400 million people around the world have bought cryptocurrency

Experts often point out that cryptocurrencies have no real use other than speculation and illegal activity.

Yet, 400 million people worldwide (including more than 50 million Americans) have bought cryptocurrency , and data we have from Chainalysis shows that illicit activity accounts for less than 0.5% of total transactions. So, what are these people actually doing with it?

It’s true that many people were initially attracted to cryptocurrencies as an investment, and speculation led many to flock in. But what are the underlying reasons driving this interest?

In the early 1970s, the United States (like many countries before it) removed the peg between the dollar and hard commodities like gold. For more than 50 years, a familiar pattern we have seen in history has played out in the United States: the government spends more than it takes in because it can print money “for free,” and years or decades later, people pay the price through high inflation and stagnant economic growth.

Ordinary people may not understand the nuances of quantitative easing and the federal budget deficit, but they have been feeling the rising costs of gas, food, and education, and have a growing sense that something is wrong with our economy.

In fact, 87% of Americans believe that the current financial system needs an update, and more than half of young Americans use the system only occasionally or not at all.

This brings us to the first and arguably most important use case for cryptocurrency, which is that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are a return to sound money.

Like gold, Bitcoin is not a national currency backed by a single government. Inflation is a regressive tax on ordinary people, both in the United States and other countries, and the poorest classes are burdened the most. Bitcoin is a hard currency with a fixed supply, which is a solution to this problem. If the invention of digital native sound money is the only use of cryptocurrency, it will still be a world-changing technology, but it is just a start.

Over the past 5+ years, the crypto industry has been working hard to build infrastructure to update our financial system and expand the utility of crypto, and real-world use cases are no longer a blank check and have begun to materialize. Here are some of the most popular examples:

• The digitization of the dollar. Although the demand for the dollar is high in many parts of the world, many people cannot open a dollar bank account until the adoption of dollar-backed "stablecoins" (currently over $100 billion). Digital dollars like USDC are essential to enhancing the global competitiveness of the dollar. For example, China began deploying a digital yuan strategy as early as 2019.

• Fast, cheap global payments. Merchants still lose about 2% on every credit card transaction, wire transfers cost $30, and many transactions in the US still take days to clear. As blockchains scale using “Layer 2” solutions, you can now send USDC anywhere in the world in under a second for about 1 cent. USD-backed stablecoin transaction volume is approaching $9 trillion per year (more than Mastercard , American Express, and Discover combined).

• Business models for creatives. Total NFT sales have exceeded $62 billion and allow artists to build direct relationships with fans, cutting out costly middlemen. Whether it’s music, games, visual art, or videos, cryptocurrencies help establish digital provenance to ensure artists get paid.

• Decentralized social media. While still in its early stages, decentralized social (or DeSo) ensures that users control their data, not big tech companies, and it can never be censored. Each post is digitally signed, proving who the original author is, to help combat fake content driven by AI. Anyone can build a front-end interface using the same shared dataset of all social media posts.

Cryptocurrency is more than just a new asset class — it’s the future of money .

Today’s system is riddled with middlemen, high fees, delays, and other inefficiencies that make it inaccessible and unfair.

The future of money will be more open, free, efficient, and powered by cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is the most important technology we need to update our global financial system and move America forward. In fact, it is essential to securing the future of the dollar as a reserve currency and America’s position as a technology and financial hub.

If you love this country, embrace crypto and call for clear regulatory rules for crypto. If you are a crypto holder in the U.S., consider joining StandWithCrypto.org to help get crypto-friendly candidates elected. If you are a policymaker, help push for regulatory clarity in the U.S. to protect consumers and promote innovation. You can support bipartisan legislation like the Payments Stablecoin Clarity Act, the 21st Century Financial Innovation and Technology Act, and the Responsible Financial Innovation Act. Crypto is in dire need of clear regulatory rules, and action is needed now.