Millennials will promote Bitcoin adoption: BlockFi CEO

Millennials will boost Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies adoption for years to come as the emerging market grows

Promoting Bitcoin (BTC) adoption will be in the hands of millennials. These comments were made by the BlockFi CEO in a panel discussion at this year’s BlockShow summit in Singapore. The panel shared insights on the future of cryptocurrency adoption and what needs to be done to ensure that the industry moves forward.

The panel consisted of Aya Kantorovich of FalconX, Zac Prince of BlockFi and Grayscale’s Michael Sonnenshein. Zac Prince, the CEO of BlockFi, stated that millennials are a generation plagued by student debt, low wages and a lack of savings. However, they can rewrite their financial story using Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.

The discussion themed “Millennial investment trends—new wave of personal finance” talked about Millennials’ impact on the future of digital assets. Prince highlighted key adoption trends linked to young investors and millennials.

The first is the transfer of generational wealth from baby boomers to millennials via inheritance. The other two are the rise of alternative assets and the younger generation’s preference for everything digital.

Earlier this year, data provider Preqin revealed that alternative assets under management reached $10 trillion. The figures are up by 55% from 2013. Alternative assets are investments that don’t conform to the traditional asset classes of stocks, bonds or certificates. They include hedge funds, commodities, real estate, structured products, private equities and collectables.

While most of the alternative assets under management are controlled by institutions, millennials will play a huge role in promoting the market over the coming years. Prince stated that he expects cryptocurrencies to grow as an alternative asset class over the coming years, and millennials would drive this growth.

He added that as the crypto-invested millennials increase their investment portfolio, it is only a matter of time before financial institutions roll out more products to serve these demographics. This prediction is already coming to reality as institutional funds have been flowing into the cryptocurrency sector faster than in the past.

By the end of 2019, crypto funds only had $2.5 billion in assets under management. Fast forward a year later, and crypto funds now control nearly $15 billion in assets under management.

The focus isn’t limited to Bitcoin, as most people think. BTC takes the lion’s share of the market, but investors are now looking at other products. Michael Sonnenshein, Grayscale’s managing director, stated that the younger generation is viewing crypto diversification as a key part of growth. They are now looking at other assets like Ethereum and Litecoin.