New data ranks Bitcoin adoption by US states, and the wealth gap is showing
IRS tax return data and web traffic metrics reveal which states are leading crypto adoption, and which demographics are actually buying in
Washington state now holds the top spot for Bitcoin adoption among US states, with 2.43% of 2022 tax returns indicating some form of crypto activity, according to a SmartAsset study published in October 2025.
That translates to roughly 91,310 households in Washington reporting crypto involvement to the IRS.
The state-by-state breakdown
Utah came in a close second at 2.36% participation in IRS-reported crypto activity. California, Colorado, and New Jersey rounded out the top five.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, West Virginia reported the lowest crypto activity rate at just 0.84%, with Mississippi not far ahead at 0.95%.
A separate CoinGecko report from May 2026 measured web traffic interest in Bitcoin and Ethereum. California dominated that metric, accounting for 43% of all US Bitcoin and Ethereum web traffic with an indexed score of 100. Illinois, New York, Florida, and Washington trailed behind California in that ranking.
The income divide is hard to ignore
Households earning $500K or more per year showed a crypto participation rate of 5.55%. For households earning between $1 and $75K, that number dropped to 1.27%.
States are putting their money where their legislation is
As of mid-2026, over 30 US states had filed bills to establish strategic Bitcoin reserves. New Hampshire and Arizona were the early movers, enacting Bitcoin reserve legislation back in 2025.
Globally, the US continues to rank second in overall crypto adoption indices, trailing only India according to data from Chainalysis and TRM Labs.