June 2024 Republican Public Opinion Poll

In June, Paradigm conducted a first-of-its kind poll of Republican voters to better understand how they think about crypto. The results were clear: Republicans embrace financial freedom.

Republican candidates defending crypto – such as Sam Brown, Dave McCormick, and Bernie Moreno – have strong support for their positions from GOP voters. Republicans sharply disagree with the Warren-Gensler worldview of centralized control: CBDCs, debanking, and forcing all financial transactions through big banks.

In short, Republicans understand the appeal of crypto and support congressional action to establish clear and predictable rules.

Takeaway 1: Republicans who own crypto are more non-white and younger than typical Republicans, exactly the votes Trump needs in this election.

28% of Republicans polled currently own or have bought crypto, higher than the 19% national average of all registered voters we found in March 2024.

But the numbers are even more revealing under the surface:

• 41% of non-white Republicans have bought or own crypto, only 11 points lower than the 52% who own stock.

• 87% of crypto-owning Republicans stated an intent to buy more crypto in the next twelve months, and 13% of non-crypto-owning Republicans said they were likely to buy crypto for the first time in the next twelve months.

• Crypto ownership is strongest among Republicans under the age of 40. 45% have bought or own crypto.

• Many Republican crypto owners own a lot of crypto:
  • 58% percent of Republicans who own crypto own more than $1,000 of it
  • 40% percent of Republicans who own crypto own more than $5,000 of it

Takeaway 2: Republicans have distrust of institutions, and seek the freedom crypto can provide.

As the Biden Administration and its allies continue to weaponize banking regulations, Republican voters simply do not trust financial institutions.

• 67% say they are dissatisfied with how the financial system in America works today.

• 72% of Republican voters are at least somewhat concerned that they could lose access to financial services as a result of their political or religious views.

• 84% of Republicans agree Americans should have the right to send money to another person without the involvement of a big bank.

Takeaway 3: Republicans want Congress to do something about crypto regulatory unclarity.

Republicans want Congress to do something about crypto regulatory unclarity, and they agree that elected representatives should take the lead in crafting crypto regulatory frameworks – rather than unelected bureaucrats.

• 60% say Congress should pass legislation that establishes clear and predictable rules for cryptocurrency companies and entrepreneurs.
• More Republican voters believe elected representatives in Congress should take the lead (40%) over unelected appointees at government agencies (16%) in crafting crypto regulation.

Takeaway 4: Republicans care about financial privacy

Republicans oppose any IRS invasion of privacy or viewership of private financial transactions, which would be enabled by the pending DeFi portion of the IRS’s digital asset broker rule. They also strongly oppose the creation of a government-tracked Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

• 94% of Republicans say their financial transactions should remain private.

• Of the Republican voters who said they knew what a CBDC is, 68% oppose the creation of one.

Takeaway 5: Crypto helps persuade Never Trump Republicans to vote for Trump, and gets Republicans more excited about him

As Trump consolidates support of Republican voters and prepares for the general election, crypto is one issue that helps him with the GOP base.

• 13% of Republicans not currently planning on voting for Trump say his newly-stated crypto positions make them more likely to vote for him.
• 38% of non-white Republican Trump supporters said Trump’s support for crypto makes them more excited to vote for him.

Takeaway 6: Republicans are generally positive on crypto

• More Republicans say crypto is a mostly positive force in the economy (36%) than negative (30%), with this +6 point margin widening to +12 points among men, +42 points among GOP voters under 40, and +27 points among non-white Republicans.
• After learning that China is developing a digital yuan, more Republicans support (40%) the US creating a pathway for American private sector companies to build payment products, like stablecoins, to compete with the digital yuan than oppose (31%). Support for pathways to digital yuan competitors is highest among men (52%) and college educated Republicans (49%).

The above poll was conducted by Echelon Insights. This survey was fielded online from June 11-13, 2024 in English among a sample of N=1,025 Republican voters in the Likely Electorate (LV) nationwide using non-probability sampling. The sample was drawn from the Lucid sample exchange and matched to the L2 voter file, 500 polled via text-to-web and 525 via phone. The margin of error was 3.5%.