Crypto bros who love Trump fall short of “traditional” masculinity.

Dan Cassino, a professor of government and politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University and executive director of the FDU poll, said the data shows that one in seven voters own cryptocurrencies and are leaning toward Donald Trump, who has become a strong cryptocurrency supporter.

Crypto owners support Trump (50%) over Kamala Harris (38%) – almost the reverse among non-crypto owners, who favor Harris (53%) over Trump (41%). And men are twice as likely as women to own cryptocurrencies.

“Crypto is an option for men who are looking for a way to achieve the role they believe society demands of them – to make money, to be providers, to be sophisticated in finance and technology,” he wrote in -a Washington Post analysis on Friday. “Despite the fact that the earnings from these investments are unlikely to be used to buy a big house in a good school district, crypto seems to offer these young people a path to prosperity that the traditional routes of education, hard work and saving they don’t offer it.”

To dig deeper into the intersection of crypto, gender and support for Trump, the FDU poll asked men how masculine they are and whether they subscribe to a “traditional” view of masculinity that preaches, for example, that men should be the bosses .

According to the survey, men who consider themselves “completely masculine” are actually less likely than other men to own cryptocurrencies. But the more surprising data is about men who don’t see themselves as completely masculine and believe in traditional masculinity.

“These men — the men who fall into this trap of masculinity — are the ones who, according to our survey, are buying cryptocurrency and turning to Trump,” Cassino said.

About a quarter of men fall into this trap, and it skews both young and black and Latino, he added. Of this group, 37% own crypto, compared to 18% among other men, and crypto owners overwhelmingly favor Trump.

“Just as crypto-investing offers a way to satisfy the increasingly unrealistic demands of traditional masculinity, Trump is giving these cryptocurrency-holding men reasons not to fit in,” Cassino explained, highlighting Trump’s hostility to policies of immigration, China and DEI. .

“The fact that these proposals are unlikely to work is as irrelevant as whether these men will actually become bitcoin millionaires,” he added. “Trump Offers Lifeline to Men Desperately Seeking One.”

In Cassino’s view, this dynamic relates to a deeper problem, namely that expectations of what men should be in the face of new economic and social realities. As long as this disconnect persists, men will continue to be drawn to a “false hope of a way forward,” he warned.

Meanwhile, Trump’s embrace of crypto comes after he previously dismissed Bitcoin as a “scam.” Most recently, Trump bought a burger with Bitcoin on Wednesday. And on Monday, Trump and his sons debuted a new crypto venture called World Liberty Financial, though they don’t appear to own any part of it, according to Bloomberg.

At the Bitcoin 2024 conference in July, Trump promised to make the US dominant in cryptocurrencies, remove the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and create a national Bitcoin reserve.

“I promise the Bitcoin community, the day I’m sworn in, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ anti-crypto crusade will be over. It will end. It will be done,” he said. “The moment I take the oath, the persecution ceases and the harmonization ends against your industry.”

Crypto has also played a role in some of Silicon Valley’s top tech figures endorsing Trump. The founders of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz announced their support in July, citing among other things its position on crypto.

Trump’s campaign is also accepting crypto campaign contributions. In June, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss each announced $1 million in Bitcoin donations, but the campaign had to return the money because it exceeded the maximum allowed by federal law.