrie episoder,” og de to på hinanden følgende nedture i Q4 2025 og Q1 2026 passer ind i dette mønster, “der forstærker, at detailkryptoaktivitet er tæt knyttet til makroforhold snarere end udelukkende krypto‑native dynamikker.”

Midt i dette fastholdt USA sin førerposition, med en transaktionsvolumen næsten tre gange så stor som den næststørste marked. USA efterfølges af Sydkorea, Rusland, Indien og Tyrkiet.

Q1 2026 Global Crypto Adoption Index‑rapporten bemærkede yderligere, at kryptoadoption registrerede de “skarpeste kontraktioner” i udviklede markeder med stabile fiat‑valutaer og konkurrencedygtige indenlandske kapitalmarkeder.

Mens stigende alternativomkostninger og risikofri stemning reducerede spekulativ appetit i USA (-11 %), Storbritannien (-17 %), Tyskland (-25 %) og Sydkorea (-28 %), steg efterspørgslen efter krypto, forblev flad eller faldt kun lidt i emerging markets, hvor begrænset pengepolitik eller kapitalrestriktioner begrænser alternativer.

Efterspørgslen efter krypto i emerging markets drives ikke af spekulation, men af behov, fungerer som en værdilagring og er derfor mindre følsom over for den globale likviditetscyklus.

Når det gælder den samlede kryptoadoption, rangerer Indien først, efterfulgt tæt af USA, ifølge 2025 Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index. I USA bliver adoptionen i stigende grad institutionel, med regionen, der behandler mere end $2,2 billioner i værdi.

Generelt ejer over 70 millioner amerikanske voksne, eller omkring 30 % af den amerikanske befolkning, nu krypto, op fra 15 % i 2021 og 27 % i 2024, ifølge Security.org.

Kilde: Security.org

En ud af tre krypto‑ejere er mellem 30 og 44 år. For andet år i træk var Bitcoin den mest populære kryptovaluta, sammen med Ethereum (ETH ), Dogecoin (DOGE ) og Solana (SOL ).

Ifølge dataene angiver dem, der ikke ejer nogen kryptovaluta, volatiliteten som den primære grund. Mens kryptos høje volatilitet er den største afskrækkelse, inkluderer andre bekymringer manglende beskyttelse fra regering eller bank, risiko for cyberangreb, vanskeligheder ved at stole på kryptobørser og muligheden for tab af adgang.

Sikkerhed har altid været folks største bekymring ved krypto, så det er ingen overraskelse, at den fortsat holder investorer væk fra aktivet. Men hvad med grundene til at investere i krypto? Hvorfor investerer amerikanere faktisk i aktivet?

Er det finansiel sofistikering, eller en simpel appetit for risiko? Er det mistillid til banker, eller komforten ved digitale platforme skabt af årtiers app‑baseret investering? Beviserne, ifølge en ny akademisk undersøgelse af amerikanske husholdninger, peger på en blanding af alle disse.

Understanding Americans’ Participation in Crypto Markets

Close to two decades after Bitcoin’s launch, cryptocurrencies have moved from a fringe experiment into a mainstream asset, reaching a market capitalization of $4.34 trillion at its peak in oktober 2025, and are fast becoming a part of American household finance.

But while demand for crypto as an asset class continues to rise, what drives this adoption remains insufficiently explored in the literature.

To address this, researchers from the Department of Economics and Finance, City University of Hong Kong, published a study titled ‘Determinants of Household Crypto Asset Market Participation: Evidence from the United States¹‘ to provide an unusually detailed view of household-level mechanisms.

The researchers analyzed data from the 2021 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS), a large-scale survey of US household investors. They began with 27,118 adults in the broader NFCS State-by-State Survey and constructed an investor sample of households that hold non-retirement investments and are primary or shared household financial decision-makers.

After further narrowing the sample to respondents who had at least heard of crypto and accounting for missing observations in the core variables, the researchers built a principal estimation sample of 1,524 respondents.

With this sample design, the results shouldn’t be interpreted as representative of every American household, since the study focused specifically on people already participating in financial markets outside retirement accounts.

The researchers then ran probit regressions to identify which household traits were associated with owning, or intending to own, crypto. One of the study’s main findings is the distinction between subjective and objective financial literacy.

Subjective financial literacy is about how knowledgeable respondents believe they are about investing, whereas objective financial literacy is about how they actually perform on a standardized quiz with ten financial-knowledge questions.

This distinction matters because those with high self-assessed financial knowledge were far more likely to own crypto, whereas objective financial knowledge showed no significant relationship.

