Retail investors embrace brokerage, ETFs, crypto as product awareness surges to new record

Awareness of diverse investment vehicles among US households has surged to a 15-year high, propelled by the increasing use of online brokerage platforms and newer strategies such as crypto, options trading and margin loans.

A new report from Hearts & Wallets, draws on the firm’s Investor Quantitative database, which encompasses more than 135 million data points gleaned from 5,981 US households in its latest wave and reveals that household awareness of investment products has jumped from 45% in 2013 to 85% in 2025.

Penetration of online brokerage accounts among US households has surged to 60% or 75 million households and more than half of these users have under $100,000 in investable assets.

This year, one in five households traded options, while 6% used margin on taxable brokerage accounts and, among younger investors, more than 40% reported exposure to cryptocurrency.

“Household focus on the investment products they own gives product manufacturers more opportunity to engage with retail investors, especially as online brokerage makes ETFs widely available,” says Laura Varas, CEO and founder of Hearts & Wallets. “The rise of newer, riskier techniques makes it urgent to emphasize that investing can be fun but is not entertainment.”

The report also provides competitive metrics for asset manager household penetration with most respondents owning products from multiple fund families. Households younger than age 55 with $500,000 to $3 million in investable assets report they definitely own investment products of 6.4 asset managers and one third of those with more than $3 million in investable assets are certain they have products from at least four.

The top players are Fidelity Investments (reaching approximately 14% of households), Vanguard Group (11%), and BlackRock/iShares (8%) but may extend to as many as 20%, 18%, and 14%, respectively. Schwab, Capital Group, JPMorgan, Invesco, Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price, and American Century complete the top 10.

“Improving shareholder awareness creates stronger positions with both retail investors and distributors,” says subject matter expert Amber Katris. “Asset managers can grow assets under management through many distribution strategies.”

The findings highlight a shift in investor behaviour with households increasingly aware of the products they own rather than the allocations of those assets, flipping a decade-old trend.

With long-term mutual funds still dominating at $19.9 trillion and individual stocks at $17.8 trillion in household assets, ETFs are experiencing accelerated growth, particularly among higher-asset segments at $7.2 trillion.

The report is titled ‘Investment Products & Asset Managers 2025: Surging Awareness Creates New Competitive Opportunities in Brokerage and Managed Products.’