President Trump reports more than $1.4 billion in crypto venture-related income: filings
According to his annual financial disclosure, President Trump reported more than $1.4 billion in income related to his family’s cryptocurrency ventures in 2025.
Federal regulators and policymakers have brought cryptocurrencies from the investment fringes to the mainstream, introducing digital assets into exchange-traded funds and retirement accounts.
However, a new report suggests that crypto investors remain relatively rare.
According to a July 9 report from the Urban Institute, about 17% of American adults have owned a cryptocurrency. However, only about 9% of Americans currently own cryptocurrencies. In other words, almost half of US crypto investors have been bailed out.
The report is based on a survey of more than 3,000 adults conducted in January. This is the latest research into the reach of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies now that casual investors have access to digital assets.
President Donald Trump has promoted cryptocurrencies for ETF investors and retirement savers, pledging to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet.”
This campaign helped push the price of Bitcoin to record highs in 2025. But Bitcoin has since lost about half its value, and the shockwave from new crypto owners has clearly not arrived.
“There is not going to be a big wave of new crypto investors,” said Alex Karkidi, a contributing cryptocurrency analyst at The Motley Fool. “And in fact, many professional crypto investors…have been out of the market in some way or in hibernation since the market crash in October.”
Cryptocurrencies remain on the periphery despite push from regulators
The Urban Institute’s findings are consistent with previous research from the Federal Reserve, which has tracked the adoption of cryptocurrencies in its survey of the economic well-being of U.S. households.
The most recent of these reports, from May, shows that 10% of adults will be using cryptocurrencies by 2025. According to the Federal Reserve, crypto adoption may have peaked four years ago in 2021, when 12% of Americans bought, sold, held, or otherwise used cryptocurrencies.
By contrast, about 62% of Americans own stocks.
This number suggests that cryptocurrencies may not be widespread across the investment landscape, despite ongoing campaigns to promote them.
“People still view it as more of a specialized asset class,” said Amy Arnott, portfolio strategist at Morningstar. “And I think the volatility and periodic large declines are probably still keeping people away.”
How Cryptocurrency Became Available to Regular Investors
Until 2024, everyday investors who wanted to trade digital currencies typically had to look for a crypto exchange, which could be a trading hindrance for inexperienced investors.
Things changed in January 2024, when federal regulators passed that retail investors in the United States could buy and sell spot Bitcoin ETFs in the same way they trade stocks.
In his 2025 Executive Order, President Donald Trump called for federal regulation of digital currencies and talked about creating a national cryptocurrency stockpile.
Trump is promoting cryptocurrencies because his family business profits from them. According to the New York Times, in 2025 these companies earned $1.4 billion from various crypto projects.
Earlier this year, President Trump’s Department of Labor released a proposed rule that would ease legislative and regulatory barriers to adding cryptocurrencies and other alternative investments to retirement plans.
Does virtual currency belong in a retirement account?
Critics of the rule argue that cryptocurrencies have no place in retirement accounts because they are volatile and many Americans do not understand them well.
“As long as you understand how cryptocurrencies work, you’ll be fine,” says Luisa Godinez Puig, a senior researcher at the Urban Institute. “But for many people, cryptocurrencies are a bit of a mystery. There’s a bit of a learning curve.”
The value of Bitcoin, the major cryptocurrency, fell from about $125,000 in October 2025 to about $65,000 in late July 2026.
If investors are shying away from cryptocurrencies, the decline in their value may be the reason.
“By definition, that means people are selling things,” says Caleb Silver, Investopedia’s editor-in-chief. “And that probably means people who tried to buy it saw the price crash and decided they didn’t want to own it anymore.”
Many crypto investors believe digital currencies are the future
Current crypto investors told the Urban Institute that they own digital currencies as a way to diversify their investments (45%), because of their interest in new technology (37%), or because they believe digital currencies are the future (27%).
In contrast, former crypto owners seem to be less concerned with the future prospects of their currencies and more concerned with investment returns.
About 8% of Americans surveyed said they no longer own cryptocurrencies. Compared to current crypto investors, former investors were more likely to say their main reason for investing was to make money. They stopped investing in cryptocurrencies primarily because they were losing money.
“Many investors who bought cryptocurrencies over the past 15 years were simply chasing the price,” Silver said.
The survey found that most people who own cryptocurrencies have held them for several years. Their balances are generally small, with two-fifths of crypto investors owning less than $250 of digital currency.
The study found that crypto investors are primarily men. Asian Americans are much more likely to own cryptocurrencies than other ethnicities. Cryptocurrency investors tend to be young.
Is cryptocurrency a good investment?
The Urban Institute report suggests that federal regulators should require banks, exchanges, and other crypto providers to “provide clear and standardized disclosures” about the potential risks of cryptocurrencies.
Some investment experts question whether cryptocurrencies have value in diversifying investment portfolios and as a hedge against stocks. Among other issues, Bitcoin’s price tends to fall when the stock market falls.
“It’s also nearly impossible to identify what that underlying value should be,” Morningstar’s Arnott wrote in a 2025 post. “For these reasons, it is considered prudent to keep the portfolio weight below 5%, and many investors may wish to avoid cryptocurrencies altogether.”
