DeFi Education Fund and Ipsos poll: crypto support falls to 13% when named

In short

• A DeFi Education Fund and Ipsos survey found 35% of US adults want candidates to back next-generation financial technology.
• Support falls to 13% when the same question names blockchain, cryptocurrency and DeFi, per Eleanor Terrett.
• The poll of 1,545 US adults ran from 8 to 16 September 2026, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 points.
• Some 74% want more individual control over their assets, but only 9% are very familiar with crypto.

Only 13% of Americans say political candidates should support blockchain, cryptocurrency and DeFi, according to a joint survey by the DeFi Education Fund and Ipsos cited by Eleanor Terrett on 27 October 2026. The same survey found 35% want candidates to back next-generation financial technology when the question does not name crypto.

The fund is a US non-profit founded in 2021 that campaigns and litigates for people who build and use decentralised finance, or DeFi, which is financial software that runs without a bank or broker in the middle. Ipsos is a market research firm that ran the poll on its KnowledgePanel, a probability-based online panel of US adults.

What the DeFi Education Fund survey found

The gap between the two answers is the story. Asked about "next-generation financial technology", more than a third of respondents were in favour. Asked about blockchain, crypto and DeFi by name, support fell to about one in eight.

What the survey found

The survey ran from 8 to 16 September 2026 with 1,545 US adults and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, according to figures from the report. The previous wave ran from 18 to 21 August 2025 with 1,321 respondents.

The results were weighted to match the US population by gender and age, race and ethnicity, education, Census region, metropolitan status, household income and party identification.

The survey was released on October 27, 2026, which is exactly one week before the 2026 US midterm elections on November 3, 2026, according to the Ipsos News Release. It found support for the next generation of finance being built in America across both parties. About one in six Republicans (17%) and Democrats (16%) said they want to learn more about crypto, and more than one in five of each said they had owned or used it (24% and 21%).

Where Americans want more control

Most respondents want a greater say over their money. Some 74% said the financial system must be reformed so people have more control over their own assets.

Familiarity remains limited: 9% described themselves as very or extremely knowledgeable about cryptocurrency, and 5% expressed strong trust in decentralised platforms. Crypto ownership climbed by four percentage points, while use over the past year held steady at 13%.

Among people open to trying DeFi, the top uses were savings and transfers within the US, rather than speculation.

The survey write-up reveals that crypto ownership increased by 4 percentage points but usage remained flat at 13%, while only 9% of respondents are very or extremely familiar with crypto

What the numbers mean for candidates

The survey is the clearest recent measure of how far crypto has to travel with ordinary voters. A candidate can win backing for "financial technology" and lose it the moment the word crypto appears.

The full report is published at research.defieducationfund.org. The fund says it promotes responsible development of decentralised finance through litigation, policy work and education.

Timeline

• 18 Aug 2025: Previous survey wave runs from 18 to 21 August 2025 with 1,321 respondents
• 8 Sep 2026: Latest survey runs from 8 to 16 September 2026
• 27 Oct 2026: Eleanor Terrett cites the survey's 35% and 13% findings on X

Questions readers ask

What did the survey find?

The survey found 35% of US adults want political candidates to support next-generation financial technology, but only 13% said the same when blockchain, cryptocurrency and DeFi were named. It also found 74% want more individual control over their assets and only 9% are very familiar with crypto.

How many people were polled?

The survey polled 1,545 US adults from 8 to 16 September 2026 on Ipsos's KnowledgePanel, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. The previous wave ran from 18 to 21 August 2025 with 1,321 respondents.

Do Americans trust decentralised finance platforms?

Only 5% of respondents said they highly trust decentralised platforms, according to the survey. Among those open to trying DeFi, the top uses were savings and transfers within the US rather than speculation, and crypto usage over the past year was flat at 13%.

Our view

At InvestIn.News, we think the fall from 35% to 13% is the number that matters. It points to something simpler than a collapse in crypto: the word itself now costs a candidate votes.

The fund's own figures show why. Some 74% of respondents want more control over their assets, yet only 9% say they are very or extremely familiar with cryptocurrency and only 5% highly trust decentralised platforms. People want the outcome; they do not trust the label attached to it.

That gap has widened since 2022, when crypto's public image was at its brightest. Ownership has risen 4 percentage points, but usage over the past year is flat at 13%, so more people hold crypto without using it day to day.

We would change this view if a later wave of the same survey, run on the same KnowledgePanel, showed the 13% climbing while familiarity stayed low. That would mean the label, not the understanding, had stopped being the obstacle.

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Jayshree Majumdar

What to watch: The next wave of the DeFi Education Fund and Ipsos survey, run on the same panel, will show whether the 13% holds.