Trending
I recently touched on the intersection of cryptocurrency and politics, but with midterm Election Day just about four months away, it is an issue worth revisiting. First, some housekeeping: don’t shoot the messenger. I’m merely passing along information from a third-party poll.
With that out of the way, advisors, fans of digital currencies and political pundits may want to watch as we get close to the November midterms is the partisan divide associated with investing in cryptocurrency. That’s familiar territory because some political experts say single-issue voters decide elections and that happened in the 2024 presidential election with one of the hot-button individual issues being cryptocurrency policy.
In terms of how digital currency owners vote, they’re more likely to vote Republican, but not by a massive margin.
“Republicans are now more likely than Democrats to have invested in, traded or used crypto (22% vs. 17%),” according to the Pew Research Center. “Before this year, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents were as likely as Democrats and Democratic leaners to say they’d done so. But GOP crypto use has grown from 16% in 2021 to 22% now, while Democrats’ use has held steady at 17%.”
There’s No ‘Typical’ Crypto Investor
Beyond crypto investors’ political proclivities, there’s more demographic data. Keep in mind that when Bitcoin was born 18 years ago (it’s old enough to vote!), it was viewed as “freedom” from traditional financial systems.
Following a few major price increases, Bitcoin gain acclaim as wealth-building tool for risk-tolerant investors. Put those two factors together and it’s not surprising that digital currency ownership transcends ethnicity and income bounds.
“A quarter of Asian adults say they have ever invested in, traded or used crypto – which is similar to Black and Hispanic adults,” adds Pew. “White adults remain less likely to be crypto users than Asian adults but are on par with Black and Hispanic adults for the first time. This is partially due to crypto use among White Americans ticking up from 13% in 2021 to 18% today.”
The point is there’s no monolith when it comes to the “typical” crypto investor, but there are some other clues.
Income Plays a Part, Sort Of
Cryptocurrency isn’t an asset class reserved for the elite and thanks to ETFs, it’s more approachable to a broader swath of investors. Still, there are some revealing though not startling findings by way of income demographics of crypto owners.
Pew points out that 27% of “upper-income” households have some digital currency exposure, up from 23% in 2024 and 17% in 2017. However, crypto users are found across various income levels.
“By comparison, 20% of middle-income Americans have used crypto, up slightly from 17% in 2021. Use has not changed among lower-income Americans (16% this year vs. 15% in 2021),” concludes Pew.
Related: Social Security Isn’t Going Bankrupt: 3 Myths Advisors Need to Help Clients Understand