Bitcoin from A to Z: Should schools teach cryptocurrency?

​While government regulators debate whether Bitcoin is a currency, a commodity, or a security, El Salvador is making its study mandatory in every public school. Similar steps are emerging in other countries as well. But what exactly is driving this trend — and is there any real need to introduce cryptocurrencies into school education?

El Salvador introduces crypto education

El Salvador, which in 2021 became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, is now moving to the next stage — systematic crypto education in schools. Following pilot programs in public schools launched in 2022, the country has begun large-scale teacher training in partnership with the educational initiative Mi Primer Bitcoin. This involves hundreds of educators being trained to teach the basic principles of Bitcoin and financial literacy.

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Starting in 2026, the Bitcoin Diploma course is expected to be integrated into the national school curriculum. According to industry media, it may be taught within social studies subjects with a workload of around three hours per week. The program covers both practical aspects — such as using digital wallets and basic security — and broader context: what money is, how financial systems work, and what role Bitcoin can play within them.

At the same time, this educational policy is unfolding against the backdrop of a reassessment of cryptocurrencies’ role in the country’s economy. Under pressure from agreements with the IMF, El Salvador has made Bitcoin acceptance in the private sector voluntary and reduced the state’s involvement in Bitcoin infrastructure. This creates an unusual situation: the government is becoming more cautious about crypto assets in the economy, while continuing to invest in their study in education.

The experience of crypto education in the US

The United States is moving much more cautiously, but also more systematically. Cryptocurrency has not yet become a standalone mandatory subject there, but it has already entered the mainstream of school financial education. The National Standards for Personal Finance, updated by Jump$tart and the Council for Economic Education, explicitly mention cryptocurrency, fintech, mobile payments, and identity theft.

At the same time, ready-made educational solutions for schools are emerging. EverFi offers a free Crypto Foundations course for grades 9–12, while NGPF provides a separate module covering transaction verification, volatility, asset storage, and speculation. In other words, the study of cryptocurrencies is integrated into broader financial literacy.

At the same time, this approach extends beyond schools. In higher education and the professional sphere, cryptocurrency has long been treated as a subject of systematic study. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers courses such as Blockchain and Money and Cryptocurrency Engineering and Design, while Harvard provides a course examining the technology and its challenges from the perspectives of regulators, lawyers, and technical experts. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), together with Georgetown University, has launched the Crypto and Blockchain Education Program.

Back in 2018, Coinbase estimated that 42% of the world’s top 50 universities already offered at least one course on cryptocurrency or blockchain. Since then, that share has only increased — and the topic itself has become more deeply embedded in education.

China: banning and teaching at the same time

Against this backdrop, China’s experience looks particularly unusual. The country, which consistently restricts the use of cryptocurrencies in its financial system, is at the same time beginning to introduce elements of crypto education in schools. According to industry media, some educational programs already include basic lessons on Bitcoin and blockchain, integrating them into general technology and digital literacy courses.

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This is happening alongside a strict regulatory stance: cryptocurrency transactions through financial institutions are banned in China, exchange and mining activities are restricted, and the state promotes its own digital solutions such as the digital yuan.

As a result, a paradoxical model is taking shape. Cryptocurrencies as a tool for use are controlled or restricted, but as a subject of study they are permitted. Students are introduced not to the investment side, but to the technology, the principles of blockchain, and the logic of digital systems.

This approach looks less like an attempt to popularize cryptocurrencies and more like a way to understand them and keep them under control. And this is yet another answer to the question of why cryptocurrencies should be studied in schools at all.

Why teach cryptocurrencies in school?

Whether adults like it or not, children will learn about cryptocurrencies anyway. From YouTube, from TikTok, from influencers talking about quick wealth while staying silent about the risks. The problem is not that this information exists, but that it is often promotional, oversimplified, and stripped of context. As a result, an understanding of digital money is formed — but without a real grasp of how it actually works or awareness of the risks.

School can change that. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which brings together 38 developed countries, explicitly states that modern financial education must take crypto assets into account — otherwise it simply will not reflect the real environment in which teenagers live. This is not about teaching children to buy Bitcoin, but about helping them understand the financial world they already inhabit: one where stablecoins have become a common tool for transfers and blockchain has long moved beyond crypto exchanges.

There is also the issue of security. According to a report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in 2025 alone Americans lost $11.36 billion to crypto fraud — 22% more than the year before. Fake platforms, wallet spoofing, promises of guaranteed returns — all of this works because people do not understand the basic mechanisms. Lessons on cryptocurrencies can become a powerful tool to help young people avoid risks and prevent financial losses in the future.

Ultimately, the generation currently sitting in classrooms will enter adulthood in a financial environment that is already radically different from the one most school programs were designed for. Cryptocurrency in this environment is not an exotic concept or a distant future — it is the present. And if schools do not explain how to navigate this reality, someone else inevitably will — but likely with their own, not always good, intentions.