13% of US Residents Hold Crypto: JPMorgan Chase

New research from JPMorgan Chase shows that almost 13% of the American population, or 43 million people, have owned cryptocurrencies at some point in their lives.  

According to a Dec. 13 report, this number has climbed considerably since before 2020, when it was under 3%. JPMorgan’s latest data comes from monitoring over 5 million checking account transfers. 

Results showed that between 2020 and 2022, 600,000 customers in the sample population made a cash deposit into a cryptocurrency account.

The survey found that cryptocurrency holders made their first purchases during price surges. During this time, most people send more money into their crypto exchange accounts than they take out. 

In other words, people largely kept their cryptocurrency reserves intact during this time. JPMorgan claims this is due to falling bitcoin prices and a reduction in the US savings rate since the outbreak.

The global financial services firm states: 

“We view the rise and fall of crypto use since the onset of COVID as consistent with the joint relationship between retail flows and market prices seen in prior research.”

JPMorgan added that “the trend in crypto flows also tracks dynamics of household savings, which spiked to historic highs early in the pandemic but has begun to reverse.”

Over a quarter of millennial males, according to the survey, have invested in cryptocurrency, while just about a twelfth of millennial females have done so. Moreover, 15% of crypto users had more than a month’s salary invested in the market at the time.

Crypto Continues to Bleed

As 2022 progresses, the cryptocurrency market continues its precipitous decline. Bitcoin BTC fell from $47,459 in March to $17,778 at the time of writing. Also, Ether fell from $3,521 in April to $1,320 at the time of writing. This slump in the crypto market was caused by TerraUSD (UST) failing in May and FTX facing bankruptcy in November.

Many cryptocurrency exchanges have seen a decline in trading fees, with Coinbase recently reporting a roughly 50% drop in revenue.