Only 13% of Americans Want Political Candidates to Back Crypto, Survey Finds

Highlights:

• The Ipsos survey found that 35% want candidates to support financial innovation, compared with 13% for crypto.
• Just 9% say they know crypto well, while only 5% say they strongly trust decentralized platforms.
• Crypto ownership reached 22%, but only 13% used it over the past year, the survey found.

Americans support financial innovation more when it isn’t directly linked to cryptocurrency, according to a new Ipsos survey. The poll found that 35% want political candidates to support the next generation of financial technology in the United States. However, only 13% expressed the same view when asked specifically about blockchain, crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi).

The findings come from the DeFi Education Foundation’s 2026 research report, titled The State and Future of Finance: American Perspective. Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett also shared the findings in an October 27 post on X. Ipsos surveyed 1,545 US adults between September 8 and 16, with a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.

🚨NEW: Americans are more supportive of financial innovation when it’s framed broadly than when it’s explicitly tied to crypto.

A new survey from @fund_defi and @Ipsos found 35% say political candidates should support building the next generation of financial technology in the…

— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) October 27, 2026

Americans Want Financial Changes but Still Have Little Trust in Crypto

The survey found that 80% of Americans want changes to the financial system that give people more control over their personal data. Another 74% said financial privacy is important to them. Yet only 19% believe the US financial system is secure. However, these concerns have not translated into strong confidence in decentralized finance.

According to the figures shared by Terrett, just 9% of respondents said they were very or extremely familiar with crypto. Only 5% said they had complete or a lot of trust in decentralized platforms. The poll also found that 63% believe the financial system needs an upgrade to deal with new threats. Although many Americans want better financial services, relatively few are familiar with crypto-based alternatives.

Saving and Payments Attract More Interest in DeFi

The study found that 40% of Americans are at least somewhat likely to try DeFi if it becomes available to them. Among those respondents, 85% said they would consider using DeFi to save money, up from 77% in 2025. Another 82% said they would send money to friends or family within the US, up from 73% last year.

Saving and payments were among the most popular potential uses, rather than speculative trading. However, interest in trying DeFi does not necessarily mean people will start using it. Overall, 22% of Americans said they had owned or used cryptocurrency at some point, up from 18% in 2025.

Meanwhile, Terrett reported that crypto usage over the previous 12 months remained unchanged at 13%. Despite the increase in overall ownership, recent usage has not grown at the same pace.

Crypto Companies Are Moving Toward Broader Technology

Some crypto companies are also moving away from using crypto in their branding. On October 22, Andreessen Horowitz announced that it was changing the name of a16z Crypto to a16z Frontier. The firm plans to invest in other technologies alongside crypto, but it will continue backing blockchain projects. Chris Dixon, who leads the team, said blockchain is becoming part of financial products that companies do not always describe as crypto. As Dixon put it, “The label matters less now.”

LATEST: ⚡ Andreessen Horowitz is rebranding its a16z Crypto fund as a16z Frontier, shifting toward AI and other emerging tech while still backing blockchain projects and pushing for crypto regulation. pic.twitter.com/eqlyANrUJ5

— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) October 23, 2026

The Ipsos findings suggest that crypto companies may attract wider interest by explaining how their products help people save, send and manage money, rather than focusing mainly on crypto terminology.