A new experiment from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland suggests something markets have long suspected but rarely proven with hard data: simply telling people how much bitcoin has gained in the past is enough to push them toward buying it. The finding sheds fresh light on the bitcoin impact on crypto buyers, showing that past performance alone, not fundamentals or new technology, can be enough to pull new money into digital assets.

Key takeaways

• Showing households bitcoin’s 14.3% one-year return raised later crypto ownership by about 2.5 percentage points, a 23% relative increase.
• Desired crypto allocation rose roughly 2 percentage points, mostly by cutting cash and bank account holdings.
• The response was strongest among people…