Ask yourself which Americans are most in love with cryptocurrencies, and a few descriptors may come to mind: Millennials. Technicians. Guys.
Republicans? Maybe not.
But a new study from the University of Pennsylvania finds that Republicans are more likely than Democrats to invest in cryptocurrencies, and that some regions are more likely than others to jump on the bandwagon. Texans, for example, are more fond of Bitcoin than Oregonians.
The study could help explain why President-elect Donald Trump has loudly signaled his support for crypto.
“I think Trump was a believer in this topic,” said David Reibsteinprofessor of marketing at Penn’s Wharton School who participated in the research. “I think he found his base was much more pro-crypto.”
Reibstein and his colleagues spent two years collecting data on crypto from surveys of more than 22,000 Americans.
Among their main conclusions:
◾ Republicans are more likely than Democrats to own cryptocurrencies, by a margin of 41% to 32%.
◾ Conservatives are more confident than liberals when it comes to crypto.
◾ Crypto is most popular in Texas and the Southeast. It is least popular in parts of the Northeast, such as Connecticut and New Hampshire, as well as the Pacific Northwest.
Who likes cryptocurrencies? Millennials and men
Wharton researchers have compiled a detailed demographic and political profile of the typical American crypto investor.
Some of their findings match common wisdom regarding the crypto community. Men, for example, are twice as likely as women to own cryptocurrencies, according to Penn surveys.
Millennials are the most ardent fans of crypto. Researchers found that people aged 25 to 44 are most likely to invest in crypto, followed by people aged 45 to 64, a bracket that includes members of Generation X and younger babies. -boomers.
Seniors and young adults aged 18 to 24 are the least likely to own cryptocurrencies, but likely for different reasons. Older Americans tend to be wary of crypto, Reibstein said, while younger adults may lack the funds to buy it.
And why do Republicans like crypto? The reason, according to Reibstein, has a lot to do with decentralization.
Cryptocurrency is digital money. Heis not issued by governments or banksthere is therefore no central authority. It exists on decentralized networks and uses a technology called blockchain, which tracks transactions and assets.
“And it’s hard to separate decentralization from political affiliation,” Reibstein said. Republicans tend to favor decentralized government.
“The origin of Bitcoin is libertarian”
Penn’s study shows that conservative Americans are fans of “distributed trust.”
Many conservatives, the researchers found, would prefer that trust be shared among many individual entities rather than concentrated in one large entity, such as the Federal Reserve or a multinational bank.
This notion fits with well-known stereotypes that conservatives favor states’ rights over federal power and small governments over big ones.
“The origin of Bitcoin is libertarian,” said Hanna Halaburdaassociate professor of technology, operations, and statistics at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
Libertarianism values civil liberties and the free market and avoids regulation and government overreach.
Halaburda cites Texas, which has became a leader in the crypto industry, as perhaps the epitome of the crypto-libertarian state.
The crypto movement “is an anti-establishment thing”
Penn’s study presents liberals and Democrats as defenders of banking and the Fed, at least in the context of crypto. This conclusion may seem counterintuitive, given that progressives have always prided themselves on challenging authority.
In the case of crypto, countercultural thinking emanates from the right.
“The idea here is for people to organize themselves and transact without resorting to banks,” said Jim Harpercryptography expert and nonresident senior fellow at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute.
“It’s about replacing the banking sector with software. It’s an anti-establishment thing.
During the Vietnam War, hippies positioned themselves as anti-establishment and left-wing. Harper calls today’s conservative crypto fans “Trumpian hippies.”
He and Reibstein believe Trump was a late adopter of crypto as a way to stay in step with his base. During his first term as president, Trump opposed crypto and said digital currency was “air-based.”
During his second term, Trump pledged to make America the “crypto capital of the planet” and build up a national stockpile of bitcoin.
“Trump understood this and reached out to the Bitcoin community during the last election,” Harper said. “They were all there, waiting for him.”
Trump’s support for crypto has expanded his popularity among Republicans. In monthly surveys, Penn researchers found that the share of Republicans owning cryptocurrencies increased in the final months of 2024, from about 36% in August and September to 43% in December, a month later. the election of Trump for another term in the United States. Home.
Would you accept your salary in crypto?
A lingering question for Penn researchers is whether most Americans view crypto as currency or an investment.
“There are about 38,000 ATMs that accept crypto,” Reibstein said. He saw one at Costco the other day.
As more cryptocurrency ATMs come online, Reibstein said, “I think people will start to think of it more as a currency than they do today.” »
But Americans’ confidence in crypto is not absolute.
For example, 54% of respondents told Penn researchers they would be comfortable making an online purchase with crypto. However, only 7% said they would be willing to accept their salary in crypto.
Harper, the crypto specialist, noted that he previously worked for the Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group. He was paid partly in Bitcoin.
“My wife immediately made me transfer it to dollars,” he said.
