Bitcoin ownership is far more common in El Salvador than in the U.S.

[ZeroVinsonN]

According to new research by Cornell University students, bitcoin ownership is far more common in El Salvador than in the U.S. In their survey, 72% of people in El Salvador said they have owned bitcoin, compared with just 24% of respondents in the United States.

Source: https://x.com/i/status/1997417438481162497

A simple understanding of this does show that this survey might not necessarily be correct, the research being done by students would also imply that it was most likely done with limited resources and the information itself was gotten from people who were willing to share, it should be noted that not all bitcoin owners; previous and present will be willing to tell that they actually own bitcoin or did at one point in the lives of the other especially since there are other surveys that show that bitcoin adoption on the individual level isn't that high in El Salvador with over 90% of individuals not really using it to transact in the last years.

But of course bitcoin being a legal tender in El Salvador will also play a major role on how bitcoin is treated in the country, I mean if bitcoin was a legal tender in my country then citizen will definitely make use of it more than they currently are.
So what's your take on this, is El Salvador really that much higher in bitcoin ownership by citizen than the US? Especially with all the other countries that are ranked to be higher then the US in this particular survey.

[betswift]

Maybe, or maybe not, the overall analysis may always be blurred or biassed.. The thing that matters to me that retailers have more than companies / govs themselves

I do believe that this chart will change anyway in the years to come when adoption will kick even higher.

[MusaMohamed]

But of course bitcoin being a legal tender in El Salvador will also play a major role on how bitcoin is treated in the country, I mean if bitcoin was a legal tender in my country then citizen will definitely make use of it more than they currently are.

The Bitcoin legal tender story in El Salvador began in 2021 but their government stopped this policy in 2024 under pressure of the IMF. [1] Now in this country, Bitcoin has no longer been legal tender.

El Salvador did not have good Bitcoin adoption like the USA and the law enforcement there to make Bitcoin legal tender won't help adoption in the nation a lot. It only resulted in short term effects while after months and years later, locals there no longer use Bitcoin too much and it shows that legal tender policy in El Salvador did not gain too much success.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin_in_El_Salvador

So what's your take on this, is El Salvador really that much higher in bitcoin ownership by citizen than the US? Especially with all the other countries that are ranked to be higher then the US in this particular survey.

Even it is true, higher than what it is in the USA, it does not make sense practically. People use bitcoins naturally and any political willing to force citizens using bitcoins won't help in the long run. It has gone exactly like this with Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador with unhappiness of citizens on using bitcoins, receiving bitcoins as payments from customers, ...

[Dunamisx]

What else do we expect when El-Salvador is a country where bitcoin is made in legal tender and we have the majority of the population interested about Bitcoin, the government regulations are also in favor and in support of the use of Bitcoin in their daily financial and economic activities, why should any other country be more better than them in this regard when we don't even have another that has this same unique quality in the adoption of Bitcoin, there may be many investors in US, but things are much better in El-Salvador.

[Yamane_Keto]

The people of El Salvador acquired Bitcoin through a centralized, government-controlled application; it wasn't outright ownership, and most sold it within a month. accurate results would be based on measuring monthly/annual Bitcoin usage rather than ownership or knowledge of Bitcoin. Furthermore, the United States' influence is far greater than El Salvador's.

[sunsilk]

That is not surprising for El Salvador because bitcoin there is a legal tender and the government in the leadership of Bukele is pushing for its adoption.

Unlike in the US, it's a huge country that has a lot of citizens for which not even Trump can force everyone to own Bitcoin because it respects its boundary and belief of each of them.

Maybe if the US government starts to make something positive about Bitcoin and not even about adopting it as a legal tender, there might be a significant increase of people holding it.

[ZeroVinsonN]

But of course bitcoin being a legal tender in El Salvador will also play a major role on how bitcoin is treated in the country, I mean if bitcoin was a legal tender in my country then citizen will definitely make use of it more than they currently are.

The Bitcoin legal tender story in El Salvador began in 2021 but their government stopped this policy in 2024 under pressure of the IMF. [1] Now in this country, Bitcoin has no longer been legal tender.

El Salvador did not have good Bitcoin adoption like the USA and the law enforcement there to make Bitcoin legal tender won't help adoption in the nation a lot. It only resulted in short term effects while after months and years later, locals there no longer use Bitcoin too much and it shows that legal tender policy in El Salvador did not gain too much success.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin_in_El_Salvador

I did consider how the survey wasn't necessarily correct, El Salvador aside there were still so many other countries the survey claimed was with more individual bitcoin ownership then the US and that seemed very odd to me and then there is the no longer a legal tender situation in El Salvador which further pushes the likelihood of the survey being accurate away.

