Crypto has a political lean now. According to a Pew Research Center analysis published in June 2026, based on survey data from January 2026, 22% of Republicans and Republican-leaning individuals reported having bought or traded cryptocurrency. Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning respondents, that figure sat at 17%.
That five-point gap might look modest in isolation. But in 2021, both parties were tied at roughly 16%. Republicans didn’t just adopt crypto faster. Democrats barely moved at all.
The numbers behind the partisan split
Overall, approximately 19% of US adults have now engaged with cryptocurrency in some form, up from 16% in Pew’s 2021 survey. Republican adoption jumped from 16% to 22%, a six-point increase. Democratic adoption stayed essentially flat, ticking from roughly 16% to 17%. In other words, nearly all of the net growth in crypto participation came from one side of the political aisle.
The Trump administration entered office in early 2025 with an explicitly pro-crypto agenda, including the establishment of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve on March 6, 2025.
