In brief

  • Ashburn in Virginia has the most cryptocurrency users per capita
  • San Francisco’s crypto owners prefer Ether
  • New CoinTracker data maps the adoption of crypto over the US

The city of Ashburn, Virginia has more cryptocurrency users per capita than anywhere else in the United States, but users in San Francisco are the wealthiest according to new research published last week by tax software startup CoinTracker.

The startup said it examined tens of thousands of  anonymized user accounts to present a snapshot of US crypto users by location, wealth and their favorite cryptocurrencies. 

The data suggest that more than 50% of cryptocurrency users hold Bitcoin, and nearly 30% have Ether, the second-most popular cryptocurrency by market cap. 

The wealthiest cryptocurrency users

The mid-Atlantic tech hub Ashburn, VA had the most users per capita, followed by Redmond, Washington, the headquarters of Microsoft. 

US cities with most crypto owners per capita. Source: CoinTracker

But larger cities dominated when it came to total number of crypto holders, with San Francisco coming first, followed by New York and Los Angeles. 

US cities with most crypto owners. (Image: CoinTracker)

San Francisco is also home to the wealthiest cryptocurrency holders. The average user has over $55,000 in their crypto portfolio. In fact, the Bay Area dominates the list of places with the wealthiest users, with San Francisco, Palo Alto, Santa Clara and San Mateo capturing each of the top four spots. 

US cities with the richest crypto owners. (Image: CoinTracker)

San Francisco users also standout as having made over half of their crypto wealth from Ethereum, according to the CoinTracker data. But San Diego leads the country in concentration of Ether wealth, with 66% of users’ owning the cryptocurrency.

Backed by prominent investors 

CoinTracker said its data was obtained from people who used the company’s services for calculating crypto taxes between 2013 and 2020. The startup was launched in 2017 and is backed by investors including former Coinbase CTO Balaji S. Srinivasan, tennis ace Serena Williams. YCombinator, and Initialized Capital.