So what's your take on this, is El Salvador really that much higher in bitcoin ownership by citizen than the US? Especially with all the other countries that are ranked to be higher then the US in this particular survey.

Even it is true, higher than what it is in the USA, it does not make sense practically. People use bitcoins naturally and any political willing to force citizens using bitcoins won't help in the long run. It has gone exactly like this with Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador with unhappiness of citizens on using bitcoins, receiving bitcoins as payments from customers, ...

I suppose the only way to make bitcoin a successful legal tender in any country is if the majority of it's citizens actually accept it, points out why lawmakers shouldn't without properly consulting the people they represent.

The people of El Salvador acquired Bitcoin through a centralized, government-controlled application; it wasn't outright ownership, and most sold it within a month. accurate results would be based on measuring monthly/annual Bitcoin usage rather than ownership or knowledge of Bitcoin. Furthermore, the United States' influence is far greater than El Salvador's.

It makes sense for someone who doesn't know the basics of what bitcoin is to sell it as quickly as possible once they get their hands on it, as far as they are concerned, it's just another quick way to get their hands on some extra cash, the less stress that comes with it the better.

[sleepfirefly]

According to new research by Cornell University students, bitcoin ownership is far more common in El Salvador than in the U.S. In their survey, 72% of people in El Salvador said they have owned bitcoin, compared with just 24% of respondents in the United States.

Source: https://x.com/i/status/1997417438481162497

it’s a very interesting statistic indeed. i know bitcoin has been a legal tender in el salvador and even one of the first countries on here to accept bitcoin but it still amazes me that countries like uae for example isn’t leading this when they are known to have the richest people living in their country. i don’t think this took into consideration the amount of bitcoin they owned but rather just whether they owned any bitcoin at all or not.

[Porfirii]

Apart from the ownership in El Salvador, which isn't very surprising taking into account that Bitcoin was legal tender, even if it is not anymore, what I find more interesting in this graph are some other countries like Nigeria or Turkey (because Venezuela's high rate is also obvious for me, most probably because of my greater cultural closeness to Latin American countries, with which I share a language), where almost half their citizens hold Bitcoin according to the data.

On the other hand, being a Spaniard myself, and not appearing in the graphic, is a little depressing

[serjent05]

It makes sense that Bitcoin ownership is far more common in El Salvador than in the US. The fact that El Salvador once accept Bitcoin as legal tender until they give in on the pressure of the IMF, shows  that the government were supporting BTC during those times and it encourage the El Salvador Citizen to invest and Bitcoin.

The thing that supports the possibility of Bitcoin ownership is far more common in El Salvador than in the U. S. is that the country, El Salvador, has accepted Bitcoin earlier than the US.

[pooya87]

it should be noted that not all bitcoin owners; previous and present will be willing to tell that they actually own bitcoin or did at one point in the lives

If the survey is done correctly and anonymously, that cannot be a major issue.
But yes, conducting such analysis using surveys is one of the most difficult things in the world. A lot of things need to be considered like the selection of participants, the choice of words in the questions, ... Each can affect the result's validity and make the conclusion completely wrong or closer to being right.

other surveys that show that bitcoin adoption on the individual level isn't that high in El Salvador with over 90% of individuals not really using it to transact in the last years.

That is not contradicting with the conclusion made here though, because there is a difference between "owning bitcoin" and "wanting to transact using bitcoin". A lot of people are HODLers who aren't going to spend their coins, so their respond to the first question will be "yes" and to the second "no". You can't make the conclusion based on second question that they don't own bitcoin.

But of course bitcoin being a legal tender in El Salvador will also play a major role on how bitcoin is treated in the country, I mean if bitcoin was a legal tender in my country then citizen will definitely make use of it more than they currently are.
So what's your take on this, is El Salvador really that much higher in bitcoin ownership by citizen than the US? Especially with all the other countries that are ranked to be higher then the US in this particular survey.

There are a lot of factors affecting adoption.
For example overall Americans have less money in their savings accounts, make less investment, etc. and some similar surveys suggest 70% of them live paycheck to paycheck. Culturally they also tend to go for traditional markets that are advertised by the "big money" like Wall Street, which means stock market.

Compared that to El Salvador where not so long ago they were experiencing high inflation rates and people are still scared of it. So culturally they tend to make more investments and seek safe havens like bitcoin. There is also the fact that many people in El Salvador never had any bank accounts so when they were officially introduced to bitcoin, they were happy to use it.

[Lucius]

~snip~
But of course bitcoin being a legal tender in El Salvador will also play a major role on how bitcoin is treated in the country, I mean if bitcoin was a legal tender in my country then citizen will definitely make use of it more than they currently are.
So what's your take on this, is El Salvador really that much higher in bitcoin ownership by citizen than the US? Especially with all the other countries that are ranked to be higher then the US in this particular survey.