In the baseline specification, households with high subjective financial literacy were roughly 9 percentage points more likely to own crypto than households with low subjective financial literacy. But once digital-investing capability was included, the estimated difference fell to about 6.3 percentage points.

So, believing one understands investing predicts crypto ownership better than actually demonstrating that one does. Digital fluency turned out to be an even more important part of the picture.

The researchers used the frequency of respondents’ investing through websites and mobile applications as proxies for digital-investing capability, explicitly acknowledging that these measures may capture broader familiarity with online investing rather than pure digital literacy.

Households that frequently invest via websites or mobile apps were substantially more likely to hold crypto, with effects considerably larger than those associated with subjective financial literacy.

In the baseline results, occasional website investing was linked with roughly a 5.6-6.3 percentage-point greater probability of crypto ownership, while frequent website investing was associated with an increase of about 11.3-12.3 percentage points, depending on the specification. Mobile-app measures showed a similar relationship.

This aligns with crypto being a structurally digital asset class. Everything from buying to trading and storing happens via platforms and apps, so people already comfortable with these interfaces face fewer practical or psychological barriers to entering crypto markets.

Risk attitudes were found to be as expected, providing another major explanation. Per the study, both general risk aversion and crypto-specific perceptions of risk had a negative relationship with the likelihood of owning crypto.

Households unwilling to take general financial risk were about 9.4 percentage points less likely to own crypto, while respondents who considered crypto highly risky were about 33.5 percentage points less likely to invest than those who viewed it as less risky. The authors caution, however, that the crypto-specific measure captures perceptions of the asset as well as underlying risk preferences, so these figures shouldn’t be taken as proof that risk tolerance causes crypto ownership, but rather as conditional associations.

Behavioral factors add yet another layer, with the researchers measuring overconfidence as the gap between what people think they know and what they can actually demonstrate.

The authors explain that overconfidence bias, a tendency in which investors overestimate their knowledge, skills, or the accuracy of their information, leads them to take greater risks, increasing the likelihood of not only owning crypto but also investing larger amounts than those with less confidence.

Although overconfidence is positively associated with crypto ownership, its estimated economic effect is very small. So, this finding should be understood as evidence that behavioral biases may contribute to participation rather than as evidence that overconfidence is the dominant reason Americans buy crypto.

A clearer behavioral signal came from myopia, referring to an investor’s preference for short-term gains over long-term value creation.

Those with short-term investment motives were about 4.0-5.1 percentage points more likely to own crypto across the study’s specifications. This is consistent with the idea that at least part of crypto demand is driven by expectations of rapid gains rather than building a long-term investment portfolio.

The study results also reinforce the relationship between impatience and cryptocurrency adoption and “underscore the importance of financial education to mitigate short-term, bias-driven investment behaviour in highly volatile markets.”

Moreover, the paper found higher crypto participation among people who opened investment accounts in 2020 or later and among those who traded more frequently during the pandemic, consistent with the broader acceleration of digitally enabled retail investing during COVID-19. The pandemic “coincided with greater interest in crypto assets as alternative investment vehicles amid heightened economic uncertainty and lockdown-related disruptions,” noted the study.

The researchers also shed light on where people get their investing information. The paper found that respondents who relied on social media for investment information were 10.5-21.1 percentage points more likely to own crypto, while those who relied heavily on professional financial advisers were 7.1-12.8 percentage points less likely to own crypto.

This is not to say that social media causes crypto investment or that financial advisers prevent it. However, the authors point to this divergence as evidence that advisers act as a cautious check on speculative, lottery-like investments, while social platforms amplify hype, fear of missing out (FOMO), and rapid-fire sentiment shifts.

Overall, the study presents crypto participation as a combination of confidence, higher subjective financial knowledge, digital familiarity, risk tolerance, stronger fraud aversion, and behavioral orientation, rather than as a straightforward consequence of conventional financial sophistication.

The authors noted that the findings, several of which are distinctive to the crypto setting, “highlight the need for targeted financial education initiatives that address behavioral biases and enhance digital financial competencies among crypto investors.”

It’s important to note, though, that the study used cross-sectional, unweighted 2021 survey data from existing non-retirement investors. It identifies associations rather than causation, meaning the study cannot determine whether these characteristics lead people into crypto or whether becoming a crypto investor subsequently changes their behavior.

The authors explicitly frame their results as conditional associations rather than causal mechanisms and identify the need for panel data, quasi-experimental designs, or credible instruments to draw stronger causal conclusions. The results also do not represent every American household.

Robinhood Markets

Operating at the intersection of mobile investing, retail behavior, social influence, and cryptocurrency participation, Robinhood provides direct exposure to all four mechanisms through a single consumer investing platform.

