Republicans buy crypto more than Democrats, data shows

Cryptocurrency adoption appears to have a political bias and a significant gender divide.

Data shows that Republicans have embraced crypto with greater gusto than Democrats in recent years; This coincides with President Donald Trump’s ascension to the White House for a second term and his broad support and involvement in the crypto industry.

Nearly 22% of Republicans said they invested in, traded or used a cryptocurrency like bitcoin or etherAccording to Pew Research Center questionnaire It was released on June 8. In comparison, 17% of Democrats use crypto. Pew surveyed 8,512 U.S. adults in late January.

“[Crypto] “It has always had a libertarian streak, and early adopters tended to subscribe to that ethos — centralized power and skepticism of government solutions,” said Colin McLaren, head of government relations at the Solana Policy Institute, a nonprofit that advocates for the crypto industry.

“This ideological DNA matches more naturally with the instincts of the right, so it is not surprising to see Republican ownership increase as the technology becomes mainstream,” McLaren said.

Pew recently found that a partisan divide has emerged in investors’ use of crypto.

Before 2026, Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said they owned as much cryptocurrency as Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, according to Pew data. But usage among Republicans has increased by six points from 16% since 2021, while there was no change among Democrats.

“There is a huge partisan gap,” said Eli Yokley, a U.S. political analyst for Morning Consult, a nonpartisan research group.

Citing Morning Consult data, Yokley said this gap started to emerge in mid-2023 and “really shows up around the time of the 2024 election.”

Yokley said one possible reason for this shift is Trump’s endorsement and adoption of crypto.

“While the crypto industry claims to be bipartisan, its priorities (deregulation and sanctions rollback) have always skewed toward corporate-friendly policies associated mostly, if not exclusively, with Republicans,” said Rick Claypool, director of research at Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization.

Trump in 2019 wrote He said on social media that he was “not a fan” of crypto, which he said was “unregulated” and could “facilitate illegal behavior, including drug dealing and other illegal activities.”

But within a few years, Trump increased his family’s fortune by entering the digital asset business.

In 2022, it launched its first collection of non-fungible tokens, better known as NFTs; a $99 digital “trading card” series featuring cartoon drawings of himself in a variety of heroic poses and outfits.

He and his family have since launched additional NFTs, the World Liberty Financial crypto initiative, and other digital offerings, including the $TRUMP and $MELANIA memecoins.

The White House also called the USA “crypto capital of the worldTrump’s second term “including steps to allow crypto companies to become banks,” according to the Pew Research Center.

By the second quarter of 2025, the partisan gap in crypto usage has reached nearly 11 percentage points, according to Morning Consult data. Specifically, 27.9 percent of Republicans have purchased or sold cryptocurrency in the past 12 months, compared to 17.3 percent of Democrats.

The gap has since narrowed to about five points, 23.6% to 17.7% respectively, according to Morning Consult.

Yokley said it’s difficult to separate the rise in GOP crypto adoption from the Trump family’s adoption.

“There’s no Obama money,” he said. “There are Trump coins and Melania coins.”

But experts say politics is not the only factor.

They said demographic factors such as age and gender, along with politics, are also important factors influencing differences in cryptocurrency adoption.

For example, Yokley said about 74% of crypto investors are male, citing Morning Consult data.

“Women’s more cautious approach to speculative investing explains much of this: Cryptocurrency investors have significantly higher consumer confidence and risk tolerance than the general population, and this skew is largely driven by men,” Yokley said.

Young men, in particular, are “big adopters” of crypto relative to other investors, Yokley said; This is a trend consistent with others where there are similar gaps in uptake, such as sports betting.

According to Morning Consult, men under 45 traded crypto at nearly twice the rate of women under 45 from 2022 to 2026; 38% to 42% and 13% to 16% respectively.

Young investors in general They have more readily turned to speculative investments like meme stocks, leveraged exchange-traded funds, crypto, sports betting platforms and prediction markets, a trend some experts call “financial nihilism.”

There are young men too.”be a little more conservative Yokley said he’s “across the ideological spectrum” compared to his peers.

“I think the biggest takeaway here is that the gender gap is a much bigger gap than politics,” she said. “But gender difference is also politics.”