Are you familiar with the fact that the government of that country gave every adult citizen $30 worth of BTC in Chivo wallets? This fact alone explains why this percentage is three times higher than in the US or any other country in the world. It was only a temporary ownership, because the majority immediately upon receipt converted that same BTC into $ and spent it.

This research therefore makes almost no sense, but it is important that people constantly return to El Salvador as some kind of promised land where everyone uses BTC and lives like kings.

[ZeroVinsonN]

it should be noted that not all bitcoin owners; previous and present will be willing to tell that they actually own bitcoin or did at one point in the lives

If the survey is done correctly and anonymously, that cannot be a major issue.
But yes, conducting such analysis using surveys is one of the most difficult things in the world. A lot of things need to be considered like the selection of participants, the choice of words in the questions, ... Each can affect the result's validity and make the conclusion completely wrong or closer to being right.

other surveys that show that bitcoin adoption on the individual level isn't that high in El Salvador with over 90% of individuals not really using it to transact in the last years.

That is not contradicting with the conclusion made here though, because there is a difference between "owning bitcoin" and "wanting to transact using bitcoin". A lot of people are HODLers who aren't going to spend their coins, so their respond to the first question will be "yes" and to the second "no". You can't make the conclusion based on second question that they don't own bitcoin.

But of course bitcoin being a legal tender in El Salvador will also play a major role on how bitcoin is treated in the country, I mean if bitcoin was a legal tender in my country then citizen will definitely make use of it more than they currently are.
So what's your take on this, is El Salvador really that much higher in bitcoin ownership by citizen than the US? Especially with all the other countries that are ranked to be higher then the US in this particular survey.

There are a lot of factors affecting adoption.
For example overall Americans have less money in their savings accounts, make less investment, etc. and some similar surveys suggest 70% of them live paycheck to paycheck. Culturally they also tend to go for traditional markets that are advertised by the "big money" like Wall Street, which means stock market.

Compared that to El Salvador where not so long ago they were experiencing high inflation rates and people are still scared of it. So culturally they tend to make more investments and seek safe havens like bitcoin. There is also the fact that many people in El Salvador never had any bank accounts so when they were officially introduced to bitcoin, they were happy to use it.

Looking at it from this angle it actually makes sense, people will be more inclined to participate if they can be sure that their input will remain anonymous, I know myself that I will be more willing to share such information as long as my personal information isn't made public in the process.
I think the problem with El Salvador was the fact that they did not really have a functioning national currency, relying too much on the US dollar with their economy not really having much of an influence on the currency.

~snip~
But of course bitcoin being a legal tender in El Salvador will also play a major role on how bitcoin is treated in the country, I mean if bitcoin was a legal tender in my country then citizen will definitely make use of it more than they currently are.
So what's your take on this, is El Salvador really that much higher in bitcoin ownership by citizen than the US? Especially with all the other countries that are ranked to be higher then the US in this particular survey.

Are you familiar with the fact that the government of that country gave every adult citizen $30 worth of BTC in Chivo wallets? This fact alone explains why this percentage is three times higher than in the US or any other country in the world. It was only a temporary ownership, because the majority immediately upon receipt converted that same BTC into $ and spent it.

This research therefore makes almost no sense, but it is important that people constantly return to El Salvador as some kind of promised land where everyone uses BTC and lives like kings.

Which is probably the reason why they ranked that high in the survey, most might not necessarily own bitcoin right now but they did own at one point with the initiative the country took with adopting bitcoin.

[Ucy]

The percentage of Bitcoin owners in the world is quite impressive so far (even though this may not be accurate... could be more or less) considering that the target is 5 to 10% of world population owning Bitcoin, which will likely be much higher than number of people who own USD or other fiat currencies, apart from fiats countries with large populations like India and China. The global spread is what matters for Bitcoin, and then in the future the numbers of free people who transact with Bitcoin the proper way, that will likely stick with Bitcoin permanently will come from that number. It's those that mostly determine the value of Bitcoin.

In regards to US vs El Salvador,  the percentage of owners in USA is shown to be a little above 10%, which means the number of US users is much higher than El Salvador with much smaller population. I suspect that indeed the real percentage could be higher, especially in countries like USA where possible taxes on Bitcoin gains could keep citizens from being public about their holdings. And such countries are more likely to control their bitcoin in non custodial manner, making the info about the owners harder to know, while the poor ones will have more bitcoins on centralized exchanges than non-custodial.


Store of Value is more likely the reasons majority of owners have bitcoins. So, the El Salvador data in that regard shouldn't be surprising. They are more likely to use fiat for MoE while bitcoins are held for price gains. It's mostly the real bitcoiners, who choose Bitcoin for  its principles, that will balance it usage as both SoV and MoE

[rat03gopoh]

Are you familiar with the fact that the government of that country gave every adult citizen $30 worth of BTC in Chivo wallets?

