15+ crypto usage facts you need to know in 2024 

Cryptocurrencies have increasingly dominated news headlines over the past couple of years. As part of his economic agenda, President-elect Donald Trump, who the media calls the “most crypto-friendly president” has even pledged to enhance regulations surrounding digital currencies. It is hardly surprising: after all, this year started with the introduction of crypto-based financial products into the mainstream. Drawing from the latest research conducted throughout 2024, we’ve compiled up-to-date data on cryptocurrency usage, including key demographic and geographic insights, to give you a clearer picture of the growing adoption of crypto.

Geography

• India has become a leader of crypto adoption in 2024, according to the Global Crypto Adoption Index from Chainalysis updated in September 2024. Nigeria and Indonesia followed in 2nd and 3rd places, respectively. 
• Out of top-20 countries having the highest crypto adoption index, 7 are located in Southeast Asia. 
• In Europe, the most crypto-friendly countries are Ukraine (6th place), Turkey (11th), United Kingdom (12th), Germany (21st) and France (22nd).
• In Latin America, local crypto adoption ranking is topped by Brazil. 

User count

• The number of user addresses that were active at least once has grown 3x in September 2024 compared to the end of 2023, as per the State of Crypto Report 2024 published by the venture capital fund a16z crypto.
• Statista’s estimation of crypto holders is far higher: 617 million (as of June 2024), a steady growth from 583 million in the beginning of the year.  

Popular blockchains and cryptocurrencies

• Another insight from a16z: judging by active addresses, the top 5 most active blockchains are Solana, Near, Tron, Bitcoin, and TON. 
• Among networks compatible with Ethereum Virtual Machine, the most popular are Base, BNB Chain, and Polygon.
• On average, Litecoin had the highest transaction count, according to stats from BitPay. Other cryptocurrencies used for transfers most often (in a descending order) are Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dogecoin (DOGE), and USD Coin (USDC).
• Research conducted by Security.com found that 78% U.S. crypto owners held Bitcoin, 54% Ethereum, 26% Dogecoin, 12% Shiba Inu, and another 12% owned Cardano.
• According to data from CoinGate, stablecoins were especially popular for payments in 2023. While Bitcoin led the ranking with the 35.6% share, USDT came second: 25.4% of all processed transactions were nominated in this stablecoin.

Demographics

• Owners of cryptocurrencies are mostly male, claims Triple-A in its Cryptocurrency Ownership Data: 61% of crypto holders are men, and 39% are female.
• Per the same report, crypto users are well-educated, with 71% having a bachelor degree.
• Most of the crypto users are young: 72% are under the age of 34, acco.

Crypto usage by industries

• As reported by International Accounting Bulletin, a study conducted in 2024 by the crypto tax software provider CoinLedger revealed that, in the U.S., retail and ecommerce sectors had the highest number of companies that accept cryptocurrency payments.
• According to Blockonomi's report, the total size of the crypto gambling sector (counting services that accept crypto payments) has grown from $50 million in 2019 to $250 million by the end of 2024. The volume of eSports betting with crypto has grown by 35% since 2023.

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