The fierce rivalry between boomers and millennials might soon end up benefiting Bitcoin. A report from CoinShares, a digital asset management firm, suggests that an enormous transfer of wealth is about to hit Bitcoin. According to them, around $68.4 trillion in wealth is currently owned by boomers, which will be handed down to Millennials and Gen X over the course of the next 25 years. A trillion-dollar tsunami is about to hit Bitcoin, and it’s due to the difference in millennials’ spending and investment patterns – which are shockingly different from their parents.
What is Bitcoin and how do you invest in it?
First let’s go over the basics. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, or digital asset, and blockchain. It was invented in 2008 by the anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto (that’s a pseudonym, in case you were wondering), who had the intent on making a new mode of transaction that was resilient against the failings of the global financial systems. Bitcoin is decentralized, so it operates away from central banks and governments, and functions peer-to-peer.
How you want to invest in Bitcoin is up to you. You can purchase it on exchanges, or trade it on social trading platforms like eToro. You can technically purchase as little as 1 Satoshi, which is 0.00000001 Bitcoins. However, since this is so little – many exchanges have a minimum amount (often around $2). Bitcoin currently has a market cap of $144,345,355,789.
Millennials really like Bitcoin
CoinShare’s report highlights research from Blockchain Capital that shows that millennials would rather invest in Bitcoin than in other more traditional assets. Millennials favour Bitcoin over government bonds, stocks, gold and real estate – which makes sense when you consider the fact that they grew up in a world that’s becoming increasingly digitized. Millennials also show an inherent distrust in governments and traditional financial institutions.
The institutional asset manager Grayscale, also highlights a major shift in the distribution of wealth as a potential benefit for Bitcoin. Grayscale says that it’s not possible to tell how much capital will enter into Bitcoin, but managing director Michael Sonnenshein believes that there’s no doubt that it’s resonating with millennials around the world today.
A separate study from Charles Schwab reported that millennials are also choosing the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) over shares in Netflix, Disney, and Microsoft. Yes, millennials show distrust in traditional institutions, but why?
When you consider that millennials grew up in an era of recession, and never-ending political and climate instability, it’s fairly easy to see why. The government and other central institutions have failed them, so they’re striking out on their own.
A healthy distrust of centralized agencies is not a bad thing. Skepticism can certainly be an asset, especially when it comes to investing. This distrust is, in part, the reason why millennials got into Bitcoin in the first place. Bitcoin, and other digital assets, offer an alternative to traditional assets, and they suit the digital lifestyle of millennials and, shortly, gen Z.
(Source: CoinShares)
A trillion-dollar tsunami is about to hit Bitcoin, and it’s pretty much all due to the fact that governments and banks have been failing us for a very long time now. Satoshi Nakamoto knew this, which is why he invented the cryptocurrency in the first place. However, it’s now evolved to become something even more powerful.
The generation gap
There’s a huge gap between how millennials and boomers spend their money. For one, boomers are still distrustful of cryptoassets like Bitcoin, whereas millennials are distrustful of centralized agencies like banks. This shows how they invest their money, and how they spend it. Millennials stand to inherit a whopping $68.4 trillion from their parents (and grandparents) over the next 25 years. That’s a lot of money that could end up in the crypto-asset industry – although nobody can be sure of entirely how much. One thing that’s certain, is that a trillion-dollar tsunami is about to hit Bitcoin, and it’s going to be good for the digital asset industry as a whole.
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