Yes, and they have to do KYC. I wouldn't be surprised if, eventually, freely disclosing bitcoin holdings becomes common practice, and they essentially can't avoid government censuses that make it seem like crypto users are dominant there.

I think if a policy shift toward legalized mass extortion, such as increasing crypto tax rates like the US or other countries, could change these statistics.

[retreat]

I don't know how they conducted this survey, so we don't know if it's legit or not, as there are several things that make it a bit unreasonable. But given how the El Salvador government has regulated Bitcoin in such a way and how they've widely promoted Bitcoin education, it's not surprising that a higher percentage of their citizens hold Bitcoin. And the biggest factor is probably Chivo Wallet, which offered a $30 Bitcoin bonus, and at the time, about 30% of El Salvador's population managed to get it in 2021. That's a significant number - and combined with other factors, it could have contributed to the increase in Bitcoin holders in El Salvador since then.

[letteredhub]

A simple understanding of this does show that this survey might not necessarily be correct, the research being done by students would also imply that it was most likely done with limited resources and the information itself was gotten from people who were willing to share, it should be noted that not all bitcoin owners; previous and present will be willing to tell that they actually own bitcoin or did at one point in the lives of the other especially since there are other surveys that show that bitcoin adoption on the individual level isn't that high in El Salvador with over 90% of individuals not really using it to transact in the last years.

I personally disagree with your bias position about this and I would try to in simple words give my reasons. Your disagree with the survey findings is it due to the source, coming from university students or you believe that people would still wouldn't want to share about their bitcoin ownership even in a survey where their identity wouldn't be disclosed.

Surveys aren't filled by people who are unwilling to but by those who are willing, and we don't know the number of population who refused to share as well. Ok, what would you say about Nigeria surpassing the USA, as shown in the image. A country where the government isn't literally clear about its stands on bitcoin.

[YOSHIE]

So what's your take on this, is El Salvador really that much higher in bitcoin ownership by citizen than the US? Especially with all the other countries that are ranked to be higher then the US in this particular survey.

Wherever we search for limited Bitcoin ownership, we can be sure the results are the same, as below.

* Top Countries That Hold the Most Bitcoin (BTC) in 2026:

Meaning: El Salvador is currently known to the world, one of the countries that treats Bitcoin as a legal shopping digital currency, this does not mean that El Salvador has the most ownership of developing countries such as the US, China and others.

Although El Salvador treats Bitcoin as a legal shopping currency there, but many El Salvadorans do not use Bitcoin as a shopping method, they prefer to use fiat in general.

[notocactus]

And the biggest factor is probably Chivo Wallet, which offered a $30 Bitcoin bonus, and at the time, about 30% of El Salvador's population managed to get it in 2021. That's a significant number - and combined with other factors, it could have contributed to the increase in Bitcoin holders in El Salvador since then.

If there is any update on % of El Salvador population still hold bitcoin in 2026, I believe that the number would be lower than the figure in 2021 when their government distributed $30 bitcoin equivalent to their citizens through Chivo wallet.

My guess is based on the sentiment of citizens, merchants there recent years when they have shown less interested in Bitcoin legal tender, Bitcoin even before IMF created pressure on Nayib Bukele and El Salvador to stop Bitcoin legal tender there.

It is a long time since my last time to read this topic but some years after 2021, I read posts there that El Salvador people no longer had enough interest in holding and using bitcoin. Like all airdrop receivers, most of them sold their bitcoins very quickly after receiving bitcoin from government.

El Salvador has become the first country to make #Bitcoin legal tender! 🇸🇻

[Ndabagi01]

But of course bitcoin being a legal tender in El Salvador will also play a major role on how bitcoin is treated in the country, I mean if bitcoin was a legal tender in my country then citizen will definitely make use of it more than they currently are.
So what's your take on this, is El Salvador really that much higher in bitcoin ownership by citizen than the US? Especially with all the other countries that are ranked to be higher then the US in this particular survey.

Seeing Bitcoin not taken the top spot in this chart, I will assume to some extent that the results is not actually correct but yet again, El Salvador will have a place in the top position. Also, United State always taken the top spot is not as a result of other countries like Nigeria in this case not having quite a large number of people that are into bitcoin. US being a hub for Bitcoin and the much interest the government there has shown on it will definitely boost their rank in charts like this.

This being said, as a result of the privacy oriented asset that Bitcoin is and people not willing to tell if they own some or not, and again; as a result that the research was carried out by students who in most cases have a limited resources to carry out an effective research, this may not be 100% accurate. But in all, there is definitely some interesting facts here to look up to.