Fed Study Reveals Crypto Ownership Stagnates Despite Market Surge

Recent research from the Federal Reserve indicates that cryptocurrency ownership has not increased alongside the market's recent upturn.

According to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Consumer Finance Institute (CFI) dated September 6, the resurgence in crypto values has not led to a rise in ownership among those surveyed.

The CFI tracked cryptocurrency ownership from January 2022 to July 2024, using Bitcoin prices to gauge market conditions. Their findings reveal a drop in ownership during the 2022 bear market, with the percentage of owners falling from 24.6% in January 2022 to 19.1% by October 2022.

Despite market recovery over the next year and a half, ownership rates did not rise significantly, remaining at 17.1% in October 2023 and falling further to 15.4% in January 2024.

READ MORE:

Analyst Predicts Major Gains Ahead for Crypto Market Despite Current Downturn

Ownership rates showed little change around Bitcoin’s price peak in March and its halving in April, with figures at 16.1% in April and dropping to 14.7% in July. However, the report notes an increase in future purchasing interest, with 21.8% of respondents indicating a likelihood to buy crypto by April 2024, compared to 10.6% during the 2022 market downturn.

The Fed’s data was collected from two web-based surveys of 5,000 nationally representative individuals. Despite a nearly 150% increase in crypto market value since early 2023, ownership figures remain lower than some other estimates, such as Coinbase’s report of 52 million crypto owners in the U.S.

Alexander Stefanov