Nakamoto Project Q3 2025 report: Understanding Bitcoin Adoption in the United States: Politics, Demographics, & Sentiment

source: nakamotoproject.org

In 2024 Nakamoto Project partnered with Qualtrics to survey 3,538 adults in an effort to identify key factors influencing the adoption of bitcoin in the United States. Contrary to expectations, came out that bitcoin ownership was not meaningfully related to political orientation. Nor did bitcoin owners differ much from the U.S. population in demographic respects, except that they tended to be male, and significantly younger than average. The variables that correlated most strongly with bitcoin ownership were not demographics but attitudes: belief in the utility of bitcoin, knowledge about bitcoin, trust in bitcoin, and the perceived morality of the technology and its users.

This March, another 3,538 U.S. adults got surveyed, with an expanded set of questions to track trends in bitcoin ownership and sentiment. The past year brought a wave of major developments surrounding bitcoin. Bitcoin ETFs grew their holdings dramatically. 1 Corporations added bitcoin to their balance sheets. 2 Governments purchased bitcoin or announced they were mining bitcoin. 3 Donald Trump courted bitcoin owners, pledging friendlier regulatory conditions for the industry and announcing a strategic reserve in which the U.S. government would hold bitcoin. 4 Bitcoin’s price also more than doubled in the period between the two surveys from roughly $41,000 to $85,000.

These robust institutional improvements and the increase in bitcoin’s price led us to predict broad adoption among the public. At the same time, bitcoin’s prominent role in the election led us to also predict that bitcoin itself would become more politically polarized. The data tell a mixed story. The outcomes:

Knowledge of bitcoin, trust in bitcoin, belief in bitcoin’s utility, and perception of bitcoin’s morality continue to correlate more strongly with bitcoin ownership than any demographic measures. These measures of sentiment—knowledge, trust, utility, and morality—all declined from 2024, especially among women and those on the political left.

Once again, the outcomes is bitcoin owners have a distinctive moral foundation profile, a measure of core values. 4 in 5 Americans support converting some U.S. gold reserves into bitcoin. Regarding the percentage of U.S. gold to convert, the median preference was to convert 10% of gold to bitcoin. Attitudes towards the U.S. acquiring bitcoin diverge along political lines.

Data speak for itself:

Download full report is available in PDF from https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6644db90e58a1fbeb1c70ddc/685bdac1a0b3e8bb39ab854a_TNP%20Q3%202025%20Report.pdf