← All free tools · Calculator · FAQ · Methodology · Home
nicspics · Crypto made simple
How fast new tech takes over
New things don't spread in a straight line. They creep, then rush, then level off. That shape is called an S-curve. Here are some famous ones lined up from the same starting point, with Bitcoin on the same chart.
The S-curves
X axis: years since the first recorded year at about 10% adoption (our source data starts at 10%, not 1%). Y axis: % adoption. Technologies are % of US households; smartphones, ride-hailing, home-sharing and crypto are % of US adults. Dots are real survey years; lines just join them.
These curves are history, not a forecast.
Takeaway
Every big technology on this chart took years to go from "a few people" to "most people," and the fast part only came once it got easy and useful for regular folks. Crypto in the US has been stuck around 7% to 12% of adults for five years, which is about where the internet sat in the mid-1990s. That doesn't mean it will follow the same path. It means we're still early in the story, and the steep part of the curve, if it comes, hasn't happened yet.
How to read this
- Households and adults are not the same thing, so treat the comparison as rough.
- Crypto surveys ask about crypto in general, not Bitcoin only. They are the best verified "people" numbers available.
- Some series start above 10% (smartphones at 35%), so they look faster than they really were.
The data
| Series | Measures | Values (year: %) | Source | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity | US households | 1908: 10%, 1918: 27%, 1928: 64%, 1938: 75%, 1948: 89%, 1958: 99% | Our World in Data (Comin & Hobijn 2004 and others) | Dataset updated Sep 29, 2017; fetched Oct 16, 2026 |
| Cars | US households | 1915: 10%, 1925: 49%, 1935: 52%, 1945: 46%, 1955: 68%, 1965: 79% | Our World in Data (Comin & Hobijn 2004 and others) | Dataset updated Sep 29, 2017; fetched Oct 16, 2026 |
| Colour TV | US households | 1966: 10%, 1976: 69%, 1986: 90.5%, 1996: 96%, 2005: 96% | Our World in Data (Comin & Hobijn 2004 and others) | Dataset updated Sep 29, 2017; fetched Oct 16, 2026 |
| Internet | US households | 1993: 10%, 2003: 54%, 2013: 82%, 2016: 88% | Our World in Data (Comin & Hobijn 2004 and others) | Dataset updated Sep 29, 2017; fetched Oct 16, 2026 |
| Smartphones | US adults (Pew via OWID) | 2011: 35%, 2019: 81% | Our World in Data (Comin & Hobijn 2004 and others) | Dataset updated Sep 29, 2017; fetched Oct 16, 2026 |
| Uber/Lyft (ride-hailing) | US adults who have ever used | 2015: 15%, 2018: 36% | Pew Research Center | Published Jan 4, 2019 |
| Airbnb-style home-sharing | US adults who have ever used | 2015: 11% | Pew Research Center | Published May 19, 2016 |
| Bitcoin / crypto | US adults using crypto in the past year | 2021: 12%, 2022: 10%, 2023: 7%, 2024: 8%, 2025: 10% | Federal Reserve SHED 2025, Table 33 | Published May 13, 2026 (fielded Oct 2025) |
| Crypto (extra check) | US adults who currently own | 2025: 14%, 2026: 9% | Gallup | Published Sep 21, 2026 (June 2026 poll) |
| Crypto (extra check) | US adults who have ever used | 2021: 16%, 2024: 17%, Jan 2026: 19% | Pew Research Center | Published Jun 8, 2026 (2024 figure: published Oct 24, 2024) |
OWID series show every 10th year in this table; the chart uses every year available.
Sources
- Our World in Data: Share of United States households using specific technologies (data: Comin & Hobijn 2004 and others; CC BY 4.0). Dataset updated Sep 29, 2017; fetched Oct 16, 2026.
- Federal Reserve: Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025, Table 33 "Cryptocurrency use". Published May 13, 2026.
- Pew Research Center: More Americans are using ride-hailing apps. Published Jan 4, 2019.
- Pew Research Center: Shared, Collaborative and On Demand: The New Digital Economy. Published May 19, 2016.
- Gallup: Crypto ownership falls from 2025 high. Published Sep 21, 2026.
- Pew Research Center: About 1 in 5 Americans have used crypto. Published Jun 8, 2026.
- Pew Research Center: Majority of Americans aren’t confident in the safety and reliability of cryptocurrency (17% have ever invested in, traded or used crypto). Published Oct 24, 2024.
- Jurrien Timmer (Fidelity): Understanding Bitcoin. Background on comparing Bitcoin's network growth to historical S-curves. No data points from this paper are plotted here.
Idea inspired by Mark Moss's Bitcoin Valuation Lab adoption pages.