El Salvador has the highest reported level of Bitcoin ownership among 25 countries surveyed by Cornell University, with Venezuela and Nigeria also recording high levels of use or exposure to the cryptocurrency.
The Cornell Bitcoin Adoption Index was based on responses from 25,880 people and examined ownership, understanding, trust and behaviour across 25 markets. The 125-question survey was conducted by Morning Consult between 16 December 2024 and 10 March 2025.
Researchers found that Bitcoin was more likely to be used as a practical financial tool in countries with unstable currencies, restricted access to banking services or difficulty obtaining US dollars. In those economies, respondents often described the cryptocurrency as a way to protect savings, move money or access international payments, rather than simply as a speculative asset.
The study was commissioned by Cornell and developed with the Institute for Technology Policy at the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, the Cornell Bitcoin Club, the Human Rights Foundation and the Reynolds Foundation.
El Salvador topped the ownership rankings, with 72% of respondents saying they had owned Bitcoin at some point, according to findings published by the Cornell Bitcoin Club. Venezuela and Nigeria also reported substantial exposure, although the countries have different monetary systems and regulatory environments.
The report said Bitcoin could act as a “pragmatic workaround” for people struggling with inflation, currency controls, unreliable banks or limited access to international financial networks.
One Venezuelan participant told researchers Bitcoin was “faster, cleaner, and less risky” than other ways of obtaining US dollars. Venezuela has for years had an informal dollar market, as people look for alternatives to the bolivar and attempt to navigate restrictions within the domestic financial system.
Separate figures from TRM Labs point to the wider role of digital assets in Venezuela. TRM ranked the country 17th globally for retail crypto activity in the first quarter of 2026, estimating an attributed volume of $17.9bn. Its data also showed that USDT represented 90.2% of active Binance peer-to-peer listings involving the Venezuelan bolivar in April.
Although the Cornell research measured Bitcoin ownership, the TRM data suggests dollar-linked stablecoins currently have a more prominent role in Venezuelan trading. TRM attributed that pattern to the depreciation of the bolivar, capital controls, restricted banking access and long-established informal currency markets.
In Nigeria, one respondent said Bitcoin had made it easier to travel around Africa.
“I’ve visited six African countries and felt no worries because I knew I could spend Bitcoin,” the participant said.
The index identified several differences between ownership groups. Men were more likely than women to own Bitcoin in every country surveyed, while those aged between 30 and 44 were the most consistently represented owners across the sample.
Income produced a less predictable result. Lower-income respondents reported the highest ownership rates in 23 of the 25 countries. Respondents with higher levels of formal education led adoption in every market except Lebanon.
El Salvador’s ownership figures and payment use
El Salvador’s ranking follows more than five years of government backing for Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency became legal tender there in September 2021, while the government launched the Chivo wallet and offered users a $30 Bitcoin incentive.
One Salvadoran participant told the researchers that “no one controls Bitcoin, which means we all own it,” reflecting the decentralisation argument used by some supporters of the asset.
However, Cornell’s figures show whether a person has owned Bitcoin at any point, rather than whether they still use it to make payments. That distinction is significant in El Salvador, where local surveys have found relatively low transaction usage despite the government’s distribution of Bitcoin through Chivo.
In August, crypto.news reported falling Bitcoin payments in El Zonte, the coastal community known as Bitcoin Beach. Bitcoin Core contributor Jon Atack said one restaurant recorded its first Bitcoin payment of the month when he paid for lunch, although he described the incident as anecdotal and not evidence of activity across the country.
A Universidad Centroamericana survey cited in the report found that 8.1% of Salvadorans used Bitcoin to buy goods or make payments in 2024. That figure was down from 25.7% in 2021, 21% in 2022 and 12% in 2023. A separate Universidad Francisco Gavidia poll found that 7.5% used Bitcoin for transactions during 2024.
Those findings do not necessarily conflict with Cornell’s ownership data. Someone who received the Chivo incentive or bought Bitcoin in the past would still be counted as an owner, even if they had later stopped using it. The index found that former owners outnumbered current owners in 18 of the 25 countries surveyed.
El Salvador also amended its Bitcoin framework after agreeing a 40-month, $1.4bn financing programme with the International Monetary Fund in February 2025. Under the revised rules, businesses can decide whether to accept Bitcoin, taxes must be paid in US dollars, and the government no longer guarantees conversion between the two assets.
Knowledge and trust remain limited
Ownership did not always indicate a strong understanding of Bitcoin. Cornell found that 58% of respondents did not know the protocol limits the total supply to 21 million coins.
The same gap appeared in the United States. About 85% of Americans said they had heard of Bitcoin and 38% considered themselves knowledgeable about it, but only 6% knew about the 21-million-coin supply limit. The survey found that 24% of US respondents had owned Bitcoin at some stage.
Across all 25 countries, Bitcoin received an average trust score of 4.67 out of 10. Traditional assets such as gold, property and national currencies generally ranked higher. Meanwhile, 45% of participants considered Bitcoin to carry a similar level of risk to stocks.
Financial pressure was associated with greater ownership and trust in several markets. In 22 countries, people who distrusted their government were more likely to own Bitcoin. Distrust of financial institutions was linked to higher ownership in 16 countries.
Japan recorded the lowest level of adoption in the study. Some 88% of Japanese respondents said they had never owned Bitcoin, while 7% reported current ownership. Cornell said Japan was representative of stable, high-income economies where established payment systems and access to financial products reduced the need for Bitcoin as an alternative.
The report also distinguished between adoption in the United States and in countries such as El Salvador, Venezuela and Nigeria. Cornell linked ownership in financially constrained markets to inflation, access to banking and the need to transfer money. US users, by contrast, can access regulated exchanges, spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds and established dollar-based payment services.
Institutional interest has not necessarily led to official monetary adoption. A June 2025 survey cited in a Bitcoin reserve report found that only 3% of participating central banks expected to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve within the following decade. About 10% planned to increase exposure to digital assets, with most of that interest focused on tokenised securities rather than cryptocurrencies.
Cornell’s research project received $1m to examine how people living under authoritarian governments use Bitcoin and stablecoins in pursuit of financial security. In addition to the 25-country survey, researchers carried out about 250 interviews with users, including business owners, people sending remittances and political activists.
