As of mid-2026, an estimated 560 to 740 million people own cryptocurrency worldwide -- roughly 7% to 9% of the global population, up from around 420 million in 2023. The two most-cited figures are Triple-A's 562 million (2024, a 6.9% global adoption rate) and Crypto.com's 741 million (2025, about 9% of the world).

Like all adoption metrics, the precise count depends on who is doing the counting. On-chain modeling, exchange data, and consumer surveys measure different populations, so the honest answer is a range. Below we break down the leading estimates, how ownership has grown, which countries lead, who owns crypto by age and asset type, and where adoption is heading.

The headline figures for global crypto ownership in 2026 cluster into a clear range once you account for methodology:

The differences come down to definitions. Triple-A leans on national survey and banking data; Crypto.com blends on-chain data with exchange and survey parameters and tends to run higher; the billion-plus forecasts extrapolate the recent growth curve forward. Taken together, the most defensible statement is that 560 to 740 million people own crypto today, with the true figure most likely in the 600-700 million range.

Crypto ownership has roughly doubled in three years. The clearest recent data points, drawn from the two most-cited trackers:

Triple-A's 2024 report recorded a 33% jump in owners year over year (420 million to 562 million), while Crypto.com's consistent series shows 12.4% growth from 659 million in 2024 to 741 million in 2025. Statista tracks a similar upward trajectory in its global user-base series. The two trackers differ in level -- Crypto.com's on-chain-blended method sits ~100 million higher than Triple-A's survey-and-banking method -- but agree on direction: crypto has crossed from niche into mainstream, and stablecoins in particular are pulling in users who care about payments rather than speculation.

Two different lenses matter here, and they produce two different leaderboards.

Grassroots adoption (transaction activity). The Chainalysis 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index -- which weights on-chain value received, retail activity, and DeFi usage -- ranks countries by real economic use:

Chainalysis notes that APAC became the global hub of grassroots crypto activity in 2025, with regional transaction volume growing from $1.4 trillion to $2.36 trillion.

Ownership rate (share of population). By what percentage of residents own crypto, the leaders look different -- emerging markets with currency instability dominate, per Triple-A:

The takeaway is the analysis that a raw owner count hides: the US and India lead on total scale and activity, but ownership rates are highest in economies where crypto solves an immediate problem -- double-digit inflation eroding savings, cross-border remittances that traditional rails tax heavily, and large populations with limited access to banks. Adoption is not one phenomenon; in wealthy countries it looks like investment, and in emerging markets it looks like everyday financial infrastructure.

Crypto ownership skews young and male, though the gap is narrowing. According to Triple-A:

• Gender: roughly 61% of owners are male, 39% female.
• Age: the 25-34 bracket is the single largest cohort at about 34% of all owners, with adoption concentrated among people under 45.
• Intent: around 65% of owners say they would prefer to pay with crypto where possible -- a signal that spending, not just holding, is becoming central to why people own it.

Not all crypto owners hold the same coins. Crypto.com's 2026 report breaks the 741 million owners down by asset:

Bitcoin remains the anchor asset that roughly half of all owners hold, but Ethereum grew nearly three times faster year over year, and stablecoins (USDT, USDC) are increasingly the entry point for payments-focused users. For a deeper look at Bitcoin specifically, see our companion piece on how many people own Bitcoin.

A crypto "user" is not the same as a crypto wallet, and neither maps cleanly to a person. One individual routinely holds several wallets across chains and exchanges, while a single custodial exchange address can represent millions of customers whose coins never move on-chain. That is why wallet-based tallies (which run into the hundreds of millions of active addresses) diverge from people-based estimates, and why every credible source publishes a methodology note. When you see two figures that differ by 100 million-plus, it is almost always a definitional difference -- who counts as an "owner" -- not a real disagreement about the trend.

Carry Crypto.com's 12.4% year-over-year growth forward from its 741 million (2025) base -- our own extrapolation, not a published forecast -- and total ownership would reach roughly 830 million by the end of 2026. More aggressive trackers, such as Confluent AM, model over 1.01 billion owners -- roughly 12% of the global population -- within the year. Either path implies the same thing: with more than 85% of the world still outside crypto, adoption has a long runway, and the next wave is likely to be driven by stablecoin payments and everyday spending rather than pure investment. The same pattern is playing out on individual fast chains -- see how many people own Solana for one asset's slice of that growth.

Here is where the ownership number meets reality. About 65% of owners tell Triple-A they would prefer to pay with crypto -- but almost none of the ~700 million of them can, because merchants overwhelmingly do not accept it directly. That mismatch is exactly the problem we built SolCard to solve. A crypto debit card converts your balance to fiat at the moment of checkout, so the merchant sees an ordinary Visa or Mastercard payment and you never touch an exchange withdrawal. In our experience the users who actually spend, rather than just hold, are disproportionately the stablecoin cohort -- USDC and USDT top-ups over Solana rails settle in seconds for a fraction of a cent, without the volatility of spending an appreciating coin. As stablecoins pull the next wave of payments-minded users into crypto, that "own it but can't spend it" gap is the one closing fastest -- see how to pay with crypto and our best crypto debit cards comparison for the practical options.

Estimates range from about 560 million to 741 million. Triple-A put ownership at 562 million in 2024 (6.9% of the world), while Crypto.com's 2026 report counted 741 million owners in 2025 (about 9%). The true figure most likely sits in the 600-700 million range.

Roughly 7% to 9% of the global population. Triple-A's 562 million works out to 6.9%; Crypto.com's 741 million is about 9% of the world's ~8.2 billion people. Some 2026 forecasts push toward 12% (over a billion owners), but more than 85% of humanity still owns no crypto.

By total activity and scale, India ranks first in the Chainalysis 2025 Global Adoption Index, followed by the United States. By ownership rate, Triple-A puts Nigeria highest at 31% of the population, ahead of the UAE (24.4%) and Singapore (19.3%).

Triple-A recorded 33% growth in owners from 2023 to 2024, and Crypto.com reported 12.4% growth from 2024 to 2025 (659 million to 741 million). Ownership has roughly doubled since 2023.

Bitcoin, held by about 365 million people or 49.3% of all owners in 2025, according to Crypto.com. Ethereum is second at roughly 175 million owners (23.6%) and grew faster year over year (+22.6% vs +8.3%).

Because "owner" is defined differently by each source. Surveys capture self-reported holders, on-chain models count active wallets, and exchange data counts verified accounts -- and one person can appear in several of these while one exchange address can hide millions of users. The variation is a methodology gap, not a disagreement about the upward trend.

• Triple-A -- Global Cryptocurrency Ownership Data
• Crypto.com -- Global Cryptocurrency Ownership Reaches 741 Million in 2025
• Chainalysis -- 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index
• Statista -- Global Cryptocurrency User Base
• Confluent AM -- Crypto Ownership in 2026: 1 Billion+ Investors Worldwide