ChainCatcher says Cornell University has put out a Bitcoin adoption index report built from a survey of 25,880 people in 25 countries. The takeaway is pretty direct: El Salvador, Venezuela, and Nigeria posted the biggest shares of respondents who said they had owned Bitcoin at some point.
The report says that in economies where fiat money is shaky and access to U.S. dollars or dependable banking services is scarce, Bitcoin is used less like a speculative bet and more like a "pragmatic workaround." One respondent in Venezuela said Bitcoin is "faster, cleaner, and lower risk" than other ways of getting dollars. A respondent from El Salvador said, "No one controls Bitcoin, which means we all own it." And a Nigerian respondent said they had visited six African countries and never felt concerned because they knew they could use Bitcoin to spend.
The survey also showed that 58% of respondents did not know Bitcoin has a hard cap of 21 million coins. Cornell University commissioned the report, and Morning Consult carried it out, working with the Technology Policy Institute at the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, the Cornell Bitcoin Club, the Human Rights Foundation, and the Reynolds Foundation. The survey ran from December 16, 2024, through March 10, 2025, and it contained 125 questions.