Cornell University’s new Bitcoin Adoption Index found that Bitcoin ownership is highest in places where banking rails are unreliable or local currencies have been unstable. Based on a global survey of nearly 26,000 people, the report identified El Salvador, Venezuela, and Nigeria as the countries with the largest share of respondents who said they had ever owned bitcoin.
According to the report, the leaders were not wealthy financial centers. They were economies where national currencies had been unstable and where everyday access to U.S. dollars or reliable banking was difficult. In those countries, the report said, bitcoin functioned less as a speculative bet and more as a practical workaround.
Survey covered 25 countries and 25,880 respondents
Cornell said the research was fielded by Morning Consult in partnership with the Tech Policy Institute in Cornell University’s Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, the Cornell Bitcoin Club, the Human Rights Foundation, and the Reynolds Foundation.
Researchers interviewed 25,880 people in 25 countries between Dec. 16, 2024, and March 10, 2025. The survey asked 125 individual questions.
Ella Hough says demand for Bitcoin differs by country
Ella Hough, Bitcoin Advocacy Associate at Strategy and a junior fellow at Cornell University’s Brooks School Tech Policy Institute, said: 「Bitcoin works the same everywhere, but people’s need for it does not.」
She added: 「Across 25 countries, we found that people are more likely to see Bitcoin as a tool for financial freedom where currencies are less stable, banking access is limited, or monetary controls are tighter.」
Most respondents could not explain basic protocol facts
The report also found that many respondents struggled to explain Bitcoin’s basic mechanics, including the total number of bitcoins that will ever exist.
In the survey, 58% said they did not know that Bitcoin’s supply is capped at 21 million coins.
Use cases cited in Venezuela, El Salvador, and Nigeria
Even with limited technical understanding, the report said Bitcoin had still been useful for people who wanted to use it.
One unnamed Venezuelan respondent told interviewers that Bitcoin was 「faster, cleaner, and much less risky」 than other ways of getting dollars in the country.
An interviewee from El Salvador said: 「When nobody controls [bitcoin], it means we all have control of it.」
A Nigerian respondent told Cornell researchers: 「I’ve been to six African countries and whenever I go there, I don’t fear it because I know I can spend my bitcoin.」
Country context highlighted in the report
The report said Bitcoin adoption in Venezuela began rising ahead of some other countries when hyperinflation damaged the economy and strict government currency controls made dollars hard to obtain.
In El Salvador, bitcoin became legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar in 2021. The country’s leader has acknowledged that getting citizens to use the cryptocurrency was difficult, though the Central American nation still says it buys the asset for government coffers.
In Nigeria, which the report described as one of the world’s highest-volume transaction markets, some people have used bitcoin savings as a way around the collapse of the naira.
The article first appeared in Bitcoin Magazine and was written by Mathew Di Salvo.