Bank of America's Active Crypto Users Drop More Than 50% in Bear Market

Bank of America has revealed that the number of its customers who are active crypto users has declined more than 50% from its peak in November last year. In addition, the bank said its data “shows that outflows to crypto platforms have fallen sharply,” indicating that “consumers are pulling back on their net investment into crypto platforms.”

Bank of America’s Active Crypto Users

Bank of America published a report last week showing a steep decline in the number of active cryptocurrency users from its peak in November last year. The bank explained:

Anonymized Bank of America internal customer data shows a sharp, greater than 50%, decline in the number of active crypto users from the peak of over 1 million users in November 2021 to below 500,000 in May.

Chart showing Bank of America’s active crypto users. Source: Bank of America

“We also found that ‘first time’ users, customers who made a transaction with a crypto platform having not made one previously, have also fallen very sharply,” the report adds.

Bank of America further noted that there were only around 33,000 clients who transacted in crypto for the first time in May, which was an 87% decline compared to the 267,000 first-time users in October last year.

In addition, the Bank of America report details:

Our data also shows that outflows to crypto platforms have fallen sharply as well and are now broadly equal to inflows, indicating that consumers are pulling back on their net investment into crypto platforms.

“In dollar terms outflows peaked around $2.9 billion in late 2021, before dropping back to around $1 billion in May 2022,” the bank said.

In June, Bank of America released the results of a survey showing that 91% of more than 1,000 current and prospective U.S. crypto investors plan to buy more digital assets in the next six months. Moreover, nearly 40% of respondents revealed that they use cryptocurrency as a means of payment.

The bank’s research team noted at the time: “Overall, our findings suggest that despite the sharp correction in crypto valuations, consumer interest in the sector remains strong.”

What do you think about Bank of America’s data on active crypto users? Let us know in the comments section below.

Kevin Helms

A student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.