Average Crypto Investor Net Worth Explained: Hidden vs Visible Wealth

Key Takeaways

• There are an estimated 562 million crypto owners.
• Most institutional crypto wealth is concentrated in the U.S.
• Ownership rates are higher among men, those with a college education, and people aged 25 to 34.

By some estimates, over half a billion people worldwide own cryptocurrency. In countries like the U.S., over 15% of the population holds at least some crypto.

On top of rising retail interest, a growing number of institutions are also embracing crypto. Firms like MicroStrategy are allocating more and more of their cash reserves to the asset class.

Calculating Crypto Wealth

As of December 2024, the global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at over $3.6 trillion. Meanwhile, Triple A estimates that around 562 million people worldwide own crypto.

Dividing one figure by the other suggests the mean value of investors’ crypto holdings is $6,423. However, the average retail investor’s crypto wealth would be less because large institutional whales skew the mean upward.

Global Wealth and Net Worth

At the global level, net worth is ultimately an arbitrary denominator of wealth that fails to account for the complex dynamics of debt and property.

Instead, demographers tend to use the concept of wealth per person to calculate the financial state of different population groups.

According to the UBS Global Wealth Report , the average wealth per adult around the world climbed to over $88,000 in 2023, returning to positive growth after shrinking the previous year.

However, crypto investors aren’t distributed evenly around the world or across different groups.

Where Is Crypto Wealth Concentrated?

As a generally borderless technology, it can be difficult to map the concentration of individual crypto wealth. However, when it comes to institutions, a few countries stand out.

As is usually the case with investments of any class, the U.S. leads. Among the largest corporate crypto holders, almost all of them are American.

Discounting exchanges, firms like BlackRock, MicroStrategy, and Grayscale own the most Bitcoin, which accounts for over 56% of the world’s total cryptocurrency wealth.

Collectively, public companies own more than 547,000 BTC equal to 2.60% of the total supply. In dollar terms, the value of corporate Bitcoin holdings exceeds $51 billion.

However, that figure is dwarfed by the amount of crypto held on exchanges. As of Nov. 24, Binance alone controlled cryptocurrency worth nearly $155 billion .

Profile of a Crypto Investor

While it can be difficult to ascertain where individual crypto wealth is concentrated, research has identified divergent ownership rates in different countries.

Triple A found that the United Arab Emirates and Singapore lead the way as a proportion of the overall population, with respective ownership rates of 25.3% and 24.4%.

However, considering the size of the population, the U.S. is home to the largest group of crypto investors—around 52 million Americans.

The same report observed that men are more likely to own crypto than women, with 61% of owners being male versus 31% female.

Meanwhile, ownership is more popular among younger investors. Triple A found that people aged 25-34 make up 34% of the crypto-owning population.

Ownership rates also diverge according to income. A JP Morgan survey found that crypto investment roughly mirrors that of traditional financial assets, with higher rates of participation observed among higher earners.

Research by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reveals that Americans with a college degree are more likely to own crypto than those without.

So, if the “average” crypto investor is a college-educated, moderately wealthy American man aged 25-34, what is their net worth?

Net Worth of the Average Crypto Investor

According to the Federal Reserve, the average American household has a net worth of $192,900. Among those with a college education, this figure rises to $464,600. However, those aged under 35 had an average net worth of just $39,000.

A survey of crypto investors in Canada and the U.S. found that each one had an average of $340,000 in investable assets. The largest proportion of the sample—30.8%—held between $100,000 and $250,000.

Outside of North America, however, the figure is likely to be much lower. The same study found that the average crypto investor in the U.K. had approximately £75,000 ($95,400) in assets.

Such studies inevitably fail to capture the full diversity of crypto investors, who cannot easily be reduced to averages.

More so than among other investor profiles, there is a huge amount of hidden crypto wealth, including assets held by groups that can be difficult for researchers to reach.