Who Really Owns Bitcoin? Nakamoto Institute Study Uncovers Identiy of Whales

• A study by the Nakamoto Institute found that Bitcoin ownership in the US is cross-spectrum, with millennials the most active BTC owners and men having an edge over women.
• Contrary to popular belief, BTC ownership isn’t a preserve of the right, with ownership largely uniform from the very conservative to the very liberal Americans.

Who owns Bitcoin in the US? Is it an asset that only appeals to anti-establishment Americans? Do women invest in BTC, and is it only a preserve of the young and tech-savvy? A recent study set out to answer these questions, and the findings were surprising.

The study, conducted by the Nakamoto Institute, involved 3,538 adult Americans from all walks of life, across all ages and inclusive of all political ideologies and social classes.

1/n I'm really proud of this report on bitcoin ownership.
Our survey of 3,538 adults in the US found bitcoin ownership:
-covers the full spectrum of political identity
-is skewed young and male
-correlates weakly with a unique profile of moral values
-correlates strongly with… pic.twitter.com/dNjoU2xnIt

— Troy Cross (@thetrocro) July 22, 2024

“We wanted to understand who owns Bitcoin and who doesn’t, and why. That called for research. Not just surface-level demographics, but a deep look into the roots of our psycho-social identities,” explains Troy Cross, one of the researchers behind the study.

As shown below, the study was as diverse as it gets, including respondents across the entire country. There was a 52%- 46% female and male representation, respectively, across all income and education classifications.

Who Owns Bitcoin in America?

One of the most pronounced dividers in the US is political ideology. The country has been divided along the blue and red party lines for hundreds of years, and with the advent of social media, these divisions have become more significant than before, as this year’s election has shown us.

For years, Bitcoin has been seen as more prevalent among right-leaning Americans, with the Republican Party being the political side that’s been pushing for crypto rights. This is best seen with Donald Trump, who speaks at the Bitcoin Conference later this week and who has promised to protect crypto once he assumes office. Some believe that BTC could hit $600,000 on the back of a Trump victory in November, as we reported on Tuesday.

What’s surprising is that the study found no outright divisions in BTC ownership along party lines.

Cross, who led the study, explained:

Bitcoin owners looked pretty much like the non-bitcoin owners in our sample: mostly moderate! They were still a bit more prone to the political extremes on both liberal and the conservative, than non-owners. (Statistically significant but small.)

In fact, those who identified as “very liberal” were the second-highest BTC owners. This is interesting for several reasons, not the least of which is that it presents a conundrum for Kamala Harris as she takes over the Democratic Party ticket. Her predecessor, Joe Biden, who stepped down recently, has been anti-crypto, with his securities tsar Gary Gensler leading the onslaught.

With the study finding that even the liberals love Bitcoin, Harris may need to change the party’s stance and, perhaps even more importantly, cut ties with the political liability that’s Gensler.

As the industry awaits Trump’s landmark speech at the Bitcoin Conference this week, BTC has retraced slightly after hitting $67,000. It trades at $66,500 at press time. It has traded sideways for most of the past day amid a 1% dip in overall market cap to settle at $2.42 trillion.