American college students are not waiting for formal education when it comes to crypto. They are learning on TikTok, YouTube, and other social platforms instead. That is one takeaway from a survey commissioned by crypto exchange OKX, and it points to a real gap between what students want and what universities currently offer.
The survey, run through Pollfish in January, found that 90% of students and 87% of parents believe colleges should teach crypto and blockchain. About 27% of students and 32% of parents went further, saying such courses should be mandatory. That is a meaningful share, even if the sample is limited to 500 students and 500 parents.
Course offerings are still thin
It is not hard to see why demand is so high. A separate review of 533 U.S. universities with accredited business schools, published earlier in 2025, found that only about 28% of them offered any blockchain course. That means most students cannot get structured instruction through their school, assuming the course is even open to them.
So students turn to the internet. Among those surveyed by OKX, 33% said social media or influencers were their most important source of crypto information. That was nearly five times the number who pointed to schools, teachers, or professors. Parents were a little different: their leading source was crypto platforms and apps, at 21%. Social media was still near the top for parents, but it did not dominate the way it did for students.
Skepticism and limitations
This is not a case for writing off all social media as bad. Some independent educators do solid work on those platforms. The problem is that anyone can post content, and misinformation travels fast. Students are effectively self-navigating a field that is full of scams, hype, and complicated risk. They might be better served if more universities stepped in.
There is also the nature of the survey itself to consider. OKX did not disclose the weighting, margin of error, or how many respondents actually owned crypto. The respondents were not pulled from OKX’s customer base, which helps a little. But the survey was commissioned by an exchange, so it is fair to read the results with some caution.
Even so, the core finding is probably safe: students want structured crypto education and are not getting enough of it. That is not a surprise, given how quickly crypto has moved from niche to mainstream. Universities move slowly. The gap, meanwhile, keeps widening.
If anything, the survey is a reminder that formal education needs to catch up. Not because every student wants to become a trader, but because crypto and blockchain are becoming part of finance, law, and technology. Ignoring that reality does not make it go away.
