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A survey conducted by Spectrem Group and released by news broadcaster CNBC has found that most millionaires in the millennial age bracket have the majority of their wealth locked into crypto. According to the findings, despite the recent dip in the market, large-scale millennial investors are also looking to add more digital assets to their profiles in the next year.
Millennials lead the way in crypto investment
According to CNBC’s survey, which polled investors with investible assets of over $1 million USD, a startling 83% of millennial millionaires own cryptocurrencies. According to the results from the research, 53% of millennial millionaires have at least half of their wealth in cryptocurrency. Nearly 33% of the millionaires have at least 75% of their wealth in Bitcoin, Ethereum and other altcoins in the cryptocurrency market.
In strong comparison, the older generation of millionaires is a lot less likely to own cryptocurrency. While millennial are more likely to be holding cryptocurrency if they’re worth more than $1 million USD, only 4% of millionaires in the baby boomer generation have said to be holding cryptocurrency. More than 75% of Gen X millionaires, falling between millennials and baby boomers, don’t own any crypto either.
Millennial millionaires are not “going to grow out of crypto”
Weighing in on the results, president of Spectrem Group George Walpe offered that the financial and wealth industry has not yet realised the massive interest from millennials in the crypto space and the digital economy, stating:
“This is a big difference between different generations of wealth… I’m not sure the wealth management industry has recognized that they need to think of these as completely different generations. Most firms were hoping to ignore it. But millennial millionaires are not going to just grow out of crypto.”
Walper acknowledged that wealth and management firms might be hesitant to jump on board offering cryptocurrency exposure to clients because of the legal and regulatory risks involved. However, as more investors are looking to cryptocurrency and as cryptocurrency is leading younger investors to monumental gains, there is a growing number of financial products becoming available. This is leading to a new level of adoption that is only now starting to gain the attention of firms. More crypto-related financial products like crypto-based ETFs mean that we’re seeing firms opening up the market to new investors across the generations.
Cryptocurrency investment in millennials only set to increase
While Bitcoin might have taken a recent knockback from its all-time high tagged in November, it seems that the wealthy millennial investors are not shaken by the market. In fact, according to the survey results, nearly half (48%) of the millennial millionaires plan to add more cryptocurrency to their holdings in 2022. Nearly 40% are intending to maintain their current holdings and have said they will not sell in the next 12 months. In contrast, only 6% of the polled millennial millionaires have stated that they plan to sell off in the next year, reducing their crypto investment.
According to Walper, millennial investors just seem more comfortable with the volatility and are more likely to see crypto investment through on a long-term scale compared to older investors.