Robinhood offers a real-world example of the digital-investing environment identified by the study. Its significance lies in reducing the practical barriers between becoming interested in an asset and actually trading it.

“Robinhood exists to make everyone an owner,” CEO Vlad Tenev said during the company’s recent earnings call.

“It’s a powerful vision – not just for each individual customer – but I think also for society at large. I think that a society without ownership broadly distributed is very fragile. And we think broad ownership is essential to a free, stable, and prosperous society, because when more people have stake in the outcome – more skin in the game – they’re literally invested in the outcome.”

– Tenev

Founded in 2013, the platform didn’t launch crypto trading until 2018, and since then, it has integrated crypto into a broader retail-investing ecosystem.

Today, cryptocurrency trading is conducted through Robinhood Crypto, while stocks, ETFs, and options are handled through Robinhood Financial. Crypto assets are not FDIC-insured or SIPC-protected, though.

As for its cryptocurrency segment, Robinhood reported $40 billion in crypto trading volume in Q2 2026, down from $66 billion in Q1 2026. This included $18 billion through the Robinhood app, which decreased 35% YoY, and $22 billion through Bitstamp.

Lately, Robinhood has been venturing deeper into the crypto market by launching its AI-native Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain, Robinhood Chain, for financial services and real-world assets.

Then there’s Robinhood Earn, its first decentralized lending product, available directly in the app. This stablecoin lending product, powered by Robinhood Chain and USDG, allows customers to earn 7% APY and has captured $200 million in deposits in just a few weeks.

Robinhood has also been exploring tokenized stocks, with Tenev saying:

“We’re very excited about bringing ownership of real world assets to everyone in the world.”

Stock tokens are already available in over 120 countries through the platform, expanding exposure to assets like US stocks to anyone with an internet connection. Currently, Robinhood is “serving over 1 million accounts outside the US, and very much at the beginning there.”

When it comes to the company’s financials, total net revenue increased 32% YoY to $1.31 billion, and Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) increased 24% YoY to $187.

“We delivered record revenues and drove new highs across equity, option, and event contract volumes, as we continue to win market share. Our product velocity continues to deliver new products for customers and drive a more diversified business.”

– CFO Shiv Verma

Transaction-based revenues increased 44% YoY to $776 million, driven primarily by a 10x surge in event contracts revenue, a 95% jump in equities revenue, and a 29% increase in options revenue. This was partially offset by a 38% drop in crypto revenue.

For the period, Robinhood reported a 48% YoY increase in net income to $573 million, while diluted EPS increased 48% to $0.62. Adjusted EBITDA was $741 million, up 35% YoY.

Robinhood’s funded customers increased by 1.9 million during the quarter to reach 28.4 million, while investment accounts reached almost 30 million.

The company also shared insights into customer behavior, noting that active trader engagement reached new records in Q2 across equities, options, and prediction markets. Nearly 100,000 customers have opened Agentic Trading accounts, which were launched in May to allow users to trade equities, options, and crypto through AI-powered agents.

The company’s total platform assets surged to $369 billion, primarily driven by higher equity valuations and continued net deposits, which climbed to $21.7 billion. Cash and cash equivalents totaled $5.4 billion, including net proceeds from its recent convertible notes offering, compared with $4.2 billion at the end of Q2 2025.

Robinhood repurchased $414 million worth of shares during the period, including $290 million repurchased in connection with the June convertible notes offering.

“We opportunistically raised $2.2 billion of capital to give us even more flexibility to invest for future growth. We believe we have a massive opportunity ahead of us, and the capital gives us even more capacity to go after it,” said Verma.

The company launched its initial share repurchase program in Q3 2024 and has since repurchased $1.3 billion in shares under the program.

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Conclusion

Crypto is widely known for its volatility and potential for massive financial gains, but the evidence suggests that high returns aren’t the only driver behind Americans’ decisions to invest in cryptocurrencies. Participation is driven by a combination of self-perceived financial competence, comfort with digital investing, willingness to accept risk, and heavy reliance on social media.

With crypto investment present among a significant minority of American adults and platforms like Robinhood embedding digital assets within increasingly broad retail-investment ecosystems, it becomes important for policymakers, educators, and the platforms themselves to not only close knowledge gaps but also address behavioral biases to shape how American households engage with crypto securely going forward.

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References

1. Asaana, C. A. & Kakkar, V. Determinanter for husholdningers deltagelse i kryptomarkeder: Evidens fra USA. International Review of Economics & Finance, 111, 105687 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iref.2026.105687