This dataset estimates how many Muslims worldwide own cryptocurrency by combining two independently-sourced, publicly available figures per country: the Muslim share of the population, and the overall national crypto ownership rate.
The core assumption
No direct survey of crypto ownership broken down by religion exists. To produce a usable estimate anyway, we assume that Muslims within a given country adopt cryptocurrency at the same rate as the population overall. This is a modeling choice, not a measured fact — the true rate among Muslims in any given country could be higher or lower than the national average, and we have no way to verify it directly. Treat every number derived from this assumption as directional, not a precise headcount.
The calculation
| Step | Formula |
|---|---|
| Muslim population | total population × Muslim population % |
| Estimated Muslim crypto users | Muslim population × national crypto adoption % |
| Estimated Muslim BTC holders | Estimated Muslim crypto users × global BTC-holder share % |
| Estimated crypto value held | Estimated Muslim crypto users × average value per crypto holder (global) |
| Estimated BTC value held | Estimated Muslim BTC holders × average value per BTC holder (global) |
The value layer — a second, uniform assumption
Holder counts are one thing; assigning them a dollar value is a second, separate modeling step, and it uses a single global average value per holderapplied uniformly to every country — the same simplifying logic as the adoption-rate assumption above, stacked on top of it. We deliberately did not try to adjust for local wealth levels country by country: doing so would require data we don't have and would imply a precision this dataset doesn't have. Treat the value figures as a scaled read on holder count, not a claim about how much any specific country's Muslim population actually holds.
| Global assumption | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Global crypto owners | 617,000,000 | Manual — survey estimate |
| Global crypto market cap | $2.30T | Live — CoinGecko, refreshed on each market data sync |
| Average value per crypto holder | $3,728 | Derived |
| % of crypto owners who also hold BTC | 60% | Manual — survey estimate |
| BTC price used | $105,000 | Live — CoinGecko, refreshed on each market data sync |
| BTC circulating supply used | 19,850,000 | Live — CoinGecko, refreshed on each market data sync |
| Average value per BTC holder | $5,630 | Derived |
The average-value figures above are means, not medians — crypto and BTC holdings are heavily concentrated among large holders, so the true typical (median) holding is almost certainly far below the average shown here. BTC price, BTC circulating supply and total crypto market cap refresh automatically from CoinGecko on the same schedule as this site's coin market data sync (see GET /api/market) — they are not manually maintained. Global crypto owner count and the BTC-holder share % are survey-based estimates without a live source, and remain manually set.
Sources
- Muslim population share: Pew Research Center, Global Religious Landscape (2020 estimates, projected).
- Crypto adoption rate: Triple-A, Global Crypto Ownership Report (2023-2024 estimates). Every country in this dataset uses the same basis (% of national population), so adoption rates are directly comparable across countries. Where a future update adds a country sourced on a different basis (e.g. % of internet users or % of adults), that row's
crypto_adoption_basisfield will say so explicitly rather than blending it silently into the rest.
Known limitations
- Coverage is limited to 36 countries with reasonably available data on both figures — not every country with a Muslim population is included.
- Population and adoption figures are periodic survey/estimate snapshots, not live data; both can shift meaningfully year to year.
- The uniform-adoption assumption may not hold in either direction — religious concerns about riba and gharar could suppress adoption among observant Muslims, while younger, more mobile-first demographics in some Muslim-majority countries could push it higher.
- Where a country's Muslim population figure includes a large expatriate/migrant-worker share (e.g. Gulf states), the resulting Muslim population percentage reflects the resident population, not citizens specifically.
- Value estimates use one global average per holder for every country — they do not account for real differences in wealth, holding size, or asset mix between countries, and they compound the uncertainty of the adoption-rate assumption above with a second, independent assumption.
- The BTC-holder share (% of crypto owners who also hold BTC) is a single global figure from ownership surveys, not measured per country.
Change log
v1.0 — initial publication: 36 countries, uniform-adoption modeling.
v1.1 — added estimated crypto/BTC value held, using a global average-value-per-holder assumption. Last data refresh 2026-07-22.