The Biden administration’s March 2022 executive order and recognition of digital currencies on a national scale comes when the U.S. consumer ownership and usage of cryptocurrencies as a viable payment method is reaching unprecedented heights. Not only do 16% of U.S. consumers — 41.2 million people — now own at least one type of cryptocurrency, but 16.1 million have used cryptocurrencies to make online purchases in the last 30 days, and 7.1 million have used it to make in-store purchases in that time.
Most consumers still see crypto chiefly as a type of investment rather than a payment method — but that is rapidly changing among a growing cohort of crypto owners. PYMNTS research shows that while roughly half of the consumers who own cryptocurrency use it as an investment, nearly one-third of consumers who hold or have held cryptocurrency in the last 12 months say they would switch merchants if it meant they could pay with cryptocurrency. Primarily high-income millennials use cryptocurrency to buy everything from groceries and clothes to gaming and entertainment subscriptions.
These are just some of the findings in “The U.S. Crypto Consumer: Cryptocurrency Use In Online And In-Store Purchases,” a PYMNTS and BitPay collaboration. In this report, we surveyed 2,334 current or former cryptocurrency users and nonusers in the U.S. to learn more about consumers’ growing interest in cryptocurrency and plans for ownership and use of cryptocurrency.
More key findings from the study include:
• Twenty-three percent of consumers — 59.6 million people — have owned at least one cryptocurrency in the past year, up from 16% — 41.5 million people — in 2021. Sixteen percent currently own cryptocurrencies, with 7% saying they owned them in the past but do not now. The share of consumers owning cryptocurrencies in 2022 has increased four percentage points from 2021. Last year, just 12% of survey respondents reported that they currently held cryptocurrencies….
