New York (CNN Business) Who owns and trades bitcoin? Young, relatively well-off men living in big cities.

Most people know what bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are and feel comfortable explaining them to others. But the true bitcoin fans are Millennial men earning more than $75,000 a year in urban areas, according to a recent survey of more than 1,000 Americans.

The survey was conducted by Clovr, a company focused on promoting the mainstream adoption of blockchain technologies -- the digital ledgers that record bitcoin transactions. It is one of the first comprehensive studies of who owns cryptocurrencies.

It may not be a huge surprise to learn that the biggest bitcoin evangelists are young men.

But the results will still be a blow to true cryptocurrency evangelists. That's because, in addition to the limited reach it found, the survey's results also show that the primary reason people invest in cryptocurrencies is the possibility of a huge return -- not because they necessary think digital currencies are the future of money. In other words, people view bitcoin much like internet stocks in the late 1990s or marijuana stocks today: a highly speculative investment.

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