A year ago, one in five American adults already held crypto, and the country had no national nonprofit organization specifically built to help everyday people understand and use crypto with confidence. The National Cryptocurrency Association launched in March 2025 to fill that gap.
The first year was about meeting people where they are. Telling real holder stories to break down stereotypes. Cutting through the hype and jargon that has long kept crypto feeling out of reach. And building resources that work for everyone, not just those who already speak the language.
A year of learning
The NCA started with research because the public conversation about crypto holders was largely guesswork. In partnership with The Harris Poll, the team conducted the largest study of American crypto holders ever, surveying 10,000 holders drawn from a pool of nearly 55,000 respondents.
The 2025 State of Crypto Holders Report, published in April 2025, put real numbers behind a story that had mostly gone untold. Roughly 55 million U.S. adults held crypto. Most (76%) said it had a positive impact on their lives. And the holders themselves were teachers, construction workers, parents, ranchers, and small business owners. Not the demographic most assumed.
The NCA's research didn't stop there. The Crypto Confidence Pulse, which surveyed 2,000 non-holders later that year, surfaced what was actually getting in the way of wider adoption. People were curious, often skeptical, and almost never got straight answers from the places they normally turned to for financial information. The biggest barrier was knowledge.
The Crypto Policy Pulse looked at which crypto debates American voters cared about most. The findings were clear: Americans wanted lawmakers to take action on rules that protect consumers and address potential risks, and they saw an opportunity for policymakers to deepen their understanding of crypto.
Together, these studies gave the NCA a fuller view of the people it set out to serve, both those already holding crypto and those who are crypto-curious.
Built through research
That finding shaped what the NCA built next. By November, the team had launched four resources designed to give curious people somewhere to start: Crypto 101, a free beginner course that walks through what crypto is and how to use it; the NCA Crypto Simulator, a guided sandbox where anyone can practice setting up a wallet and making a first transaction without putting real money at risk; Crypto, Explained, a weekly podcast covering everything from spotting scams to understanding stablecoins; and a glossary that translates industry jargon into plain English.
That same month, the 2025 Holiday Crypto Report, in partnership with PayPal, surfaced an unexpected finding. Crypto had become a real gifting category in American households. People were sending it to family for birthdays, holidays, and milestones, just as they had sent gift cards a decade earlier. The report also became the basis for a broadcastTV tour with VP of External Affairs, Ali Tager, that introduced millions of viewers to the idea of crypto as something to give for the holidays.
In December, the NCA announced a partnership with Coinbase and Operation HOPE to bring free crypto literacy resources into more than 200 HOPE Inside locations nationwide. The partnership focused specifically on communities that traditional financial systems have historically left out. Those were the same communities where the NCA's research had shown the highest curiosity-to-confidence gap. The clearest expression of what the NCA set out to do: crypto education has the most value where it has the least access.
The story kept unfolding
The research kept moving alongside the education work. In August, the NCA stood up an Advisory Board to help guide both, bringing in Chris Giancarlo, Former Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Dr. Campbell Harvey from Duke's Fuqua School of Business, and Jo Ann Barefoot of the Alliance for Innovative Regulation. PayPal’s SVP and GM of Crypto May Zabaneh has since joined as well.
The new year opened with two more studies. In January 2026, the Crypto Merchant Report, in partnership with PayPal, found that half of large enterprises in the U.S. already accept crypto at checkout - with small and mid-sized businesses closely following at a third - and 84% expect crypto payments to become common within five years. The Stablecoin Rewards Pulse, published the same month, examined how consumers felt about emerging stablecoin policy.
In March, NCA returned to SXSW in Austin for the second year, this time with a panel moderated by Fast Company including Ali Tager, Karin Kusano, and Smitha Purohit of PayPal. SXSW also brought one of the year's most direct ways of listening: the NCA’s Crypto Confessions Booth, a space where everyday people could step in and admit how they really feel about crypto. A space to keep it real, hesitation and all, while sharing their own crypto story.
The booth didn’t just stay in one place either. NCA brought it to Bitcoin and XRP in Las Vegas, and Consensus in Miami gathering honest, unscripted reactions from people across the country. These stories are part of the fuller picture that NCA set out to capture, one that surveys alone couldn’t.
Pushing the conversation further
Last month, the NCA published its 2026 State of Crypto Holders Report along with the 2026 Crypto Holder Map. The numbers tell a clear story: 67 million Americans now hold and use crypto. That is one in four adults, up from one in five just a year ago.
The growth is real, but the more interesting finding is that confidence is climbing alongside familiarity. People who hold crypto report understanding it better than they did a year ago, and that shift shows up in how they use it. More friends-and-family payments, more long-term savings, more crypto used in the kinds of everyday financial decisions where people used to default to banks or apps.
This is where American crypto adoption currently stands. Past the question of whether it is happening. Into the question of who it is reaching, what they need to use it well, and whether the rest of the financial system is ready to meet them there.
Year two is built around that question. Further research, deeper community education, additional learning resources, and more rooms where holders can speak for themselves. The goal has not changed since day one. The conversation has just moved forward, and so has the work.