At the end of each year ForkLog polls its readers. For several years participants have consistently predicted new record highs for bitcoin and shared their experience.
As promised, we present the results and describe readers’ portfolios, and their attitudes to mining, staking and other parts of the industry.
Reader profile
From 3 November to 8 December 2025, 448 people took part. Most respondents were men aged 45 and over, living in Russia. Women accounted for 9.4% of participants.
Some 16.3% live in Ukraine and 16.5% in Europe. ForkLog is also read in the South Caucasus, the EAEU and South-East Asia.
Almost half (48.2%) rated their income as average. Another 21% chose “above average”, and 24.3% “low”.
Some 14.1% work in blockchain and cryptocurrency businesses, and 13.6% plan to do so. Nearly half of the audience (48%) are employees; 23.4% identified as entrepreneurs; 20.1% reported being unemployed.
Most readers (27.5%) first encountered cryptocurrencies during the 2017–2019 bull market; slightly fewer (23%) did so in the 2014–2016 bear market.
Between 2023 and 2025, 8% learned about digital assets. A plurality (48.2%) rate their crypto knowledge as average; only 6% consider themselves experts, and 15% beginners.
Russian-language media are the primary news source (38.2%), followed by social networks (35.9%).
Some 31.9% think bitcoin’s price will rise above $150,000 in 2026; 20.1% believe it will fall below $100,000.
Reader portfolio
Some 29% first bought or received cryptocurrency in 2017–2019; 23.9% did so in 2020–2022, and 18.1% in 2023–2025.
Among respondents, 57.8% reported portfolio gains this year.
Bitcoin and Ethereum remain the most popular cryptocurrencies. Solana ranks third. The top three are unchanged from last year.
ForkLog readers mostly use digital assets for long-term investment; 24.8% use them in cross-border payments.
Anonymity
The majority do not use privacy-focused cryptocurrencies (81.3%) or mixers (97.3%) for transactions.
Mining and staking
Some 6.7% of respondents mine cryptocurrencies. Most (69%) have never been miners.
staking involves 42% of respondents; 23.4% used to stake but no longer do.
NFTs and memecoins
Fewer than a third (27.2%) of readers own NFTs. Most (69%) do not own NFTs and do not plan to buy them.
Compared with last year’s survey, interest in memecoins has fallen: 32.4% own such assets, while 63.6% said they do not and do not plan to buy.
DeFi
In 2025, 47.1% used DeFi platforms. Another 23% plan to do so.
Of those who used DeFi tools, 25.7% picked DeFi tokens. Only 7.1% participate in protocol governance via tokens, and 22.8% add liquidity to AMM exchange pools.
As in previous years, Uniswap is the most popular service among readers (32.1%), followed by Aave (20.1%) and PancakeSwap (18.1%).
Trading
Some 29.2% trade cryptocurrencies and call it profitable. For 20.3% it is not.
Centralized venues are chosen by 34.4% of respondents; 14.5% combine platform types.
Bybit remains the leading centralized exchange among respondents (36.8%), followed by Binance (32.4%) and OKX (14.3%).
The vast majority (75.2%) do not trade crypto derivatives; 18.5% prefer futures.
Some 27% of respondents use leverage.
Wallets
The most popular wallets remain MetaMask (44.9%) and Trust Wallet (37.7%).
A significant share of respondents (62.1%) do not use hardware wallets. Among those who prefer cold storage, most choose Ledger (22.5%).
Hacks
Only 7.6% of respondents suffered incidents related to hacking.
Thank you for taking part, and Happy New Year!🎄