Retail investing in the US has grown dramatically over the past decade with both traditional and digital asset classes gaining, according to two new reports.
The studies from the JPMorganChase Institute analyze anonymous banking and transaction data to track how investing patterns have shifted across income, age, and gender groups, to provide a detailed picture of retail investment participation.
Households are investing at levels far above those observed a decade ago. By early 2025, investment flows, measured both in frequency of transfers and in total dollars moved, were at or above the peaks recorded during the pandemic. This rise has occurred despite relatively low household savings rates, which have hovered around 4-5%, and only modest gains in real income.
Among low-income households, investing activity in May 2025 was roughly five times greater than the 2010–2015 average, while higher-income households also increased their participation, but by a smaller factor of about three. The result has been a narrowing of the income gap in retail market activity.
The reports highlight how younger investors have been entering the market earlier than in the past.
In 2015, just 6% of 25-year-olds had investment accounts, but by 2024, that share had risen to 37%, a six-fold increase in less than a decade with the growth in early participation reflecting a broad change in how younger Americans approach investing.
Gender differences remain, with men more likely than women to invest and the reports note that a brief surge in male participation occurred in November 2024, but the increase did not persist into 2025. Overall, participation by gender and age group appears to have stabilized at elevated levels.
The sustained trend in retail investing suggests a potential, lasting shift in how people accumulate wealth, with the stock market playing a more significant role in their financial lives than in previous generations.
The research suggests that market performance may influence this trend, as investors engage in "trend-chasing" and "dip-buying" behaviors.
The low affordability of housing might also be a factor, making financial assets more attractive than home equity for some individuals.
While traditional investing has become widespread, cryptocurrency investing remains far less common.
Between 2017 and May 2025, about 17% of active checking account holders transferred funds into cryptocurrency accounts, compared with roughly one-third of households who invested in traditional financial assets during the same period.
Crypto participation has tended to rise sharply during periods of price increases with two clear spikes observed in March and November 2024, when Bitcoin reached all-time highs. Even so, the overall level of activity has been lower than during the 2021 surge, suggesting more tempered participation in recent years.
Demographics show strong crypto investing concentration among younger, higher-income, and male investors.
More than 20% of Gen Z and Millennial households have invested in crypto, compared with just 6% of Boomers. Within younger cohorts, men are about three times as likely as women to participate, although adoption among women, older individuals, and lower-income groups has increased gradually, even if the overall levels remain modest.
The size of investments also tends to be small with median transfers into crypto representing less than one week of income. However, the distribution is wide with about one in five crypto investors having put in more than a month’s income.
The launch of crypto ETFs in early 2024 has created new pathways for households to gain exposure to digital assets through traditional brokerage channels and by April 2025, about 2% of self-directed investment account users held such ETFs and more than half of these ETF investors had not previously invested directly in cryptocurrency.
Among investors who hold them, crypto ETFs represent a small portion of portfolios, typically 3-5% of total value. The demographic profile of ETF investors resembles that of direct crypto participants: higher-income, younger men are more likely to hold larger shares.
The reports are: “A Decade in the Market: How Retail Investing Behavior Has Shifted Since 2015” and “Crypto Investor Waves Since 2017: What Retail Investor Behavior Reveals About Digital Asset Adoption” and are available on the JPMorganChase Institute website.
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