Are there really 50M crypto holders in the USA?

Crypto ownership has been closely tied to American politics. Recently, Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss suggested more than 50M Americans may own crypto, a claim that has been disputed. 

Optimistic research sees mass Americans as aware of crypto, with as many as 50M crypto owners. The statistic was cited by Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of the Gemini exchange. His claim suggests crypto mass adoption has already arrived, and owners are not a niche or special interest group. 

But the exact statistics of ownership may be misleading. The USA remains one of the key markets for crypto and a significant source of liquidity. Despite this, trading limitations and investment styles may not mean every sixth American owns some crypto. Even with ETF adoption, the number may be lower. 

To compare, EU-based crypto holders are just 31M, despite the lack of big restrictions. Asia is still the leader, with up to 263M users. The USA, however, still leads in terms of trading, big exchanges and even mining, despite the limitations on some states and the bans from using some services. US traders cannot officially access Binance, or mixers like Tornado Cash, though there are reports of trying VPN for those purposes.

Politicians like AOC believe that crypto is a special interest group. They should fire their political consultants because they obviously didn't give them the data. Crypto is owned by at least 50 million Americans. This means that it is a general interest group. Anti-crypto…

— Tyler Winklevoss (@tyler) July 22, 2024

Former Web3 co-founder and crypto skeptic Jake Donoghue dismisses the claim of 50M owners, claiming self-reported studies are inexact. Donoghue presented the official data of the US Federal Reserve survey on household wealth, which placed crypto ownership at 7% of the population. 

At the same time, claims exist that up to 50% of Americans have used crypto at some point in their lives. Coinbase claims 68M wallets, while other research groups pin the number at 40% of all Americans. Based on Bitcoin wallets, there are also estimates for 100M US-based holders, while based on exchange addresses, around 144M users have tried to hold some form of crypto asset. 

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These data reveal there may be even more representation than the claims of Coinbase. The critics of the Coinbase survey claim it is based on a limited sample of digitally-savvy online voters, with an over-representation of known crypto owners. However, additional data suggest that the official numbers may be too low. 

The big argument is whether crypto owners were a big enough group to warrant political representation. Crypto owners have raised $182M for political action, reveals a website aggregator. The site reveals that crypto holders are exceptionally active, and give rise to the best-supported causes, due to the ease and directness of sending crypto. 

Fairshake pro-crypto campaign draws funding from big donors

The currently reported donations show much bigger cause-driven activity, spread across a wider pool of donors. Most of the currently open campaigns support conservative causes, but Fairshake is purely crypto-oriented, demanding support for cryptocurrency interests.

The Fairshake campaign has received more than $202M, and carries a residual $119M available. The Fairshake campaign is ahead of Make America Great Again, which has also received more than $200M and sits on $113M cash on hand for the upcoming November elections. 

But even the Fairshake campaign is mostly funded by whales and crypto insiders, including Coinbase itself. The latest donation from Coinbase was for more than $24M, for a total share of $46.5M. 

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Another surprising donation came from Ripple Labs, with $25M flowing in May 2024. Other top donors include Circle, Kraken, Andreessen Horowitz, Jump Crypto and Winklevoss Capital Management. Smaller donations have also come from Solana Labs and Messari, among others. But there are no signs of grass-roots donations into this cause. Other causes are not as transparent on their funding inflows. 

It remains to be seen whether crypto ownership is a factor during the 2024 US election season. The presence of Andreessen Horowitz among large donors has sparked controversy, especially in wrapping pro-crypto policies with other right-wing causes. At least based on data, crypto lobbying is not a grass-roots factor that may sway the election, but is a representation of a small, coordinated group of crypto insiders. Almost all Fairshake donors have been key to the growth of crypto adoption, but also drove adoption aggressively by investment and incubating new companies and assets.

Cryptopolitan reporting by Hristina Vasileva