Crypto Demand Softens in the U.S. as Risk-Taking Drops Across Retail Investors: Study

• U.S. crypto awareness keeps rising, but both interest in buying and ownership have stalled.
• Risk appetite is falling, especially among young investors, while high-risk trading and crypto use cluster in a smaller online group.

U.S. retail demand for cryptocurrencies has cooled even as awareness hits record highs, according to new research from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. The latest National Financial Capability Study shows that more investors know about digital assets, but fewer want to add them, and overall risk appetite has fallen.

Awareness Climbs, but Buying Interest Fades

The survey of investors with non-retirement accounts shows that more people now know what cryptocurrencies are. Awareness rose from 85% in 2018 to 88% in 2021 and then to 92% in 2024. However, interest in buying moved the other way.

The share of investors thinking about buying crypto rose from 18% in  2018 to 33% in 2021, then dropped to 26% in 2024. Over the same period, the share of investors who owned crypto rose from 12% in 2018 to 27% in 2021, then stayed at 27% in the latest survey. As a result, crypto holdings no longer grow even though almost everyone has heard of the asset class.

The study also shows that weaker demand comes with a clear move away from risk. Only 8% of investors now say they are willing to take substantial investment risks, compared with 12% in 2021.

Among investors under 35, the share ready to take high risk dropped from 24% to 15%. Even so, about one-third of all investors, and nearly two-thirds of those under 35, still believe they need to take big risks to reach their financial goals. This gap keeps volatile assets such as crypto in play, but mainly for a smaller group of more aggressive investors.

Fewer New and Young Investors Hold Crypto

The surge of new, often younger investors seen during the pandemic has faded. Only 8% of investors say they began investing in the two years before the 2024 survey, compared with 21% in the two years before 2021.

The share of adults under 35 who hold non-retirement investments dropped from 32% to 26%, and participation among men and investors of color also edged lower. Because younger and newer investors are more likely to buy crypto, their retreat helps explain why ownership rates no longer rise even as awareness grows.

While overall risk tolerance is lower, younger investors who remain active still use riskier products. The report finds that 43% of investors under 35 have traded options, compared with 10% of those aged 55 and older. About 22% of younger investors have bought on margin, versus 4% in the oldest group.

Social media strongly shapes these decisions. Nearly three in ten investors use social platforms for investing information, and 26% follow recommendations from online “finfluencers.” That reliance jumps to 61% among investors under 35 and 57% among those with less than two years of experience, concentrating crypto trading and other high-risk moves in a smaller, highly online segment of the market.

Perceptions of crypto risk, as in a previous article, we discussed,  have hardened since 2021. Two-thirds of investors now see cryptocurrencies as extremely or very risky, up from 58% in the previous survey.