Twelve percent of adults owned cryptocurrencies in 2021, according to a Federal Reserve survey measuring the economic health of U.S. consumers.
The annual survey of 11,000 people, released Monday, included questions about cryptocurrency ownership and use for the first time this year. It's the latest sign of the Federal Reserve's growing interest in understanding how the booming crypto economy fits (and doesn't fit) into the bigger picture.
The data collected showed that American consumers have little interest in crypto as a currency. They are by and large investors, not transactors, and only 3% of respondents said they had either deposited or shipped cryptocurrencies in the past year. In contrast, 12% had held cryptocurrencies as an investment.