According to a recent cryptocurrency study, when it comes to investing in digital currency, millennials are leading the way.
Crypto investment app Circle recently commissioned a cryptocurrency study of more than 3,000 people across multiple generations, including millennials, Generation-Xers and baby boomers. The study queried U.S. residents using SurveyMonkey Audience panels.
Among multiple findings was that the millennial generation (aged 18-35) considered themselves “aggressive investors” in crypto at a rate that numbered nearly three times higher than Baby Boomers (aged 52-70).
Breaking results down along gender lines, the cryptocurrency study revealed that 42% of millennial men considered themselves aggressive investors, compared to 16% of male baby boomers. Gen-X men weren’t far behind millennials: the study revealed that 34% of men in that generation considered themselves aggressive crypto investors.
Among all three generations, women seem to be cautious. Only 9% of baby boomer women characterized their own approach to crypto investing as aggressive. As before, the younger generations were a bit more bold: 19% of Gen-X women identified their own approach to crypto investing as aggressive, and again, millennial women were three times as aggressive as their boomer counterparts, with 27% of them rating themselves as aggressive investors.
Why the Gap Between the Sexes?
Crypto expert and co-founder of Crypto PR Lab Maria Prusakova said that there’s an element of sexism inherent in the crypto space that seems to be baked in. “Female founders may be perceived by men as not as technical and knowledgeable as men are in the crypto space,” she said. And women should rebut this assumption and go out there and impress men with their technical knowledge in blockchain and teach them something new.”
“We need to get more women interested and involved in doing work in blockchain,” Prusakova continued. “Organizing regular crypto discussions for women, weekly ‘women in crypto’ meetups and workshops to teach each other about the newest trends in blockchain.”
Millennials: Insisting on Independence in Their Investment Strategies
The cryptocurrency study also took a look at the way different generations invest. Along with being more likely to take risks, millennials were less inclined to use traditional investing tools like investment managers. The study found that 50% of millennials preferred to use an app to invest, compared to 10% of Boomers and 30% of Xers. And whereas 38% of Baby Boomers wanted stocks picked for them, 25% of Millennial respondents wanted to make their own choices when it came to stocks.
Why are millennials so drawn to autonomy in their financial transactions? For many, entering the workforce during the height of the 2008 financial crisis plays a large part. “Bitcoin’s anti-establishment roots and decentralized system brings with it the hope for a new economy that puts people over corporations. This is an extremely appealing message to millennials who watched their job outlooks dwindle as the financial crisis unfolded in tandem with their first-ever entry into the job market,” Bitcoin proponent Julia-Carolin Zeng told Bitcoinist.com.
In addition to observing millennial attitudes towards crypto, the study also took a look at the amounts that millennials have invested in crypto, as well as their plans for future investments. At the moment, the study reveals that 58% of millennials have $500 or more invested in cryptocurrency. 29% of millennials have invested up to $1,000, while another 29% have invested $1,000 or more. A full quarter of millennials are planning on purchasing crypto within the next year, saying that they see it as both a way to get in on a new industry at the ground floor as well as make money fast. 25% of millennial respondents say they’d be willing to move at least part of their 401(k) into cryptocurrency.
Simon Yu, CEO of blockchain startup StormX, has some insight into why millennials in particular are so open to investing in crypto. “Millennials are particularly open to embracing new technology in order to create opportunities for themselves– and blockchain, the tech behind crypto, is no different. As masters of the side hustle and challengers of the traditional 9-5 working lives of previous generations, millennials are welcoming blockchain with open arms,” Yu said.
With such a strong degree of millennial interest, as well as technical innovation and regulation transforming the crypto industry, all signs seem to indicate that the crypto movement will only continue to grow.
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