The Federal Reserve’s May 2026 “Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025” report found that only 2% of U.S. households used cryptocurrency to buy something or make payments and just 1% used it to send money to friends or family. Among people who did use crypto for transactions, the top reason was simply that the recipient preferred crypto, and even among groups more likely to use alternative financial services, transactional crypto use stayed very low.

That finding lands at an awkward moment for the digital asset industry. After years dominated by speculation and trading, crypto firms have…